Donovan - Barabajagal
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CD Details
Artist: DonovanEdition: Music CD
Format: Import, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2005-05-16
Music Label: EMI Import
Soundtracks:
- 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)
Music reviews of Barabajagal
Music Review: And one star just for the bonus tracks
Rating: 2 Stars
First, before you decide to send a few guys in dark shades to break my arms, let me say that I am a huge fan of Donovan, and my other reviews of his work will attest to that. But I do consider Barabajagal to be his absolute worst album. The few flashes of quality cannot obscure an overall patina of mediocrity. Supposedly, this was Donovan's attempt at a heavier rock sound, but for the most part it is really simplistic and often cloying pop of the worst kind. Basic structures imitate country or ragtime, the lyrics seldom take poetic flight or deliver the kind of imagery that is associated with Donovan, and several ideas are borrowed and rehashed from his already-existing catalogue. On too many songs (when including the bonus tracks) he seems to take a stance of an old and wise man, although at twenty-two he hardly qualified, and speaks of "chicks" in a language that would be considered incorrect today and was certainly demeaning even then (e.g., we are told very sarcastically that Pamela Jo's "very secret" job consists of filing papers all day).
Couched in its time, Barabajagal was an anachronism: masterpieces such as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club, Pet Sounds, and Beggar's Banquet--to name just a few--had already been released, and Tommy and Crosby, Stills and Nash were just a few months away. The revolutionary ideas pursued in those albums make Barabajagal sound truly amateurish. Its massive success is attributed to the fact that, by then, a large section of Donovan's constituency had shifted from a mix of folkies, jazzers, and psychedelics to teenyboppers, which explains why this baby food was supposed to be a "rock" sound. Interestingly, for many people Donovan's best work ends here; personally, I loved much of his output that was yet to come, and Open Road was decidedly a much truer, and infinitely better, rocker.
Much has been made of Jeff Beck's presence on some of the numbers, but don't expect to hear anything outstanding by almighty Jeff, in fact, don't expect to hear anything--anyone with access to an amplifier could have played this, and except for a few pleasant licks on Trudi, there is not a hint that a major guitarist is in the studio.
On to specific tracks: I'd say that the bottom of the barrel is composed of I Love My Shirt, which is an embarrassment: so cutesy it'll make your teeth rot, it's a quaint idea if you were to sing it to your kid, but not for a major artist to put on an album, especially when he has already written songs supposedly for children that were some of the finest songs ever written for any age; follows the meaningless The Love Song, with lyrics that are one cliché after another, and the melody that sounds like a commercial for a toy; Trudi deserves an extra helping of rotten tomatoes for being not only a boring song but also a dreadful rewrite of the beautiful Lay of the Last Tinker from A Gift from a Flower to a Garden. The above-mentioned Pamela Jo joins this group of downright awfulness.
On the middle tier, where things aren't awful, just aren't very good, there is Where Is She. Like several other songs here, it follows a well-tried recipe from Donovan's cookbook, yet somehow it just doesn't make it. It should be gorgeous, in the cloud of ethereal harmonies that are Donovan's special talent, but instead comes off as a completely characterless ballad for lite radio. Then we have Superlungs My Supergirl: this is its third incarnation. It was always an interesting song, not for its supersimple two-chord structure but for its sound experimentation, and here, with that contrived push for heavy rockin', it becomes my least favorite version, and those continuous two chords are way too little. Don sounds like he wants to be T Rex.
To Susan on the West Coast Waiting has always been taken with gloves because of its "important" subject, namely Vietnam war protest. The supporters of the song have claimed that its subdued and gently lilting way of tackling such a serious matter was subtle, but I don't detect anything profoundly subtle here, just a mellow flower-power attempt of dealing with something pop stars (and most people, actually) hardly understood at the time. The phrase about Andy, who is in Vietnam "supposedly hating," avers that, according to Donovan, the young men who went to war didn't really want to go and didn't hate anyone. Obviously, this is always true for many, but not for everyone involved, and it doesn't speak to the psychological shape in which those young men returned home. The song reduces the most conflicting and complex event of our history to very little.
That leaves us with Barabajagal, Happiness Runs, and Atlantis. I wish I could say that in this top tier everything is fabulous, but really, while the songs are good, only Atlantis has the potential to send chills up my spine. Happiness Runs was for years a terrific stage shtick for Donovan, who'd get people to sing the chorus in three parts (heard on Donovan in Concert), but here it doesn't have quite the same sense of fun to it. Still, it's a lovely song.
The bonus tracks are a mirror image of the original album songs in that there is a lot of meandering and a few excellent numbers. The bonuses are plentiful, and without them, as the title of my review says, the album would have gotten only one star. The Swan is that gorgeous, ethereal song that Where Is She aspired to be; it is one of my all-time Donovan favorites, and if it weren't available on other compilations, it alone would make the purchase of this album worth the money. Little White Flower stands out as well; it would have fit perfectly on Flower to a Garden or HMS Donovan, and speaking of the latter, the demo of Good Morning Mr Wind appears there in its final, polished version. It is unabashedly a nursery rhyme, and as such, excellent. Two songs are very interesting for those who have continued to follow Donovan's career: A Poor Man's Sunshine and Lord of the Universe appear on his latest official release, Beat Café, and are astonishingly unchanged. I like both a lot. You get all this in stereo, so, if you can find it at a discount, enjoy. If not, for unconditional fans and archivists only.
Description of Barabajagal
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.Classic Rock CDs
Music Genres
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