The Hurdy Gurdy Man

Album Review

Hurdy Gurdy Man, released in the U.S. in October 1968, was the first really good sounding Donovan album to come out through Epic Records in America, as well as being the most advanced and sophisticated of the artist's albums he'd made up until then. A product of several contacts between Donovan and Eastern culture, principally growing out of his discovery of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the album also reflected the product of several infatuations and a highly experimental mindset, and all of it flows forth here in ravishing detail — the chants, ragas, and drones heard in between the more folk-oriented ballads — all in high-resolution digital audio, which now makes this album sound like one of the most delightfully spacey and intoxicating releases of its era, and there was no shortage of records shooting for those effects; but heard here the way they were meant to be, these songs now strike a careful balance between substantive, defined ballads, and bolder "effect" pieces that work more directly on the psyche. It's all not unlike the effect of drugs, and makes this one of the truest products of its era in terms of its effect on the listener — and those are just the tracks from the original LP. The bonus tracks include the contemporary single sides ("Lalena"), the movie-related tracks ("Poor Cow"), the B-side ("Teen Angel"), and contemporary re-recordings of "Colours" and "Catch the Wind" (intended for use on a greatest-hits package). The annotation is thorough and revealing, and the disc is nothing less than essential for fans of the artist or the period represented by the music.