Donovan Catch The Wind (CD)

(Disky) 16 Tracks - Pye International 1965

Singer-Songwriter Donovan Philip Leitch, born Glasgow 1946, moved down to Hertfordshire aged 10, and by the age of 18 was already a seasoned Woody Guthrie-influenced folk performer, living in St. Ives, Cornwall, and performing in folk clubs throughout England and Scotland with kazoo player Gypsy Dave.

At Southend in late 1964 he was spotted by music entrepreneurs Geoff Stephens and Peter Eden who offered to manage him. Donovan's immediate impact was huge: his catchy (mostly) self-penned folk songs invited comparison with Bob Dylan, then enjoying his initial surge of popularity, and by March 1965 Donovan was a regular on 1N's prestigious 'Ready Steady Go'.

His first Pye single 'Catch The Wind' outperformed Dylan's debut chart hit 'The Times They Are A-Changin' and hit the US Top 30. By the time he split - acrimoniously - with Stephens and Eden in October 1965, Donovan had cut two hit albums - 'What's Bin Did And What's Bin Hid' and 'Fairy Tale', a hit EP 'Universal Soldier', and three hit singles.

The cream of that amazing crop is contained on this compilation and demonstrates Donovan's mastery of the folk idiom, immediately before he changed style, went electric, and became the greatest exponent of flower-power.