Barabajagal [Import] [Original recording remastered]

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
2005 Digitally remastered re-issue that features twelve bonus tracks 'Snakeskin', 'Lauretta's Cousin Laurinda', 'The Swan' (Lord Of The Reedy River), 'A Poor Man's Sunshine' (Nativity), 'New Years Resolution' (Donovan's Celtic Jam), 'Runaway' (Demo), 'Sweet Beverley' (Demo), 'Marjorie' (Margarine) (Demo), 'Little White Flower' (Demo), 'Good Morning Mr Wind' (Demo), 'Palais Girl' (Demo), 'Lord Of The Universe' (Demo). On Barabajagal, Donovan made his first steps away from the folk rock of before towards an acid rock sound, with songs such as the title track and Trudi. EMI.

Tracks:

Barabajagal
Superlungs My Supergirl
Where Is She
Happiness Runs
I Love My Shirt
The Love Song
To Susan On The West Coast Waiting
Atlantis
Trudi
Pamela Jo
The Stromberg Twins
Snakeskin
Lauretta's Cousin Laurinda
The Swan (Lord Of The Reedy River)
A Poor Man's Sunshine (Nativity)
New Years Resolution (Donovan's Celtic Jam)
Runaway (Demo)
Sweet Beverley (Demo)
Marjorie (Margarine) (Demo)
Little White Flower (Demo)
Good Morning Mr Wind (Demo)
Palais Girl (Demo)
Lord Of The Universe (Demo)

Album Description

2005 Digitally remastered re-issue that features twelve bonus tracks 'Snakeskin', 'Lauretta's Cousin Laurinda', 'The Swan' (Lord Of The Reedy River), 'A Poor Man's Sunshine' (Nativity), 'New Years Resolution' (Donovan's Celtic Jam), 'Runaway' (Demo), 'Sweet Beverley' (Demo), 'Marjorie' (Margarine) (Demo), 'Little White Flower' (Demo), 'Good Morning Mr Wind' (Demo), 'Palais Girl' (Demo), 'Lord Of The Universe' (Demo). On Barabajagal, Donovan made his first steps away from the folk rock of before towards an acid rock sound, with songs such as the title track and Trudi. EMI.

Album Details

Digitally Remastered Edition of Donovan P. Leitch's 1969 Album that Drafted Members of the Jeff Beck Group as his Backing Band, featuring Beck Himself on Two Tracks. As with his Previous Albums, the Song Set is a Mixed Bag but Holds Together Better Than Most. Features the Hit Single "Barabajagal" that Burned Up the Pop Charts and the FM Radio Favorite "Atlantis". This Edition Includes a Whopping 13 Bonus Tracks of Demos and Rarities to Delight the Most Ardent of Fans.

Customer Reviews:

Barabajagal-Donovan.......2007-04-11

Wonderful album.Fun to listen to. A definite must for all donovan fans. If you haven't listened to Donovan befor, try this album.

the bonus tracks are worth the purchase.......2006-04-25

as whats previously been said, this album marks a decline in Donovan's consistency in terms of putting a whole flowing album together. Nevertheless this cd is well worth purchasing for the bonus tracks which makes one feel as if you have bought a full album's worth of unreleased material. Interestingly as well is the fact that the version of "superlungs, my supergirl" is NOT the same version that appeared on the original album. This version adds guitar parts and even ends differently with donovan chanting "hey". Its very similar however and may even be better upon comparison. The Swan (lord of the reedy river) is perhaps the most psychedelic or magical donovan song i've ever heard. This version even beating the brilliant simple version on the HMS Donovan album. If you are a hugh donovan fan already i think this should be the first remaster to start with considering there is so much unreleased material on this particular disc. The sound quality is also surprisingly great which is not always the case with remasters of 60s albums. "Where is she" sounds fantastic!

The Mickie Most Years - Part 4.......2006-01-16

"Barabajagal" was Donovan's last album to be released in the 1960's and his fifth produced by Mickie Most.

