Musicians:
· Donovan: vocals and acoustic guitar.
· Danny Thompson: concert bass fiddle on Celia Of The Seals.
· Mike Thomson: bass and organ.
· John Carr: drums.
Singles out of this album:
· Celia Of The Seals/Mr. Wind
Trivia:
· Epic Records didn't want to release the album in the USA and Pye Records released it in the UK with its subsidiary label Dawn Records, probably fearing poor sales. Although the album included his last hit Celia Of The Seals, HMS Donovan had poor sales and didn't chart in the UK.
· This was his second album dedicated to children, after For Little Ones, the first volume of A Gift From A Flower To A Garden. In October 1970, Donovan married his muse Linda Lawrence, and when she became pregnant with their first child, he started to record and compile a new album that would contain songs from July 1968 to 1971. For most of the songs Donovan created the music to accompany classic poems for and about children.
· Paul McCartney was present during the 1968 recordings: Mr. Wind, The Unicorn and The Walrus And The Carpenter. There's a bootleg album with those recordings.
· During the Barabajagal sessions, Donovan recorded the demo versions of Mr. Wind and Lord Of The Reedy River. Both were released as bonus tracks on the 2005 Barabajagal reissue and listed as Good Morning Mr. Wind and The Swan (Lord Of The Reedy River). The lyrics of Mr. Wind originally appeared on the 1967 UK version of Sunshine Superman from 1967. Donovan appeared singing Lord Of The Reedy River for the movie If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium in 1968.
· The lyrics to The Walrus And The Carpenter and Jabberwocky are poems from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures In Wonderland And Through The Looking Glass.
· The Seller Of Stars, Lost Time, The Little White Road, The Road, Things To Wear and A Funny Man are from Herbert Strang's book One Hundred Poems for Children.
· The Star is a traditional song better known as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
· Lord Of The Dance features the melody from Joseph Brackett's song Simple Gifts. The lyrics appeared on Sydney Carter's Songs Of Sydney Carter In The Present Tense Book 2.
· Song Of The Wandering Aengus appeared on The Collected Poems Of W. B. Yeats, with permission M. B. Yeats.
· The Walrus' and Mr. Wind's voices are Donovan's voice slowed down.
· Jabberwocky features the same melody the song Celtic Rock from the Open Road album.
· The Owl And The Pussycat and The Unicorn have the same melody maybe because originally were only one song. In some bootleg recordings from late 1960's Donovan sings these two songs together as a medley.
· Homesickness is a totally different song than the rest of the album. It's the only song with electric guitars and a rock sound, and the only song produced by Mickie Most. It was probably an out-take from a previous session with Mickie Most and it was included in HMS Donovan for some reason.
· The artwork of the album was credited to Patrick and Sidney Maurer was the Art Director. The paintings depict Donovan in a sailor suit accompanied by the characters from the songs. The artwork also includes two short poems by Donovan, Where Did We Lose The Way To Do Nothing? and Once Upon A Tiny Time. |
