What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid
Encyclopedia
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
(catalog number NPL 18117). Terry Kennedy, Peter Eden, and Geoff Stephens produced the album. What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid was released in the United States
as Catch the Wind on Hickory Records
in June 1965. Hickory Records changed the title to match that of Donovan's debut single.
in the United Kingdom. Donovan had performed around Britain and had become well known in British folk circles before his record contract. His 1964 demo tapes (released as Sixty Four
in 2004) show a great resemblance to both Woody Guthrie
and Bob Dylan
, which probably prompted the "British answer to Bob Dylan" press line that was subsequently released. What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid is notable because it captures Donovan at a point where his style and vision were starting to significantly diverge from those of Guthrie and Dylan.
The music primarily consists of Donovan singing and playing mouth harp
and acoustic guitar, much like his live performances of the time. He still had some vestiges of Woody Guthrie
's style, and covers Guthrie's "Riding in My Car (Car Song)" here (retitled "Car Car"). What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid also includes British folk
("Tangerine Puppet") and even some jazz
("Cuttin' Out").
Donovan rerecorded "Catch the Wind" for the album, which was initially released as his debut single in the United Kingdom on 12 March 1965.
Other musicians featured on the album are Brian Locking
on bass, Skip Alan (from the Pretty Things
) on drums, and Gypsy Dave on kazoo
.
Side 2
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...
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 United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
four days after Donovan's 19th birthday on 14 May 1965, through Pye Records
Pye Records
Pye Records was a British record label. In its first incarnation, perhaps Pye's best known artists were Lonnie Donegan , Petula Clark , The Searchers , The Kinks , Sandie Shaw and Brotherhood of Man...
(catalog number NPL 18117). Terry Kennedy, Peter Eden, and Geoff Stephens produced the album. What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid was released in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as Catch the Wind on Hickory Records
Hickory Records
Hickory Records is a United States record label founded by Acuff-Rose Music in 1954 which operated the label up to 1979. Present owner Sony/ATV Music Publishing revived the label in 2007. Originally based in Nashville, functioning as an independent label throughout its history, it has had several...
in June 1965. Hickory Records changed the title to match that of Donovan's debut single.
History
In late 1964, Peter Eden and Geoff Stephens offered Donovan a recording contract with Pye RecordsPye Records
Pye Records was a British record label. In its first incarnation, perhaps Pye's best known artists were Lonnie Donegan , Petula Clark , The Searchers , The Kinks , Sandie Shaw and Brotherhood of Man...
in the United Kingdom. Donovan had performed around Britain and had become well known in British folk circles before his record contract. His 1964 demo tapes (released as Sixty Four
Sixty Four
Sixty Four is the twenty-first studio album and twenty-sixth album overall from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It is composed of demo tracks recorded by Donovan in 1964. Sixty Four was released in the United States in February 2004 .-History:In the summer of 1964, Donovan negotiated his first...
in 2004) show a great resemblance to both Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, which probably prompted the "British answer to Bob Dylan" press line that was subsequently released. What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid is notable because it captures Donovan at a point where his style and vision were starting to significantly diverge from those of Guthrie and Dylan.
The music primarily consists of Donovan singing and playing mouth harp
Mouth harp
Mouth harp may refer to:* Harmonica* Jew's harp...
and acoustic guitar, much like his live performances of the time. He still had some vestiges of Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
's style, and covers Guthrie's "Riding in My Car (Car Song)" here (retitled "Car Car"). What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid also includes British folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
("Tangerine Puppet") and even some jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
("Cuttin' Out").
Donovan rerecorded "Catch the Wind" for the album, which was initially released as his debut single in the United Kingdom on 12 March 1965.
Other musicians featured on the album are Brian Locking
Brian Locking
Brian "Licorice" Locking was the bass guitarist with The Shadows between 1962-1963.- Career :...
on bass, Skip Alan (from the Pretty Things
The Pretty Things
The Pretty Things are an English rock and roll band from London, who originally formed in 1963. They took their name from Bo Diddley's 1955 song "Pretty Thing" and, in their early days, were dubbed by the British press the "uglier cousins of the Rolling Stones". Their most commercially successful...
