Open Road | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | July 1970 | |||
Recorded | January–February 1970 | |||
Studio | Morgan, London | |||
Genre | Folk rock, Psychedelic rock, Celtic rock | |||
Length | 42:19 | |||
Label | Epic | |||
Producer | Donovan Leitch | |||
Donovan chronology | ||||
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Open Road chronology | ||||
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Open Road is the eighth studio album,and ninth overall,from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan and the debut album from the short-lived band Open Road. [1] While his previous work was composed by his playing solo on acoustic guitar and then recorded with a shifting cast of session musicians,Open Road was Donovan's effort toward writing and recording music as a member of a band. [2]
After working with producer Mickie Most on the string of successful albums,Donovan parted ways with Most upon completion of the Barabajagal sessions. He moved back to the UK against the wishes of his management,who objected due to Britain's heavy taxation and its distance from the American market. [2] For the first two months of 1970,Donovan booked time at London's newly renovated Morgan Studios and began recording and producing the tracks that would form his next album. He made demos of around 20 new songs with just vocals and acoustic guitar,including solo versions of "Changes" and "People Used To",before assembling his new band. [3] Dubbed "Open Road",the band was Donovan's frequent collaborator "Candy" John Carr on drums,and bassist/guitarist Mike Thompson,who'd been a bandmate of Carr's in a group called Dada Lives and briefly in an early version of the band Amber. [4] [5] Donovan also hired engineers Robin Black and Mike Bobak,the latter of whom would work on several of Donovan's following albums. The sessions marked Donovan's first time playing electric guitar extensively in the studio,and he also took up producing the record himself. [2] The trio were joined by former Nero and the Gladiators/Heads Hands &Feet keyboardist Mike O'Neill for some of the album's songs,and O'Neill stayed on to play a few gigs with Open Road, [6] but O'Neill is nonetheless not regarded as a core member of Open Road. [3]
Donovan's intention was for Open Road to be the band he'd tour with indefinitely,primarily by sea on his own yacht. [7] The plan was to leave Britain for one year,in part to avoid the exorbitant tax that the British government was levying on pop stars. [2] The band met up on the Mediterranean isle of Crete to prepare the ship,rehearse material,and document their time there for the film There is an Ocean ,which went unreleased until 2005 when it surfaced as a DVD in the box set Try for the Sun:The Journey of Donovan .
The group ended up flying from Greece to France,to the Soviet Union,and then Japan,never fully embarking on their sea voyage. They also played a concert in Viareggio,Italy that was broadcast on Italian television. Donovan cut the tour short,returning to the UK to focus on his family and record his next album,1971's H.M.S. Donovan ,on which John Carr and Mike Thompson also appeared. The last gig that Donovan did with Open Road was at the third annual Isle of Wight Festival on 30 August 1970.
Subsequently,Thompson and Carr continued to perform as Open Road,reassembling the group after parting ways with Donovan and bringing in former Dada Lives bandmate Barry Husband on guitar and vocals,and church organist Simon Lanzon on keyboards. [4] They recorded and released the 1971 album Windy Daze for the short-lived Greenwich Gramophone label, [4] followed by a non-album single,"Swamp Fever" b/w "Lost and Found”,whose tracks would later be included on CD reissues of the album.
This second iteration of Open Road embarked on a full tour,during which personal differences emerged,leading Husband and Lanzon to leave the group. [3] Reduced to its the original members of Thompson and Carr,the duo recorded one more album before disbanding. This third Open Road album (the band’s second sans Donovan) was not released until 2021,when it appeared as a bonus disc on a CD reissue of Windy Daze and whose title is known simply as The Open Road as per what was written on the session tape reel boxes. [3]
Many of the songs on Open Road ponder the negative side of industrialization and the lost peacefulness of a previous time. While Donovan had touched on this some of his previous work,Open Road was his first album to expound on the topic at length,though the versions recorded for the album scaled back on some of his more politically charged lyrics. The lyrics printed on the inner gatefold sleeve include some not sung on the actual record,like the first verse of "Celtic Rock":
Ye sons of Britain
Who once were free
Ye now are slaves to factory
Those who walk the path of mole
Expect in time to kill thy soul
While “Celtic Rock”was released as an album single in Japan,its B-side,"Riki Tiki Tavi",appeared as the A-side of Open Road’s sole single in all other markets. Backed with "Roots of Oak," (also on the album),the song uses the mongoose from Rudyard Kipling's story in The Jungle Book as a metaphor for how people wait for institutions ("i.e.:the church,i.e.:the government,i.e.:school") to exterminate social ills. An earlier version of the song also preached abstinence from psychedelic drugs,stating,"Laboratory synthetic stimuli,only goes to fog up your third eye." [8] The song,"Poke at the Pope" decries religious faith,particularly Catholicism. "Song for John" was one of Donovan's epistles written for his friends,this one dedicated to fellow songwriter John Sebastian. "New Year's Resovolution" was inspired by Paul McCartney who,fresh from his break with The Beatles,was recording his first solo album in the studio below Donovan,as the two musicians saw themselves transitioning out of the 1960s and heading into new directions with their music. McCartney also loaned Donovan a guitar for some of the recording of Open Road. [2]
In addition to his mix of folk and rock,Donovan and his band explored a number of musical styles on the album. "Riki Tiki Tavi" takes Kipling's Indian setting and riffs it off of a reggae beat. Brazilian guitarist Antonio Carlos Jobim inspired the title of "Joe Bean's Theme",which alternates between a bossa nova rhythm and psychedelic pop melodies. And the album's allegorically fantasy-themed song "Celtic Rock" coined the name of a new musical subgenre. [9]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | link |
Open Road was released on vinyl LP in North America on Epic in July 1970,and then in the UK on Dawn Records in September. The album's cover features a photo,taken by Donovan's best friend "Gypsy Dave" Mills,of Donovan flanked by his two bandmates with their names typewritten in small print beneath each person. Some versions of the record featured neither Donovan's name nor the album title on the front,highlighting the name "Open Road" on the back,both as the album's title and as the name of the band featured on it. Other versions highlighted either "Donovan" or "Open Road" on the front.
