Hey Gyp

Bearing the same name as the 2004 compilation The Essential Donovan and containing every one of that disc's 14 songs, the 2012 double-disc set The Essential Donovan – its release timed to coincide with the singer/songwriter's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame…

Doug Parkinson has rarely gone unnoticed - for his voice, his physique, his very presence. From the moment he appeared as a serious participant in Australian popular music in 1966 he commanded attention. Thirty years later he is a true household name - known as one of the great distinctive Oz Rock voices and musical mainstays. In And Out Of Focus 1966-75 kicks off with three tracks by the Questions, Doug's first hit band - 'Sally Go 'Round The Roses' (a Top 15 Sydney hit), 'Hey Gyp' & 'And Things Unsaid'…

Though it received little attention at the time of its Swedish/Netherlands-only release in 1967, the album “Them Belfast Gypsies” has long been established as a stone-cold classic of rabid British garage punk/R&B.

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…

This compilation, the first ever on compact disc in America, features the best of Donovan's early landmark work including his first single Catch The Wind and classic tracks such as Colours and Turquoise; successful protest songs such as Universal Soldier and tracks from his first two British albums "What's Bin Hid and What's Bin Did" and "Fairytale." Although these records did feature the occasional sideman, it was mostly just Don, singing some of his most poignant and expressive songs while interpreting favorites by other writers such as Bert Jansch and Buffy St, Marie.
In later years Donovan adapted his style to explore the psychedelic revolution but these early simple songs are considered to be among his best…

John Mellencamp releases live album and documentary titled: The Good Samaritan Tour. The documentary, which will be narrated by Academy® Award winner Matthew McConaughey, chronicles Mellencamp’s historic free tour in 2000 when he performed on street corners and in public parks across the country. The new music is just one of many new projects Mellencamp has been working on including original plays, paintings and more.

Donovan's second album found the Scottish folkie in possession of his own voice, a style of earnest, occasionally mystical musings indebted neither to Woody Guthrie nor Bob Dylan. True, Fairytale's highlights – "Sunny Goodge Street," "Jersey Thursday," and "The Summer Day Reflection Song" – use a sense of impressionism pioneered by Dylan, but Donovan flipped Dylan's weariness on its head…

While this album is not to be confused with Donovan's debut album (which was released under two different titles, Catch the Wind and What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid), this particular collection is devoted to material from the same period in the singer/songwriter's career, his early years recording for Pye Records when his work was most strongly influenced by Bob Dylan's days as the king of poetic protest music…