Customer Reviews
Gift - By: Book Worm, 07 Feb 2010 
This was a birthday gift for my father, he loved it; glad that he does not have to find out the LP everytime he wants to listen.
Expanded UK release of long-lost album - By: Laurence Upton, 13 May 2009 Just as Sunshine Superman was named after Donovan's big hit single, so Mellow Yellow took its name from the follow-up single recordedin August 1966, & which similarly was a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic, tuningin & turning on to the flowery drug-hazed zeitgeist of 1966 & 1967. Releasedin America a mere five months after the album Sunshine Superman, Mellow Yellow is of quite remarkably consistently high quality, with some beautifully realized songs & arrangements. I have always felt that the endlessly comparing of Donovan & Bob Dylan were far wide of the mark, & the jazz influences throughout most of Mellow Yellow surely give the lie to any such comparison, though I suppose a Venn diagram would intersect at Mellow Yellow & Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35.
Unlike Sunshine Superman, which was partly recordedin Los Angeles & featured sitars & other exotic instruments, the Mellow Yellow sessions were exclusively castin London & were all arranged by John Cameron (apart from John Paul Jones for the single Mellow Yellow). They have a distinctly British feel to them, & are none the worse for that. Two of the tracks are purely unaccompanied Donovan on vocal & guitar, Young Girl Blues & Sand And Foam, & both are exquisite songs. Young Girl Blues dates from January 1966 & is of low-fi quality, though its atmospheric performance compensates for its technical shortcomings. It was probably originally a demo as the song was also recorded about that time by both Marianne Faithfull & Julie Felix. Sand And Foam was inspired by a holidayin Mexico around May-June 1966 & is wonderfully evocative.
The rest of the album was recordedin November 1966, with the John Cameron Quartet & other jazz musicians, apart from Sunny South Kensington. This had been recorded on the same day as Sunshine Superman, on 19 December 1965, & had been intended to be its B-side. For some reason it ended up instead as the B-sidein the US to Mellow Yellow, & closed the Mellow Yellow album.
This album was not releasedin the UK. Six of the tracks turned up on the delayed British version of Sunshine Superman (The Observation, Writer In The Sun, Hampstead Incident, Sand And Foam, Young Girl Blues). Sand And Foam later doubled as the B-side to There Is A Mountain, the rest appear to have remained unheard by his native audience until a 1993 CD release.
This expanded re-issue presents the original Mellow Yellow albumin mono, & a further 10 bonus tracks. These feature the US-only single, Epistle To Dippy (plus an alternative version); its B-side Preachin' Love (also the UK B-side of Mellow Yellow); the hit single There Is A Mountain; & two outtakes, Good Time & a second unreleased attempt at Superlungs. These are all stereo apart from Preachin' Love. The album closes with the original unaccompanied mono demos for four of the songs on the album. These show that the jazz inflections on some of the songs were there from the outset.
One of the great sixties albums - By: J. Baxendale, 28 Nov 2008 
So many things to say about this album. The best - & to people of my generation the most poignant & exhilarating album *about* the sixties. Believe me, it's just how it was (or maybe how I dreamed it at the time),and I wish I could go back there (well, no, but you know what I mean). But the lyrics, the singing, the jazzy arrangements - is this the most underrated album of the time? Possibly so, although the title track/single release, while a great single, was not up to the quality of the other tracks. Donovan's reputation was shaped unfortunately by his early 'pseudo-dylan' start-out, but forget all that: 'high heels, car wheels, all the losers are grooving...your dream, strange scene, images moving'. An essential album.
Highly Recommended! - By: Morten Vindberg, 17 May 2007 "Mellow Yellow" was Donovans's second electric album, & his second produced by Micky Most. To call the album electric is probably a little misguiding, as many tracks are almost pure acoustic recordings; but compared to Donovan first two albums these songs are arranged with a great variety of instruments. Though Donovan is covering quite many different styles ( blues, jazz, folk, classical & pop ) the album works very well as a whole; a fact that arranger John Cameron deserves credit for. His arrangements are both tasteful & varied, creating the atmosphere that makes an album.
The list of guest musician features both classical players & well-known studio musicians like John Paul Jones, Harold McNair & Phil Seamen.
The extremely catchy title-track is well-known to everybody who was therein the sixties, & it still has the charm, so no wonder it made it to number onein the charts back then.
Other highlights are the moving "Young Girl Blues", the catchy "Museum" & the complex "Hampstead Incident".
The charming "Sunny South Kensington" works as a reminder of Donovan's first electic hit "Sunshine Superman" & has some amusing Dylan inspired lyrics.
No less than 10 bonus-track, make the CD-reissue quite a scoop. The two single hits "Epistle to Dippy" & "There is a Mountain" would be stand-out on any Donovan album, & herein particular they work extremely well, being recording during some of the same sessions. I always thought that "There is a Mountain" had the same optimistic feel as Traffic's "You Can All Join In"; both quite typical of the hippie way of thinkingin the late 1960's.
The demos are mostly Donovan alone with his guitar, before the final arrangements. The swinging jazzy B-side "Preachin` Love" is another gem.
A CD that can only be highly recommended!
simply wonderful - By: sunshinecolours, 16 Feb 2006 I'm a french customer & I must say this album is one of the best that Donovan has ever made ! This re-mastered CD brings a lot of bonus tracks never released before. If you don't know this major poet, buy it without delay (You have the opportunity to hear the mega international hit : Mellow Yellow); For those who already have this stuff, buy it for the bonus (as well as HURDY GURDY MAN - BARABAJAGAL & SUNSHINE SUPERMAN all re-mastered). People, come, from miles around & abroad to hear this music maker : He is simply wonderful !
