Donovan-A Gift From A Flower To A Garden (1967)

It was during the popular British television program "Ready Steady Go!" that a disheveled young man, sporting a Bob Dylan-esque cap, with a rhythmic voice and accompanied only by an acoustic guitar and harmonica, captivated millions of viewers in early 1965. This young man, Donovan Leitch, a Scot by birth, grew up surrounded by disaffected post-beat poets and the pre-hippie movement in his hometown of St. Albans. His clear Dylan influence and his natural talent caught the attention of Pye Records, thus beginning his long and meteoric artistic career. That same year, 1965, he released his first albums, "What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid" and "Fairytale", featuring covers of folk classics and melancholic original songs. This young man, Donovan Leitch, a Scot by birth, grew up surrounded by dissatisfied post-beat poets and the pre-hippie movement in his hometown of St. Albans. From this point on, a series of singles conquered the charts, tracks like “Mellow Yellow”, “Sunshine Superman”, and “There Is A Mountain”, and albums like “Sunshine Superman” achieved resounding success on both sides of the Atlantic. Some of the musicians who participated in the recordings of these albums were young talents who would soon become stars, such as Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) and Jack Bruce (Cream). Although psychedelic sounds and flower power were in vogue in the latter half of the sixties, Donovan continued with his vague aspiration for the spiritual happiness of folk, with a style that still maintained captivating poetic lyrics. However, Donovan would eventually succumb to the musical status quo of the time and embark on an ambitious double album titled “A Gift From A Flower To A Garden” (1967), which reflected a certain affinity with flower power sounds and Celtic poetic songs. Ultimately, this would be his best commercial and artistic record, even though in subsequent years he would publish works of enormous quality such as "The Hurdy-Gurdy Man" (1968), "Barabajagal" (1969), "Open Road" (1970) or "7-Tease" (1975).