Compared to his previous albums this is probably the most versatile, partly due to the fact that it was recorded during several sessions, featuring different musicians.

The three hit singles "Atlantis"; "To Susan on the West Coast" and "Barabajagal" are good examples of the album's great variety. "Atlantis" is a fine folky tune with an ecstatic ending ending much like the Beatles' "Hey Jude". "To Susan on the West Coast" is an acoustic anti-war song and "Barabajagal" is an almost riff-based rocker with solid backing by Jeff Beck Group.

Among the tracks I like "Happines Runs" and "Superlungs My Supergirl", but the rest are mostly sub-par tracks. The original album had a very short playing time, a little more than thirty minutes. Fortunately a lot of relevant bonus-tracks have been added to the album.

Interesting to hear "Stromberg Twins", another track with backing from Jeff Beck and his band; and song that ought have been included originally. But the strongest material are found among the last seven tracks, which are just demos; but all sounding great.

"Marjorie" and "Palais Girl" are really great songs that finally get a derserved release.

The booklet contains the final chapter of the Mickie Most Years ( part 4, Nov. 68 to Dec. 1969 ), which is great read; and although the album is not quite up to the sdtandards of its predecessors, it's still a quite fine album.

An okay album greatly improved by the bonus tracks.......2005-06-29

Barabajagal is the last of the four remastered Donovan cds released by EMI in 2005. The original album was definitely a mixed bag. When it's good, it's excellent. Songs like Barabajagal, Superlungs and Atlantis rank among the best rock songs of 1969, and Happiness Runs is a charming children's song. Unfortunately, most of the other album tracks are just filler.

EMI seems to have solved the problem with this reissue. The addition of the bonus tracks, all previously unreleased, double the length of the album, and -- like Sanctuary's reissue of Kinda Kinks -- many of the best songs on the disk are bonus tracks. All the bonus tracks here are good, some are great, and Swan (Lord Of The Reedy River) is one of the most gorgeous songs Donovan ever recorded, which is quite saying something when you think about it.

Like the rest of the albums in this series of reissues, the sound quality is excellent and the liner notes are poor.

EMI Opens the Vaults.......2005-06-27

I've always liked Donovan's "Barabajagal," right down to the Victoriana of the album's artwork. This is not his most consistent album - I really don't need to hear "I Love My Shirt" or "Happiness Runs" very often, and they embody a certain precious quality that has not worn well (and didn't sound so great in 1969). There are, however, several gems on the original set, including the double-sided hit "To Susan On the West Coast Waiting", a still-fresh, deceptively low-key anti-Vietnam song, and the grand, five-minute "Atlantis," one of Donovan's biggest US hits, recorded in L.A. with the great Jim Gordon (Derek & the Dominos) providing superb drumming. Forget the "Hey Jude" comparison, this song has a power and personality all its own. The original album also included two collaborations with the Jeff Beck Group (classic line-up, with Beck, Ron Wood, Nicky Hopkins, Tony Newman, and Rod Stewart who stayed home), opening with the ferocious title track, an almost unbelievably intense excercise in controlled dynamics - a hard rock/funk classic, with Donovan at his 'hottest' and the Group truly 'molten'. The other D/JBG collaboration, "Trudi," rocks out, albeit in a less overpowering manner. I should note these tracks were from the last session by the Beck Group (May '69) who would break up by the end of July. EMI has turned this (and their other Donovan reissues) into "The story of the making of..." with outtakes, demos, copious notes, and period photos and memorabilia. A long rumored third track with the Beck Group ("Stromburg Twins") finally sees the light of day (a fourth, "Homesickness," appears in abruptly truncated form on the fine "HMS"), and the alternates, demos and sketches all provide great context and background on this still underrated artist's work habits, not to mention some highly listenable music, making this the edition of "Barabajagal" to own. Kudos to EMI!

