Donovan’s album Fairy Tale dates more from the Sixties era when he
styled his vocals and lyric content more along the lines of Bob Dylan
than the hippie-trippy troubadour he became only a few years later with
Mellow Yellow. And it’s truly uncanny how very much his sound resembles
Dylan on several of these songs – songs that mostly deal with innocence
and injustice and the cruelty of the Vietnam war. His version here of
Buffy Sainte-Marie’s classic Universal Soldier could easily lay claim
to being the poster tune of the entire Vietnam era, and shows what a
truly expressive singer Donovan was.
Sound quality is really quite good throughout, though I found the
DVD-Audio layer offered improved sound over the CD layer – the
surrounds offered a bit of ambience, and as this disc is mostly just
Donovan with his guitar and harmonica, not too much is going on in the
rear channels. Despite being listed as a 5.1 surround mix, there’s no
subwoofer content present, which is no great loss considering the
musical style. The disc played in everything I tried, although I did
notice that while the disc played in my computer, as I tapped away at
the keyboard, the sound wavered significantly – I’ve never experienced
this with any other disc of any other type before. There’s no video
content either, so that makes this a strictly-for-the-music purchase.
Recommended, whether for Donovan fans, or just plain fans of good folk
music.
Tracks: Colours; To Try For The Sun; Sunny Goodge Street; Oh Deed I Do;
Circus of Sour; The Summer Day Reflection Song; Jersey Thursday;
Belated Forgiveness Plea; Ballad of a Crystal Man; Little Tin Soldier;
The Ballad of Geraldine; Universal Soldier; The Ballad of a Crystal
Man; The War Drags On; Do You Hear Me Now; Turquoise; Hey Gyp (Dig the
Slowness).
— Tom Gibbs
