Manafonistas

on life, music etc beyond mainstream

2018 13 Apr

„Wear Your Love Like Heaven“

von: Michael Engelbrecht Filed under: Blog | TB | Tags:  7 Comments

 

On an island like Amrum, in a remote forest area (you can always find quiet places in the biggest holiday resorts), it’s easy to complete your desert island collection. Some time ago, I found a Speakers Corner reissue of an album from the summer of love, and, to my own surprise, though not containing any of his great hits, it immediately turned to my favourite Donovan album. And I really own some of his lovingly eccentric deliveries of hope, peace and shangrilas. Helas! When the album came out, our folkie from the Scottish hinterland stopped drugs and turned to meditation. Someone who got similarly impressed by this album, „could almost smell the patchouli incense wafting from his flower-draped recording studio.“ He had a real band playing behind him, harpsicord, B3 organ, bongos, acoustic guitar, flutes – and strings carefully dosed. What really catches me, draws me in everytime, above everything else, is the nonchalance of his singing style, all heartfelt, smiling, with an unashamed sense of optimism. Fucking genius. He‘s „there“, in the moment, no cliche, and the songs are so painfully short, I always feel a shade of sadness when the fade-out is mercilessly ending an atmosphere. I would like so much immersing myself into endless jams of every single song and their stunning variety of moods of naivety, innocence and yearning. But, this way, they never wear out their beauty and make you think: in a life where we will all turn to dust and ashes in the end, with no god in sight, no bardo to be expected, no coming back ever, leaving the ones we love shattered in tears and pain: love is the first, and shortness the second essence of life.

 

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7 Comments

  1. Michael Engelbrecht:

    „The quality of this reissue is in keeping with Speakers Corner’s legendary standards. Original analog tapes have been used for cutting the lacquers, and the entire process used for creating this record was free of any digital effects. The results on my turntable are luxuriously black backgrounds (due to the Pallas pressings), exceptional dynamics and three-dimensional presentation of images.

    As with many albums of the period, a number of cuts are plagued by instruments being panned hard left or right in the mix. However, the utterly natural richness of the recording makes those engineering decisions a very minor distraction. I had only heard a scratchy dollar-bin version of the US pressing several years back, so the effect of listening to the Speakers Corner reissue reminded me of the time I watched the fully restored print of Rear Window: I knew the movie was a half-century old, but it still seemed utterly present and new.“

    – Vance Hiner

  2. Gregor:

    Wunderbare Platte!

  3. Michael Engelbrecht:

    Und du kennst Amrum! Du kannst ahnen, wie schön es ist, diese Musik da zu hören, fernab des Getümmels, ein Katzensprung vom Meer entfernt …

  4. Gregor:

    Du sagst es!

  5. Brian Whistler:

    Nice. I have a remastered reissue that probably isn’t as good as this one. I’ll have to hunt it down. I too have a soft spot for this music. Gift from a Flower to a Garden also had an album of folkie songs with mostly just guitar which I love almost as well. I also got a copy of that as well, but sadly, there were distortions on one or two tracks, perhaps due to failing analog tape or sloppy remastering, I know not which. I love Donovan too and bought a few of the classics reissued a while back. Mellow Yellow is pretty cool as well as the first time in stereo version of Sunshine Superman.

  6. Michael Engelbrecht:

    If it comes push to shove, I‘m a pagean, and a hippie:)

  7. Brian whistler:

    Me too


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