Live in Tokyo '73

AMG Review of Live in Tokyo '73

Bruce Eder
All Music Guide

In 1973, Donovan toured extensively in connection with the release of the Cosmic Wheels album. He was especially popular in Japan, which was the source of one authorized live album, issued that year exclusively in that market. This double CD, supposedly cut at Budokan, comes from the tour accompanying the release of Cosmic Wheels. It presents a complete show, more than 100 minutes of music, which makes it fairly valuable -- apart from the Japanese live LP, and the earlier Epic live album from 1968, most concert recordings of Donovan date from the 1980s and 1990s. This set is the surest document of Donovan's appeal and shortcomings as a performer during his heyday, when he was selling millions of records. It is also of amazingly high quality -- the noises between songs lead one to suspect that the source is an audience tape, but the quality seems a bit too good for that, unless the makers were using state-of-the-art equipment. As to the repertory, it's a fascinating amalgam of old and new, "Hurdy Gurdy Man" and "There Is a Mountain" mixing with "Cosmic Wheels," "Only the Blues," and other newer songs. Due to the fact that this is a solo acoustic show, one does get to hear these numbers stripped down to a solo guitar and voice, which essentially reinvents them for most listeners. "Cosmic Wheels," in particular, is superior to its studio version in this incarnation. The problem is that Donovan cannot sustain more than an hour and a half of show, at least on record, with just his voice and guitar -- the sudden emergence of a harmonica near the end is almost a relief, and an all too brief one, at that.