Average customer rating:

Donovan carries on with his flower-child persona even as it became old hat
A hard to find album worth looking for
Simply great!
i love my shirt
An inconsistent work

Barabajagal
Donovan
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

British Folk | Traditional British & Celtic Folk | Folk | Styles | Music

Singer-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Psychedelic Rock | Classic Rock | Styles | Music

British Invasion | Classic Rock | Styles | Music

General | Classic Rock | Styles | Music

The Hurdy Gurdy Man
A Gift from a Flower to a Garden
Sunshine Superman
Beat Cafe
Cosmic Wheels/Essence to Essence

ASIN: B0000024VV
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Tracks:

Barabajagal
Superlungs My Supergirl
Where Is She
Happiness Runs
I Love My Shirt
The Love Song
To Susan On The West Coast Waiting
Atlantis
Trudi
Pamela Jo

Customer Reviews:

Donovan carries on with his flower-child persona even as it became old hat.......2007-05-24

In the early years of his career, Donovan had to deal with being called the British Bob Dylan, even if his brand of songwriting was nowhere near the caliber of Bob's. Where Donovan was childlike & precious, Bob was hardened & wise. Where Donovan stuck to his flower-child posturings for most of his career (that has changed slightly in recent years), Bob switched writing styles frequently, from topical songwriting to poetic mindscapes & back again. Perhaps it is that everchanging style that has kept Bob in the forefront of today's music scene, and saddled Donovan with oldies status. In 1969, both Donovan & Bob released albums that confounded the masses, and met with vastly different responses to both their careers. Bob put out the country-based NASHVILLE SKYLINE that was more a sign of Bob's wish to conduct his career as he saw fit, and his fans were either along for the ride or not (clearly, enough of them were). Donovan released BARABAJAGAL, which was yet another example of his psychedelia-lite approach to music, and indicated his days as a serious hitmaker were coming to a close.

While lyrically, Donovan's music had refused to budge from its child's-eye view of the world, credit should be given later in the 1960s for musically shaking things up a bit. 1968's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" benefitted greatly from Jimmy Page's scorching electric guitar work, and had to have made Donovan, at least briefly, cool to fans of the harder, more serious psychedelic rock of the time. It would have been a direction Donovan had done well to continue in, but the accompanying album of the same name was mostly more of the same gentle folk-pop people had come to associate with him. BARABAJAGAL is another case of a few signs of rock life, but the rest sticking closely to the script.

The title track featured help from the newly-formed Jeff Beck Group, and they do help elevate what could have been another routine folk number with a much-welcomed dose of electricity. Nobody could get away with lyrics like these in today's day & age, but for the era, their riff on ALICE IN WONDERLAND fit in well. Unfortunately, this is the only such rock-based song on BARABAJAGAL that works well. The other Jeff Beck-augmented one, "Trudi", is a throwaway at best, with lyrics that are a blatant rewrite of "Lay Of The Last Tinker" from A GIFT FROM A FLOWER TO A GARDEN (1967).

What songs remain on BARABAJAGAL that adhere to Donovan's tried formula are reasonably good, and are fine last gasps to the style that would become obsolete as the 1970s dawned. Looking back, releasing the 5-minute long "Atlantis" as a single had to have taken some guts. The song is mostly a spoken-word piece with the only sung lyrics repeated over & over into the fade. But it was an "anything goes" atmosphere in the music scene of the time, and as it is, it became Donovan's last trip to the American top 10. When Donovan guested on FUTURAMA singing this song as "Atlanta", it certainly showed he had a sense of humor not often made apparent in his music.

In his own gentle way, Donovan even protested the Vietnam war with "To Susan On The West Coast Waiting", a top 40 hit that intriguingly came from the point of view of a soldier in the war rather than someone at home protesting against it. OK, so it is not "Fortunate Son", but it does its intended job in its intended way very well. Only "Where Is She" manages to keep things on a mature enough level so that it does not sink into sub-children's song territory. It is in that area where BARABAJAGAL demonstrates the faults with Donovan's becoming a victim of his own formula.

