Produced with help from:
?
territory: U.K.
release date: July 1971
label: Dawn Records
catalogue number(s):
duration: 74.10 ???
producer(s): Donovan (except Homesickness - Mickie Most and Donovan)
comment: Donovan's 9th studio album - not released in any other territory
Side 1
Timings are from the inside record cover and record labels.
Commentary
The record cover and spine list the album as HMS DONOVAN but the record label and inside cover list it as H.M.S. DONOVAN. I have chosen the latter because HMS is an abbreviation and is correctly punctuated with full stops.
The artwork for this album is amazing, second place only to the artwork for A Gift from a Flower to a Garden. (Once again, the art direction is by Sid Maurer). The album credits Patrick with the paintings (his signature appears on the bottom right hand side of the front cover and on the book Don is reading). Patrick's painting wraps around onto the back cover and the entire picture would make an excellent poster.
The front cover has a picture of Donovan dressed in a traditional sailor's outfit with an open book (presumably the old fashioned picture book mentioned in the song) on his lap. He's sitting in a garden and around him are various characters from the songs on the album: the walrus and the carpenter, the unicorn, a jar of stars (The Seller of Stars), a fairy in the grass (Things to Wear), Mr. Wind, Wynken, Blynken and Nod, what I think is meant to be the Jabberwock, a girl hugging a swan (Lord of the Reedy River), a baby falling asleep (La Moora), a boy holding a watch (Lost Time), a single star in the sky (The Star), a mermaid holding a baby (Celia of the Seals?), the owl and the pussycat and the moon (The Voyage of the Moon).
The songs that I don't think are represented are The Little White Road, Coulter's Candy, The Road, Homesickness, Fishes in Love, The Pee Song, Lord of the Dance, Little Ben, Can Ye Dance, The Song of Wandering Aengus, A Funny Man, Henry Martin and Queen Mab but I may have missed some.
On the inside cover is a picture of eight children running with cats, dogs and rabbits, with streamers and a bird trailing behind them. This is reflected down the spine to form a mirror image. The left side has two short poems by Donovan, where did we lose the way to do nothing? and once upon a tiny time.
Homesickness sounds out of place - an electric rocker on an otherwise mainly acoustic album. Maybe it's an out-take from previous sessions. The fact that it was produced by Mickie Most and Donovan lends support to this theory.
Copies with the foldout poster and worth double the price without!
Errors
Discrepancies
Miscellaneous
Details for Collectors
Gatefold sleeve with poster
The record labels are light purple with black text. On my copy, the fourth
side is more of a light pink. Whether this is a result of a careless
collector leaving that side face up in the sun, I do not know
Dawn Records logo
First record: DNLD.4001-1
Side 1: DNLD.4001-A
runout groove on my copy: DNLD 4001A-1 *T and
AF
Side 2: DNLD.4001-B
runout groove on my copy: DNLD 4001B-1 *T and
AI
Second record: DNLD.4001-2
Side 3: DNLD.4001-C
runout groove on my copy: DNLD 4001C-1 *T and
AF
Side 4: DNLD.4001-D
runout groove on my copy: DNLD 4001D-1 *T and
AA