100 Greatest songs of the 60’s #96 Donovan – Sunshine Superman

Released: 1966

Britain – or more specifically British society – took a very long time to decompress after the end of the second world war. Food rationing didn’t end until the mid-fifties, terraced houses dominated the skyline of many northern towns (Where they weren’t still bomb sites, that is) whilst The Light Programme provided staple radio entertainment.

As an institution it was totally unprepared for the speed and revolutionary nature of the changes on the horizon; Donovan’s transformation was as swift and total as any. Born in Glasgow but raised in Hertfordshire, he eagerly embraced the American led folk revival at first, finding commercial success too, before as the decade passed it’s mid point he began to experiment, both musically and pharmaceutically.

This bold new approach saw him taking swatches of folk and rock, but also classical, blues, jazz and even Eastern music. By the time his third album Sunshine Superman was released in 1966 he was part of scene which also featured The Beatles and Brian Jones, a radically different, less inhibited environment which uncoincidentally was being soundtracked by an expansive kind of new music.

The album’s title track featured Jimmy Page on guitar, but whilst lyrically it was a trad boy-needs-girl story, it became instantly more recognisable for John Cameron’s harpsichord, a touch of the baroque which was set off against rolling tablas and funky double bass. From Mousehole to Melvich, Britain hadn’t heard anything much like it before – and it’s doors of perception were about to be blown right off.