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Just thought I'd mention that the Bert of "Bert's Blues" is Bert Jansch, who was a big influence on just about all British guitarists of the period.
Donovan's gentle 60s lyricism may be out of fashion in this age of plastic disposable pop and gangsta rap, but all his early albums are still worth listening to if you like real music.
PS There is now (2005) a new remastered and expanded version of this album available. Get that instead.
Rating:  -
Like many releases by British artists in the 60s, there were two versions of this: one UK and one US. The information I could gather on this is a bit confusing and conflicting. Piecing together what I found, I offer this to help alleviate (and hopefully not compound) the confusion: I believe that the version with the song sequence listed on this page is the original US version, released September 1966. Very early in 1967, shortly before the release of the US "Mellow Yellow" album, a UK album entitled "Sunshine Superman" was issued that combined songs from both of these US records. This UK release omitted "Ferris Wheel" and "Fat Angel" and included five songs from the "Mellow Yellow" LP: "The Observation," "Writer In The Sun," "Hampstead Incident," "Sand And Foam" and "Young Girl Blues." In any event, the album listed on this page is the one I've had for years, and it's the one I'll review. (Issued much later were a couple of compilations also called "Sunshine Superman." Don't bother with those.)
We begin with "Sunshine Superman," which smiles in blurry, dreamy, tropical-beach sunlight while beneath, exotic undercurrents pulsate and groove. It was released as a single and became the first of many hits. Next, a fairy tale called "Legend Of A Girl Child Linda" is presented, complete with a princess. It teeters for a bit between minor chords before moving to major, giving it sparkle, only to resolve back to minor again. This progression gives this song the most magical and wistful of moods. No words can describe how gorgeous it is (nor how enchanting). The song structure is somewhat unique: there is no chorus or bridge and the verses are separated by short instrumental interludes of tasteful imagination and delicacy. The percussion here is quite understated, true for the majority of the album. (This magical album doesn't "rock," it meditates.) Hand drums are used...I believe they're bongos, not tablas. "Legend" seemingly lasts forever, but that's not nearly long enough. As it ends, I sigh.... On to "Three King Fishers" - another trance-inducing marvel. The rhythm ceases on the chorus and Donovan's voice, matched by the sitar, embraces an exotic Middle Eastern scale. (Perhaps the first rock tune ever with this scale?) Hypnotic. The sitar twangs gently and beautifully; one of the most peaceful songs I've ever heard. We've been in a state of nirvana for two songs now, and "Ferris Wheel" keeps us there. Then comes the cosmically jazzy "Burt's Blues," the mystically groovy "Seasons Of The Witch" and the grooviest of all, "The Trip," which shu-shu-shuffles along while Donovan colorfully paints his uniquely psychedelic imagery. When I haven't listened to this album for a while, I sometimes forget how gorgeous "Guinevere" is: pensive, dark...haunting beyond belief. "Fat Angel" and "Celeste" are also meditative wonders. These songs offered the essence of `67 in 1966.
Here is an album that fits the bill as one of my favorites, a record that easily falls within my top five of all time. Donovan, the ever-youthful romantic, was indeed prophetic. This album, filled with enigmatic innocence, is definitively psychedelic. And considering that the title track was recorded as early as 1965, we have much to ponder in terms of who really ushered in the psychedelic movement.
In light of the wonderful reviews on this page, it should be obvious that the album at hand means a great deal to us. But through the years, Donovan has been unjustly served by the so-called music critics (the pros who have consistently failed us). Had these self-professed authorities done their job, there'd be no reason for these customer-review pages other than self-expression. Donovan was a much-loved artist in the 60s. In those days, he was respected by oodles of recording artists. In 1965, Donovan won a Beat Instrumental's Gold Star Award for Best Folk Guitarist, beating out such artists as Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. There are many people who still love the fabulous and inimitable Donovan. If you love the music of the 60s (a time when people weren't ashamed of nonviolent emotions), please...please do yourself a favor and get this magical treasure piece. Its inherent spells will never wear off!
Cheers,
Murray
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'Sunshine Superman' came out around the beginning of one of the most experimental periods in rock history, a period that also spawned (right around the same time) the Beatles' 'Revolver', Dylan's 'Blonde On Blonde', Simon & Garfunkle's 'Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme', the Byrds' '5D', and the Stones' 'Aftermath'.
