HMS Donovan (album)
| HMS Donovan | ||||
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| Studio album by Donovan | ||||
| Released | 1971 | |||
| Recorded | June 1968–1971 | |||
| Genre | folk | |||
| Length | 74:10 | |||
| Label | Dawn Records | |||
| Producer | Donovan Leitch, Mickie Most | |||
| Donovan chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic |   |
HMS Donovan is the ninth studio album, and tenth album overall, from British singer-songwriter Donovan. It marks the second album of Donovan's children's music, after the For Little Ones portion of A Gift from a Flower to a Garden. HMS Donovan is the second double album of Donovan's career, and was released in the UK only, in July 1971 (Dawn Records DNLD 4001 (stereo)).
After the release of the 1970 album Open Road that Donovan recorded with the band of the same name, he and his bandmates embarked on an international tour, partially by boat. Intending to sail around the world for one year, Donovan became homesick and ended the tour early, returning to the UK where he married his longtime affection Linda Lawrence (once girlfriend of Brian Jones) in October 1970. When Linda became pregnant with their first child, Donovan began working to complete a children's album that would eventually contain recordings spanning from July 1968 to 1971.
Donovan had started to conceive of a this album as early as 1968. During a session with Paul McCartney that year, he outlined the start to the album by describing an echoey pump organ and a man shouting in Italian announcing a string of circus acts that would then fade out into "The Walrus and The Carpenter". He also played "Mr. Wind" and "The Unicorn" for McCartney, who had recently finished recording "Blackbird". A demo of "Mr. Wind" was recorded after the Barabajagal sessions in a lower register and without the voice effects. The original lyrics of the song were printed on the British version of Sunshine Superman, four years before the release of HMS Donovan.
More than half of HMS Donovan's tracks are traditional folk songs, hymns, and classic poems for and about children, which Donovan set to original melodies. Many of the poems were from the book, One Hundred Poems for Children compiled by Herbert Strang. Other poems come from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.
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