iTunes

Opening the iTunes Store.If iTunes doesn't open, click the iTunes application icon in your Dock or on your Windows desktop.
iTunes

iTunes is the world's easiest way to organize and add to your digital media collection.

We are unable to find iTunes on your computer. To preview and buy music from Open Road by Donovan, download iTunes now.

Already have iTunes? Click I Have iTunes to open it now.

I Have iTunes Free Download
iTunes for Mac + PC

Open Road

Donovan

View More By This Artist

Open iTunes to preview, buy, and download music.

iTunes Review

Aligning himself so closely to the psychedelia of the late ‘60s, Donovan ran into commercial difficulties as a new decade began. Released in 1970, Open Road is a very good Donovan album at a time when people had started to look elsewhere and his record label was not perfectly aligned with his star. How else to explain the lack of interest in such solid material? The album begins with a tougher British blues underlying “Changes,” but “Song for John” and the modest hit “Riki Tiki Tavi” are prime Donovan. The beautiful psychedelia revisited of the piano-mad “Celtic Rock” set the template for Led Zeppelin’s folk excursions where rock is very much part of the British folk equation. “Clara Clairvoyant” slinks with a sexy funk that leads to a scream. “Roots of Oak” spooks out with a psych-folk groove from the not-so-distant past. ”Poke At the Pope” simply rocks like Donovan never had before. Donovan wouldn’t be much of a commercial force in the ‘70s, but his legacy was intact for future generations.

Customer Reviews

Open Songwriting

This album is one of Donovan's best. Most people who I've played it to are pleasantly surprised to hear this version of Donovan. Even fans of his sixties radio hits are generally unfamiliar with this material. It's too bad; this surely contains some of his best compositions. If you like good folk, celtic, or rock, you'll love this album.

A lost gem. Deserves to be much better known

Many people didn't know it, but Donovan did not get stuck in the psychedelic late 60's. The entertainment media- record companies and radio programmers- chose to stick him there. Always moving on, looking for the next thing, so ready to forget. As Stackridge sang: "Here I lie, dashed to the ground. Thrown by the hands that applauded my sound." So Donovan was dismissed as hippy-triipy and yesterday's news- while all the while he was exploring new avenues. Open Roads, in fact. Open Road was also the name of the band he assembled for this record. After it was released, and Donovan moved on to other things, the remaining members brought in new players, and recorded a second Open Road album that was even more overlooked. But this one is still with us. By the way, this release gets the title of the last track wrong. It's 'New Year's ResoVOlution.' Someone missed the wordplay Donovan intended. But it's not about a violent revolution; rather, about peaceful, and intelligent change. And it's a great tune on a great album.

Biography

Born: May 10, 1946 in Glasgow, Scotland

Genre: Rock

Years Active: '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, '00s, '10s

Upon his emergence during the mid-'60s, Donovan was anointed "Britain's answer to Bob Dylan," a facile but largely unfounded comparison which compromised the Scottish folk-pop troubadour's own unique vision. Where the thrust of Dylan's music remains its bleak introspection and bitter realism, Donovan fully embraced the wide-eyed optimism of the flower power movement, his ethereal, ornate songs radiating a mystical beauty and childlike wonder; for better or worse, his recordings remain quintessential...
Full Bio

Top Albums and Songs By Donovan

Listeners Also Bought

Become a fan of the iTunes and App Store pages on Facebook for exclusive offers, the inside scoop on new apps and more.