01 Cosmic Wheels

02 Earth Sign Man

03 Sleep

04 Maria Magenta

05 Wild Witch Lady

06 Music Makers

07 Intergalactic Laxative

08 I Like You

09 Only The Blues

10 Appearances

All songs written by Donovan.

Cosmic Wheels

The problem with "Cosmic Wheels" isn’t the musicianship. The album has a strong cast of supporting musicians (Chris Spedding and Alan White, for example), and Donovan sings well when he wants to. The biggest problem is that it’s very much an album of its time - and its time, namely 1973, was pretty mediocre. Donovan also goes the slick-rock route on many songs, which may have helped the album to be more commercially viable at the time, but makes the music sound less like Donovan and more like just about anybody else churning out an album back then.

On too many songs, Donovan has affected a grating falsetto - another unwise move, and lyrically there’s little here to remind us of the poet behind Donovan’s prime ’60’s work. The best song is the title track, but even that threatens to overstay its welcome. Other songs, such as "Wild Witch Lady" and "Intergalactic Laxative" are just awful, while others are merely forgettable (amusingly enough, US promotional copies of "Cosmic Wheels" came with a letter from Epic warning DJs about the "lyric content" of "Intergalactic Laxative," when they would have been better off warning them against playing the song in general). While "Cosmic Wheels" didn’t do much worse on the charts than Donovan’s previous albums, the fact that the follow-up, "Essence To Essence" sold very badly suggests that a lot of people who bought "Cosmic Wheels" decided they didn’t like what they were hearing and didn't want to hear more.

Two singles were released from the album in both England and the States - "I Like You" / "Earth Sign Man" and "Maria Magenta" / "The Intergalactic Laxative." Mono mixes of "I Like You" and "Maria Magenta" were also released on promo 45s in the US (backed with the stereo versions of those songs). There are very likely just fold-downs of the stereo mix. "Cosmic Wheels" was released on CD by Epic in 1994 and, along with "Essence To Essence," by Edsel in 2004. The sound quality is identical.

01 Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth

02 Lazy Daze

03 Life Goes On

04 There Is An Ocean

05 Dignity Of Man

06 Yellow Star

07 Divine Daze Of Deathless Delight

08 Boy For Every Girl

09 Saint Valentine's Angel

10 Life Is A Merry-Go-Round

11 Sailing Homeward

All songs written by Donovan.

Essence To Essence

Most of "Essence To Essence" is just as lame as "Cosmic Wheels." There are, however, exceptions. "There Is An Ocean" was the title track for the 1970 documentary (see page 7), and reminds us of the quality of the songs that Donovan used to write. "Sailing Homeward," similarly, was previously used a year earlier in "The Pied Piper" film. "The Dignity Of Man" is also a good song, although I far prefer the acoustic performance on the "Live In Japan - Spring Tour 1973" album (see below). An earlier performance, from 1970-71, was issued in 2012 as a bonus track on "Sensual Donovan" CD.

Produced by Andrew Oldham, "Essence To Essence" sounds more like Donovan than the previous album (the falsetto screeching, for example, is pretty much gone) - it just doesn't sound like particularly good Donovan, in spite of supporting musicians like Carole King, Steve Marriott, Peter Frampton and members of both Derek And The Dominos and Wings. Unlike "Cosmic Wheels," this is not a rock and roll album - but it comes off like Donovan wasn't sure what he wanted to be. Consequently, it ends up sounding both unsure and a bit stale.

Like "Cosmic Wheels," "Essence To Essence" was released on CD both as a separate album (in 1998), and coupled with "Cosmic Wheels," on Edsel's CD from 2004. The lone single from the album was "Sailing Homeward" b/w "Yellow Star." Again, the sound quality on the two CDs is the same. A mono mix of "Sailing Homeward" was released on a promo 45 in the US. Again, this is most likely just a fold-down of the stereo, which was on the other side of the promo.

Four outtakes / alternates circulate from the "Essence To Essence" sesssions - "Divine Daze Of Deathless Delight," "Love Will Find A Way," "Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth" and "You Do Belong." The latter would surface a couple of decades later for the unreleased "One Night In Time" album and would finally be released on "Eco~Song" in 2019.

Also from this period (issued beween "Essence To Essence" and "7-Tease") is Donovan's cover of David Bowie's "Rock 'n' Roll With Me," issued as a single in August, 1974 (with "Deathless Delight" as the b-side). This isn't bad, by any means, but adds nothing to Bowie's original (which can be found on the "Diamond Dogs" album). A mono version was issued in the States for radio play, but, as usual, this is presumably just a fold-down of the stereo mix.

Live In Japan - Spring Tour 1973

Personally, I find Donovan's "Live In Japan" album (recorded in Osaka on March 25th and 26th, 1973) to be more enjoyable than either "Cosmic Wheels" or "Essence To Essence" - which is a shame since it was only issued in Japan at the time!

The highlights, for me, are "Sadness," which he'd record for "7-Tease" the following year, "The Ferryman's Daughter," which had been around for years (see "Moon In Capricorn," page 4), a beautifully sung version of "Sailing Homeward" (from "Essence To Essence") and two numbers which don't appear on Donovan's studio albums, "A Working Man" and "Tinker Tune" (these two performances can also be heard on the "Try For The Sun" boxed set). Even the songs from the "Cosmic Wheels" and "Essence To Essence" come off better since they're more intimate in these solo arrangements, and Donovan's in great voice throughout.

As for the "oldies" - "Hurdy Gurdy Man" features the "lost" verse written by George Harrison (without Donovan interrupting the song to talk about it), and "Universal Soldier" and "Josie" are a welcome look back into his folk roots. The only sour note, if you will, is Donovan's scat singing during "Hey Gyp (Dig The Slowness)" which all but ruins the song (amazingly, this performance was included on the 2012 "The Essential Donovan" compilation CD).

Unlike the earlier "In Concert" album (see page 3), the compilers of "Live In Japan" made no attempt to segue the performances in order to suggest that they were all performed at a single concert. Because of this, the album doesn't play as a live concert, but as a collection of highlights - exactly what it is.

A CD of "Live In Japan" was finally released through Donovan's website in 2023, along with a bonus DVD of "Yellow Star," a pseudo-documentary made during the Japanese tour. The sound quality on the CD is excellent, so there's no longer any reason to hunt up a 50 year old Japanese vinyl pressing. The only thing I find disappointing is that it would have been nice if both Osaka shows had been included, unedited and in their entirety rather than simply replicating the line-up of the original vinyl release, but perhaps the original multi-tracks no longer exist.

01 Hurdy Gurdy Man

02 Only The Blues

03 Sadness

04 A Working Man

05 Your Broken Heart

06 The Universal Soldier (Buffy Sainte-Marie)

07 The Dignity Of Man

08 Hey Gyp (Dig The Slowness)

09 Tinker Tune

10 Living For The Love Light

11 Josie

12 Sailing Homeward

13 The Ferryman's Daughter

14 Life Is A Merry-Go-Round

All songs written by Donovan except as noted.