Open Road was Donovan's third-highest charting album in the U.S.,reaching No. 17 within two weeks of its release and peaking at No. 16. [10] In Canada the album reached No. 8 [11] and the single "Riki Tiki Tavi" reached No. 35. [12] In the U.K. the album reached No. 30.
In August 2000,the German label Repertoire Records reissued Open Road for the first time on CD.
All tracks by Donovan Leitch.
Side One
Side two
Running lengths for some tracks on the iTunes download album differ,mostly due to the removal of seaside sound effects at the end of several tracks.
Donovan Phillips Leitch,known mononymously as Donovan,is a Scottish musician,songwriter and record producer. He emerged from the British folk scene in early 1965,and subsequently scored multiple international hit singles and albums during the late 1960s. His work became emblematic of the flower power era with its blend of folk,pop,psychedelic rock,and jazz stylings.
The Association is an American pop rock band from California. During the late 1960s,the band had numerous hits at or near the top of the Billboard charts and were the lead-off band at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival. They are known for intricate vocal harmonies by the band's multiple singers.
Island of Circles is a tribute album to singer-songwriter Donovan that was released on June 26,1992,by Nettwerk. The title song "Island of Circles" is provided by Donovan himself. Along with Donovan's contemporaneous box set collection Troubadour:The Definitive Collection 1964–1976,the album contributed to a resurgence of interest in Donovan's music in the early 1990s,after he had been deemed unfashionable and out of step with changing musical tastes in the 1970s.
Fairytale is the second album from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was first released in the UK on 22 October 1965 through Pye Records. The US version of Fairytale was released by Hickory Records in November 1965 with a slightly different set of songs. Peter Eden,Geoff Stephens and Terry Kennedy produced the original album.
A Gift From a Flower to a Garden is the fifth album from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan,released in December 1967 through Pye Records in the UK and Epic Records in the US. It marks the first double-disc album of Donovan's career and one of the first box sets in pop music. In the US,Epic also released the two discs separately as the stand-alone albums Wear Your Love Like Heaven and For Little Ones.
The Hurdy Gurdy Man is the sixth studio album by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in North America in October 1968 on Epic Records,but not in the UK due to a continuing contractual dispute that also prevented Sunshine Superman (1966) and Mellow Yellow (1967) from being released there. A songbook of lead sheets to the album was nonetheless issued in both countries. In Canada the album reached No. 19.
Donovan's Greatest Hits is the first greatest hits album from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in the United States in January 1969 on Epic Records and in the United Kingdom in March 1969 on Pye Records. Donovan's Greatest Hits peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200,and has been certified platinum by the RIAA. In Canada the album reached No. 2.
Barabajagal is the seventh studio album and eighth album overall from British singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released by Epic Records in the United States on 11 August 1969,but was not released in the United Kingdom because of a continuing contractual dispute that also prevented Sunshine Superman,Mellow Yellow,and The Hurdy Gurdy Man from being released in the UK. The album reached No. 22 in Canada and the title single reached No. 20.
HMS Donovan is the ninth studio album,and tenth album overall,from Scottish 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.
Essence to Essence is the eleventh studio album,and thirteenth album overall,from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in both the UK and the US in December 1973.
Lady of the Stars is the seventeenth studio album,and nineteenth album overall,by the Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in the UK in 1983 and the US in January 1984.
Troubadour:The Definitive Collection 1964–1976 is the first CD boxed set from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan,released in the US on 4 August 1992. It was originally released as a two CD set in a long box. The long box also contained a picture booklet. In 1995,it was released again without the long box and picture booklet.
"Barabajagal" is a song by British singer/songwriter Donovan Leitch,released by Donovan in 1969. It was later used as title track to the album Barabajagal. The instrumental backing is provided by The Jeff Beck Group,with backing vocals by Lesley Duncan,Suzi Quatro and Madeline Bell.
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Try for the Sun:The Journey of Donovan is the second CD boxed set from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released on 13 September 2005.
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There Is an Ocean is a film documenting the Scottish songwriter Donovan during his time spent in Greece with his band Open Road in 1970. The film remained unreleased until 2005 when it was included in the box set Try for the Sun:The Journey of Donovan.
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