Musicians:
· Donovan: acoustic guitar and vocals.
· Danny Thompson: acoustic and upright bass.
· Jim Keltner: drums.
· John Chelew: keyboards.
Trivia:
· Donovan's revival was preceded the previous years by the launching of his new website, two live albums and two albums with new material (Pied Piper and Sixty Four). In 2004, he entered the studio again to record with a band formed by his old friends Danny Thompson on bass and Jim Keltner on drums. Producer John Chelew gave the recordings a contemporary style, mixing rock and roll, beatnik and jazz, a very 60's sound with a 21st century attitude.
· Most of the songs were new compositions but Donovan also revisited some of his old songs. Poorman's Sunshine (first titled A Poor Man's Sunshine (Nativity)) and Lord Of The Universe were both from the Barabajagal era. The original recordings appeared on the 2005 remastered version of Barabajagal as bonus tracks. Yin My Yang is a song written around 1967-1968 and Whirlwind which uses a sample of the 12-string guitar opening from the unreleased song Rosie, also from that era. The idea for Two Lovers comes from that time too: one of the first performances of this song appeared on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1968, Donovan playing a flute after reciting the poem. Lover O Lover was originally released on the album Love Is Only Feeling, 1983. There's a line in The Question that originally appeared in Get Myself Together (an unreleased song from the Open Road era): "Gonna do all the things I never done before/Gonna get myself together somehow".
· Beat Café received very good reviews from the most important music magazines, celebrating Donovan's return to the recording studio.
· The back cover artwork is inspired in a menu from a café. |