Jagger and Richards' "Lady Jane" could have fit very nicely on Donovan's album if a few words were changed here or there.
Donovan's contribution was right up there with the best of them. He utilized the combination of sitar and tablas more extensively than the rest of these groups/artists, and also included on several of his numbers a generous helping of medieval-renaissance sound, as well as seamless fusions of these with each other and with more customary blues, folk, and soft rock. It's pretty much all very sophisticated, tuneful, and deeply inspiring.
I won't dwell on "Sunshine Superman" the single, or on "Season of the Witch", as both have received more than their fair share of airplay over the years. Here are evaluations of the best of the others.
"Legend of the Girl Child Linda": I had a friend who during our high school years used to listen to this song every night before he went to sleep. It's a fairy tale, or a collection of them, made into a medieval/renaissance sounding song, with acoustic guitar, string quartet, harpsichord, clarinet (also oboe?) and bells providing the accompaniment.
"Three King Fishers": cosmic romanticism, with distinctly eastern flavors, and smacking of tales of the Arabian Nights as well, using acoustic guitar, sitar and tablas in a minor mode to achieve its air of mystery. "Oh, I dreamed you were a jewel, sitting in golden crown on my head." The title may be a play of words on the Fisher King [from the Grail legends].
"Ferris Wheel" is somewhat similar, but in a major mode (uplifting, not as dark); using sitar, tablas and electric bass. This one tends to fly me to North Africa.
'Bert's Blues', starts out as rather traditional, jazzy-sounding blues (acoustic guitar and acoustic bass with little harpsichord licks) with lyrics to match. But half way through, things flip into a long 'b' section that at first seems like it's only a bridge. This is highly unusual as it's still using kind of a blues scale, and blues rhythm, but harmonically goes into a space-time zone that's very much like the "Girl Child Linda", only much darker (this, after all, being the 'blues'). Check out some of the lyrics:
"Fairy castles, stark and black in the moonlight-
The jingle jangle jester rides his stallion.
Seagull rides across my eyes forever-
Sadly goes on his way to Hades."
and:
"Lucifer calls his legions from the hillside . . ."
The instrumental accompaniment during this during this long section is all string quartet. The breaks are solo harpsichord, then string quartet with clarinet playing the lead. The song ends up back on the 'a' section [the blues] again.
"Guinevere": more medieval-renaissance soft rock; but with tasteful fusion provided by sitar and tablas; lyrics are Donovan's imaginative take on the Arthurian legends.
"The Fat Angel": more raga rock from its true master (here, using tablas, sitar, acoustic guitar, electric bass). The line "fly Jefferson Airplane, gets you there on time", provided a name for one of the many budding San Francisco bands. I wonder if Trans-Love Energies, which later evolved into the White Panther Party, also took their name from the line "fly Trans-Love Airways, gets you there on time"? I guess I'll have to ask John Sinclair sometime.
"Celeste": A very stirring song, which in some kind of circuitous, subconscious way reminds me of Joni Mitchell's "Cactus Tree". Strings, organ, drums (played very softly) bass, sitar, harpsichord. This has always been one of my sixties emotional anthems.
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After Donovan's folky period on Hickory Records (and his hit Catch the Wind), he surfaced in 1966 with this gem of an album fueled by the hit title track. With Shawn Phillips on Harpsichord and John Paul Jones' production, this was a very heady experience and unlike any of his previous albums to date. My feelings towards this album are the same as they were in 1966 - front to back, a fantastic listening experience. There's a number of standout tracks - Three King Fishers because of the fantastic guitar/harpsichord jam at the end, The Fat Angel (ostensibly about Mama Cass) and The Ferris Wheel are wonderful, but The Trip (the original flip side to the title track on 45) is a [great] song that sounds as good today as it did back then. His odd phrasing and psychedic background was new and different for the day and really holds up well to repeated listening. Most of his floral cuteness wears a little thin on many of his albums, but not here. Celeste, the album closer, is a real tear jerker that has been covered by many artists but the original is still the best. Let this album play once through and you too will be hooked. His follow up - Mellow Yellow - is nearly as good.
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In the summer of 1966. My friends and I headed for Virginia
Beach and all points in between. We were just high school kids, just graduated, and wanted to see the world.We were from Illinois then and Colorado now. Donovan's Sunshine Superman, the Troggs and the song'Red Rubber Ball' define that bygone era. Its my favorite Donovan CD of all time.
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