"Superlungs My Supergirl" & "The Love Song" are more adolescence-oriented, even if the former is clearly about a teenage girl with a smoking habit ("how to draw" is obviously not about doodling). "Pamela Jo" is the same way, but it manages to be a catchy-enough number that it is one you actually want to listen to more than once, its English music-hall vibe being undoubtedly infectious. It was clear all involved were enjoying themselves while recording it.

"I Love My Shirt" & "Happiness Runs" (recently employed in a cereal commercial) are quite obviously songs that would likely appeal only to those under the age of 10. While there are many times that Donovan's youthful persona is quite engaging to the average adult listener, those two songs are not those times. When Donovan continued to turn out songs like this well into his 1970s work & even devote an entire album to them (H.M.S. DONOVAN), he must have known somehow this was not the way to continue to be taken seriously by the public. It is thus a shame that by the time of excellent adult-based albums like 1996's Rick Rubin-produced SUTRAS & 2004's BEAT CAFE, Donovan's credibility had all but eroded. Songs like the above two certainly did not help matters.

At its best, BARABAJAGAL showed Donovan's light psychedelia still working well within the context of the times. At its worst, it demonstrated that he would need to make some serious changes to his approach if he wanted to stay relevant. Clearly, he did not want to, for he stubbornly stuck to his old tricks for as long as possible, making the music he wanted to make, but at a sacrifice to his commercial respectability.

A hard to find album worth looking for.......2003-05-27

Not having heard any material from this album for many years (other than "Atlantis"), I was surprised at how Donovan could get down when he wanted to. The title track has a vicious rhythm, and most of the other songs also are very solid. Yet, there are still some ballads in the Donovan tradition, such as "Happiness Runs". There is more variety here than many of his other albums, with comic songs such as "I Love my Shirt" and "Pamela Jo", and of course "Atlantis". A real departure for Donovan, not so psychedelic, and not Dylan-influenced.

Simply great!.......2002-05-23

"Hail, Atlantis!"

Aside from the obvious mainstream track ("Atlantis"), this record is solid, and represents, in my mind, what Donovan should have done his entire career. The collaborations between himself and the Jeff Beck group are brilliant rockers, and are sure to get stuck in your head (or turned off by Donovan haters! Ha!).

"Trudi," "Pamela Jo," and "Barabajagal" are all sing-along worthy, "To Susan on the West Coast Waiting" is a slower number you really have to "listen" to to understand and appreciate. "Happiness Runs" is probably the only track that could have been shortened or eliminated completely. No offense, Donovan, but I'm just not into 'rounds' singing. "Superlungs, my Supergirl" is superb for rocking out to, with its subtle, yet striking horn section. "The Love Song," "I Love my Shirt," and the rest of the tracks (save for "Where is She") are 'solid gold' Donovan, and are very much welcomed on CD! Now - if we could just get Mickie Most to remaster this sucker, we'd be in business!

** EDIT - Mickie Most has passed away. Let's get on it, record label! Remaster it!

i love my shirt.......2001-02-11

overall, this is an inconsistent recording. i love my shirt is good for a laugh but otherwise quite terrible. some of the other songs are flat. highlights include the singles barabajagal and atlantis, to susan on the west coast waiting is probably his worst single of the period. superlungs my supergirl features some fine fuzz guitar, and trudi, with the jeff beck group is pretty good. much of the rest is pretty silly and doesn't hold up well today, if you want to buy his best record, I'd suggest you get SUNSHINE SUPERMAN.

An inconsistent work.......2000-06-19

This work is not as strong as "sunshine superman", "mellow yellow", "a gift from a flower to a garden", and "hurdy gardy man", it's quite inconsistent. Standouts are "barabajagal", "superlung my supergirl" and "Atlantis"(with Jeff Beck group, yes). But others are fillers. For more pure folky sound try "a gift from a flower to a garden", for psychedelic gems try "mellow yellow". The CD remastering is poor, too. (So as "sunshine superman", what a pity).