History
After the release of the 1970 album Open Road that Donovan recorded with the band of the same name, he and his bandmates embarked on an international tour, partially by boat. Intending to sail around the world for one year, Donovan became homesick and ended the tour early, returning to the UK where he married his longtime affection Linda Lawrence (once girlfriend of Brian Jones) in October 1970. When Linda became pregnant with their first child, Donovan began working to complete a children's album that would eventually contain recordings spanning from July 1968 to 1971.
Donovan had started to conceive of this album as early as 1968. During a session with Paul McCartney that year, he outlined the start to the album by describing an echoey pump organ and a man shouting in Italian announcing a string of circus acts that would then fade out into "The Walrus and The Carpenter". He also played "Mr. Wind" and "The Unicorn" for McCartney, who had recently finished recording "Blackbird". A demo of "Mr. Wind" was recorded after the Barabajagal sessions in a lower register and without the voice effects. The original lyrics of the song were printed on the British version of Sunshine Superman, four years before the release of HMS Donovan.
More than half of HMS Donovan's tracks are traditional folk songs, hymns, and classic poems for and about children, which Donovan set to original melodies. Many of the poems were from the book, One Hundred Poems for Children compiled by Herbert Strang.[2] Other poems come from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.
Of Donovan's original songs, most were newly written, many while staying on the isle of Crete and along other parts of Open Road's tour. "Lord of the Reedy River" was performed by Donovan in the 1969 film If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium. The album was produced by Donovan, save for "Homesickness", the record's sole electric rocker, produced by Mickie Most either from sessions in 1968 or 69, as Donovan and Most stopped working together after the Barabajagal sessions.[3] Other songs backed by drummer John Carr and bassist Mike Thompson were recorded during the previous year's sessions for Open Road.
Some of the songs on HMS Donovan share melodies with other songs in Donovan's canon. "Jabberwocky" has an acoustic arrangement with the same melody as "Celtic Rock" from Open Road. "The Owl and the Pussycat" and "The Unicorn" also have the same melody, but bootleg recordings suggest Donovan once sang these two songs together in a medley during late 1960s live performances. Sydney Carter's "Lord of the Dance" borrows the melody from the Joseph Brackett song "Simple Gifts". "The Star" is better known as "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".
Despite the inclusion of Donovan's minor hit "Celia of the Seals", HMS Donovan did not sell as well as his previous releases and did not appear on the UK charts. Epic Records refused to release the album in the US and Pye Records only put the album out on its subsidiary label Dawn Records in the UK. This prompted Donovan to reunite with his old producer Mickie Most to try to find a hit-making formula for his next album. The fact that sales were the lowest of Donovan's career at the time eventually led to HMS Donovan becoming the rarest and most sought-after LP of Donovan's catalogue; in the 21st Century a search of eBay revealed that original LP copies of HMS Donovan often trade hands for $100 or more, normally selling for five or ten times the price of any other Donovan LP. Copies that contain the original poster insert are especially collectable.
After this album's release, Donovan became involved in two films. First, he played the lead role in Jacques Demy's The Pied Piper, which was released in the US on 25 May 1972. He also provided the English soundtrack for Franco Zeffirelli's Brother Sun, Sister Moon, which was released in the US on 2 December 1972.
Reissues
In January 1998, Beat Goes On Records reissued HMS Donovan (BGOCD372) on CD in the UK. The label Media Arte issued the album on CD in South Korea in 2009.
In 2020, Donovan's own label Donovan Discs remastered the album and made it available through his website in various forms at https://donovan.ie/. This is the only remastered version of the album made available to fans.
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