Donovan - Catch the Wind (1965)

Donovan's folky 1965 recordings for Pye Records (they were released in the U.S. by Hickory Records) bear only a superficial resemblance to the more hip pop material he began issuing a year later when he switched to Epic Records. Some of his famous bejeweled sensibility is already apparent in these tracks, but for the most part this is Donovan as a straight folksinger, and he isn't bad at it at all. His work from this period has been compared (usually unfavorably) to Bob Dylan, but the strongest influence at play in these songs is probably Bert Jansch, whose "Do You Hear Me Now" is covered here. In the end, the Pye tracks form a complete and distinct cycle in Donovan's legacy, separate from but not necessarily lesser than his more ornate pop material. There have been several compilations of these early songs issued by various labels, including this one from Castle Pulse, and any of them is probably sufficient to provide a taste of what Donovan was up to at the time.