Donovan - Universal Soldier - Non-Album Tracks (1965)

Donovan is a curious case for me. I think a lot of his songs are great, but there are many I consider duds. There are only a few of his albums I like all the way through. But it also turns out that he has lots of good songs that have only come out in obscure ways, such as bonus tracks, or not come out at all.

This album is a case in point. At the start of Donovan's career, in 1964 and 1965, he was in pure folkie mode, doing everything with just his vocals and acoustic guitar. This is the era that's his most consistent, in my opinion. He put out two albums in 1965, "What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid" and "Fairytale." In addition, there's an archival release called "Sixty Four" that covers most of his songs recorded in 1964. This album covers all his stray tracks from 1965. I was surprised to find there's just as much good music here as on either of his official 1965 albums.

The first half of this album consists of officially released material. He put out the EP "Universal Soldier" with three unique songs on it. Additionally, two more songs came out on a single ("Turquoise"), plus two more have come out on an archival collection.

The second half of the album is all still officially unreleased material. But I think it's just as strong, and the sound quality is surprisingly good for the time period. Half of these songs were played in concert, and the other half were played on the BBC. I suppose the reason many of these didn't get released at the time is that they were cover versions and he probably wanted to emphasize his original material.

Two of the songs are covers of Bob Dylan songs, and I'm guessing he especially wanted to avoid releasing any of those, since he was getting criticized as being a Dylan clone. But I really like both of them. He gives "Who Killed Davey Moore" a somewhat different arrangement that I think improves the song. "Daddy, You've Been on My Mind" is usually known as "Mama, You've Been on My Mind." I'm puzzled why he switched the gender, since Dylan and the other men who have covered it have called it "Mama."

Oh, by the way,  "Legend of a Girl Child Linda" is a Donovan original that later appeared on the "Sunshine Superman" album. But I prefer this version, without what I consider unnecessary orchestration.

01 Universal Soldier (Donovan)
02 Do You Hear Me Now (Donovan)
03 The War Drags On (Donovan)
04 Why Do You Treat Me like You Do (Donovan)
05 Every Man Has His Chain (Donovan)
06 Turquoise (Donovan)
07 Hey Gyp [Dig the Slowness] (Donovan)
08 Needle of Death (Donovan)
09 Legend of a Girl Child Linda (Donovan)
10 Sweet Joy (Donovan)
11 Bert's Blues (Donovan)
12 Who Killed Davey Moore (Donovan)
13 Working on the Railroad (Donovan)
14 Running from Home (Donovan)
15 Daddy. You've Been on My Mind (Donovan)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15110517/Donovn_1965_UniverslSoldier_atse.zip.html

The cover is the cover of the 1965 "Universal Soldier" EP, without any changes.