大象传媒

by Bob Stanley of

's shift from a home counties Dylan to a psychedelic seer in 1966 was one of the less likely transformations in sixties pop.

While and - both no.4 hits in 1965 - showed the St Albans poet was quite the talent, Britain almost never got to hear what came next. When interviewed by Brian Matthew in late '65 he murmured that his next record would only come out in America, and that's exactly what happened.

Mickie Most took over Donovan's career from his Denmark Street-based manager Peter Eden and the matter went to court. His third album, Sunshine Superman, emerged in America in the summer of 1966 and the title track was a number one but, while the single would eventually come out here in December, the album wouldn't be released in its entirety in Britain until the 1990s! Whole albums of Donovan material - Mellow Yellow (1967), Hurdy Gurdy Man (1968) and Barabajagal (1969) - weren't given a UK release. He sang the theme to the Ken Loach film Poor Cow, but it only came out as a single in Japan (a lesser, re-recorded version came out here as the flip to Jennifer Juniper).

Was this a legal matter, or did Mickie Most think he was somehow helping his charge's career? Most may have been able to spot a hit song at a thousand paces, but he made equally odd decisions with his other acts: To Sir With Love is easily Lulu's best known song in the States, where it spent a month at number one, but Most thought it wasn't right for the UK market and stuck it on the b-side of Let's Pretend, which only peaked at number 11.

Happily for us, all of this material is now readily available, with Donovan announcing more rarities will be made available via his website. If I had to pick one of Don's albums it would be the jazz-inspired , with the lovely flute playing of Harold McNair and arrangements by the Kes soundtrack writer John Cameron: , Young Girl Blues, - what a record!