Fairytale [Castle 2002]

Performer: Donovan
Artist: Shawn Phillips
Distributor: Ryko Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Donovan Philip Leitch (vocals, guitar, banjo, harmonica); Shawn Phillips (12-string guitar); Danny Thompson (cello); Harold McNair (flute); Brian Locking (bass); Skip Alan (drums). Producers: Terry Kennedy, Peter Eden, Geoff Stephens. Originally released on Hickory (127). Includes original release liner notes by Ren Grevatt. FAIRYTALE is a reissue of Donovan's second album from 1965 and includes the UNIVERSAL SOLDIER EP and two non-album B-sides. Personnel: Donovan (vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica); Shawn Phillips (electric guitar, 12-string guitar). Producers include: Eden, Stephens, Terry Kennedy. Sequel Records' followup to their CATCH THE WIND compilation, FAIRYTALE documents the era where Donovan Leitch was slowly turning from earnest folkie to pop oddball, though here he's still much more the former than the latter. Buffy Sainte Marie's "Universal Soldier" and his own "Colours," both heard here in two different versions, set the tone early on, but later in songs like "Sunny Goodge Street" and "The Summer Day Reflection Song," his SUNSHINE SUPERMAN-era twee-pop tendencies start to come to the fore. Donovan's early records are mostly charming examples of mid-'60s folk rock--any Simon and Garfunkel fan, for example, will find FAIRYTALE interesting. The reissue includes a number of rare single sides. Sequel Records' followup to their CATCH THE WIND compilation, FAIRYTALE documents the era where Donovan Leitch was slowly turning from earnest folkie to pop oddball, though here he's still much more the former than the latter. Buffy Sainte Marie's "Universal Soldier" and his own "Colours," both heard here in two different versions, set the tone early on, but later in songs like "Sunny Goodge Street" and "The Summer Day Reflection Song," his SUNSHINE SUPERMAN-era twee-pop tendencies start to come to the fore. Donovan's early records are mostly charming examples of mid-'60s folk rock--any Simon and Garfunkel fan, for example, will find FAIRYTALE interesting. The reissue includes a number of rare single sides.

Q (2/02, p.122) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Confident, with the cinematic allusions of 'The Summer Day Reflection Song' and the surrealist word-pictures of 'Sunny Goodge Street' still sending shivers up the spine..."s

He began as a Guthrie/Dylan-style folkie, but soon Donovan Leitch adopted a more psychedelic flower-power stance. His knack for sunny, wistful pop songs produced a batch of giant 1960s hits. His fragile manchild voice and image made him a hippie pinup boy, but there was a deep wellspring of emotion behind songs like "Catch the Wind" and "Colours." By the '70s, Donovan had largely dropped off the radar, but he made a resounding comeback in the '90s with the spare, affecting, Rick Rubin-produced SUTRAS.

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