Between the lot of us we must have put together 100 TIMHs and none about Donovan. That changes today because today in 1968 he released the album "Barabajagal".

It is not, in my estimation, Donovan's finest album but there are a few gems and it features John Paul Jones, Ronnie Wood, Jeff Beck, Nicky Hopkins, and Aynsley Dunbar, so it's well worth a spin.

Donovan was a 1960s fixture in the UK though many in America were introduced to him through D.A. Pennebaker's 1967 Bob Dylan documentary "Don't Look Back". The film was fairly unflattering to Donovan and painted him as a Dylan clone, despite Donovan having moved to a different phase of his career by that point.

Though there are undeniable Dylan influences on Donovan's early sound, Donovan embraced the 1960s hippie mysticism much more strongly than Dylan ever did. He also seems to be having a bit more fun, as heard in songs like "There is a Mountain" (which the Allman Brothers used as the bedrock for their "Mountain Jam") and "Sunshine Superman". Neither of those songs are on "Barabajagal" but by this point Donovan was well past his "Dylan phase".

What is heard on this album is one of the final shakes of the 1960s collective death rattle. "Barabajagal" was released two days after the Manson Family murders and America was straining under the weight of the Vietnam War. Peace and love were on the way out and they would soon take guys like Donovan with them. But not before he could give us a few more memorable tracks.

You might recognize this one from "Goodfellas":