Greatest Hits Live – Vancouver 1986 is the fifth live album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

, and twenty-fourth album overall, from Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Donovan

Donovan

Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...

. It was released in the on October 2, 2001 (Varése Sarabande 302 066 259 2) on CD

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

.

History

During the 1980s, Mellow Records recorded many of Donovan's live concerts. These recordings comprised the albums Rising

Rising (Donovan album)

Rising is the third live album, and twentieth album overall, from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released on Permanent Records in 1990 . The live versions of Donovan's hits guaranteed that Rising would receive a release in both the United States and United Kingdom...

(1990) and Rising Again

Rising Again

Rising Again is an expanded version of the 1990 live album Rising from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in the UK on May 22, 2001.-History:...

(early 2001). In late 2001, Varèse Sarabande

Varèse Sarabande

Varèse Sarabande is an American record label, distributed by Universal Music Group, which specializes in film scores and original cast recordings. It aims to reissue rare or unavailable albums as well as newer releases by artists no longer under a contract...

 released another set of these live recordings titled Greatest Hits Live – Vancouver 1986. As the title describes, the tracks were recorded in Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 in 1986. The initial release of the album also has three tracks from a 1986 Donovan concert in Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

, New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. As an added incentive for Donovan's fans, Sarabande added a 1981 demo version of the Neutronica

Neutronica

Neutronica is the fifteenth studio album, and seventeenth album overall, from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in West Germany in August 1980 and France in 1980.-History:...

track, "Only to Be Expected".

Since it was from the same time period, Greatest Hits Live – Vancouver 1986 sounds quite similar to both Rising and Rising Again. The instrumentation is sparse, and Donovan even recites the same stories around the songs. Greatest Hits Live – Vancouver 1986 also shares many of the same songs as Rising and Rising Again.

Album origins of tracks

The following is a list explaining the original releases of each song.

• "Josie" (from What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid
  What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid
  What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid is the debut album from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in the United Kingdom four days after Donovan's 19th birthday on 14 May 1965, through Pye Records . Terry Kennedy, Peter Eden, and Geoff Stephens produced the album...
  
  , released May 14, 1965)
• "Catch The Wind" (from What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid)
• "Isle of Islay" (from A Gift from a Flower to a Garden
  A Gift from a Flower to a Garden
  A Gift from a Flower to a Garden is the fifth album from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan, and marks the first double album of his career and one of the first box sets in rock music...
  
  , released December 1967)
• "Sunshine Superman
  Sunshine Superman
  "Sunshine Superman" is a song written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. The "Sunshine Superman" single was released in the United States through Epic Records in July 1966, but due to a contractual dispute the United Kingdom release was delayed until December 1966, where it...
  
  " (from Sunshine Superman
  Sunshine Superman (album)
  Sunshine Superman is the third album from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in the United States in September 1966. but was not released in the United Kingdom because of a contractual dispute. In June 1967, a compilation of the Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow albums was...
  
  , released September 1966)
• "Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness)" (from "Turquoise"/"Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness)" single, released October 30, 1965)
• "Universal Soldier" (from Universal Soldier, released August 15, 1965)
• "Laléna
  Laleña
  Laléna is the title of a composition by Donovan for whom it was a Top 40 single in the autumn of 1968 reaching #33 on the Hot 100 in Billboard....
  
  " (single, released October 1968)
• "Jennifer Juniper" (from The Hurdy Gurdy Man
  The Hurdy Gurdy Man
  The Hurdy Gurdy Man is the sixth studio album and seventh album overall from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in the United States in October 1968 , but was not released in the UK because of a continuing contractual dispute that also prevented Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow...
  
  , released October 1968)
• "Hurdy Gurdy Man" (from The Hurdy Gurdy Man)
• "Happiness Runs" (from Barabajagal
  Barabajagal
  "Barabajagal" is a song by Donovan released by Donovan in 1969. It was later used as title track to the album Barabajagal. The instrumentation is provided by the Jeff Beck Group....
  
  , released August 11, 1969)
• "The Little Tin Soldier" (from Fairytale
  Fairytale (album)
  Fairytale is the second album from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was first released in the United Kingdom on October 22, 1965 through Pye Records . The U.S. version of Fairytale was released by Hickory Records in November 1965 with a slightly different set of songs...
  
  , released October 22, 1965)
• "Mellow Yellow" (single, released Nov 1966)
• "Atlantis" (from Barabajagal)
• "There Is a Mountain" (single, released August 1967)

Bonus tracks:

• "Sailing Homeward" (from Essence to Essence
  Essence to Essence
  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 U.S. in December 1973.-History:...
  
  , released December 1973)
• "Mr. Flute Man" (no studio version released, live version from Rising Again
  Rising Again
  Rising Again is an expanded version of the 1990 live album Rising from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in the UK on May 22, 2001.-History:...
  
  , released May 22, 2001)
• "Young Girl Blues" (from Mellow Yellow)
• "Only to Be Expected" (demo recording of song from Neutronica
  Neutronica
  Neutronica is the fifteenth studio album, and seventeenth album overall, from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in West Germany in August 1980 and France in 1980.-History:...
  
  )

Track listing

All tracks by Donovan Leitch, except where noted.

1. "Josie" – 3:47
2. "Catch The Wind" – 3:18
3. "Isle of Islay" – 5:17
4. "Sunshine Superman" – 3:49
5. "Hey Gyp Dig the Slowness" – 2:34
6. "Universal Soldier" (Buffy Sainte-Marie
   Buffy Sainte-Marie
   Buffy Sainte-Marie, OC is a Canadian Cree singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Her singing and writing repertoire includes...
   
   ) – 3:57
7. "Laleña" – 2:58
8. "Jennifer Juniper" – 2:47
9. "Hurdy Gurdy Man" – 5:00
10. "Happiness Runs" – 4:22
11. "The Little Tin Soldier" (Shawn Phillips
    Shawn Phillips
    Shawn Phillips is a folk-rock musician, primarily influential in the 1960s and 1970s.Phillips has recorded twenty albums and worked with musicians including Donovan, Paul Buckmaster, J. Peter Robinson, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Bernie Taupin, and many others...
    
    ) – 3:50
12. "Mellow Yellow" – 2:50
13. "Atlantis" – 2:57
14. "There Is a Mountain" – 2:35

Bonus tracks:

1. "Sailing Homeward" – 3:27
2. "Mr. Flute Man" – 2:08
3. "Young Girl Blues" – 5:11
4. "Only to Be Expected" – 2:38

External links

• Greatest Hits Live: Vancouver 1986 - Donovan Unofficial Site