) on drums, and Gypsy Dave on kazoo
Kazoo
The kazoo is a wind instrument which adds a "buzzing" timbral quality to a player's voice when the player vocalizes into it. The kazoo is a type of mirliton, which is a membranophone, a device which modifies the sound of a person's voice by way of a vibrating membrane."Kazoo" was the name given by...
.
Reissues
- On 13 September 1968, What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid was reissued in an edited form (Marble Arch Records MAL 795) in the UKUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. "Car Car" and "Donna Donna" were both removed from the album, possibly because they were not written by Donovan.
- On 26 February 1996, Sequel Records reissued What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid in the U.S. under its U.S. title Catch the Wind on compact discCompact DiscThe 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 ,...
. Three bonus tracks were added to the track listing. The first bonus track, "Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?", was released as the B-side to Donovan's UK debut single. The second bonus track is the A-side of Donovan's UK debut single. The third bonus track, "Every Man Has His Chain", was originally released on Donovan's Catch the Wind EPExtended playAn EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
in FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
- On the 22nd January 2002, Sanctuary RecordsSanctuary RecordsSanctuary Records Group Limited was a record label based in the United Kingdom and a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. Until June 2007, it was the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest independent music management company in the world...
reissued the complete What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid for the first time on compact discCompact DiscThe 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 ,...
. The U.S. version of the CD titled Catch the Wind was released six years earlier. The CD features four bonus tracks. The first two tracks are Donovan's debut single "Catch the Wind" (a different take than the album track) and its b-side "Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?". The third bonus track "Every Man Has His Chain" was once a rare track in Donovan's discography, and was originally released on the French EPExtended playAn EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
Catch the Wind in 1965. Donovan's second single "Colours" is also released here, in a version different from the one included on the FairytaleFairytale (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...
album.
Original album (UK)
Side 1- "JosieJosie (Donovan song)"Josie" is a song written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. The "Josie" single was backed with a cover of "The Little Tin Soldier" by Shawn Phillips and released in the United Kingdom on 18 February 1966 through Pye Records ....
" (Donovan Leitch) – 3:28 - "Catch the WindCatch the Wind (song)"Catch the Wind" is a song written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released as a single in the United Kingdom on March 12, 1965 through Pye Records and a few months later in the United States through Hickory Records...
" (Donovan Leitch) – 2:56 - "Remember the AlamoRemember the Alamo (song)"Remember the Alamo" is a song written by Texan folk singer and songwriter Jane Bowers. Bowers details the last days of 180 soldiers at the Alamo and names several famous figures who fought at the Alamo, including Mexican general Santa Anna and Texans: Jim Bowie, William Barrett Travis and Davy...
" (Jane BowersJane BowersJane Bowers was a Texas folk singer and songwriter best known for her composition "Remember the Alamo". Many of her songs were primarily recorded by The Kingston Trio.-Selected songs:...
) – 3:04 - "Cuttin' Out" (Donovan Leitch) – 2:19
- "Car Car" (Woody GuthrieWoody GuthrieWoodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
) – 1:31 - "Keep on Truckin'" (traditional; arranged by Donovan Leitch) – 1:50
Side 2
- "Gold Watch Blues" (Mick SoftleyMick SoftleyMichael 'Mick' Softley is a British singer/songwriter and guitarist. A figurehead during the British folk scene, Softley set up his own folk club, released three albums and has been known to work with Mac MacLeod , Donovan Leitch and Maddy Prior...
) – 2:33 - "To Sing for You" (Donovan Leitch) – 2:45
- "You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond" (traditional; arranged by Donovan Leitch) – 4:04
- "Tangerine Puppet" (Donovan Leitch) – 1:51
- "Donna DonnaDonna DonnaDonna Donna is a Yiddish theater song about a calf being led to slaughter. The song's title is a variant on Adonai, a Jewish name for God.-History:...
" (Aaron ZeitlinAaron ZeitlinAaron Zeitlin , the son of the famous Jewish writer Hillel Zeitlin and Esther Kunin, authored several books on Yiddish literature, Poetry and Parapsychology.-Biography:...
, Sholom Secunda, Arthur S Kevess, Teddi Schwartz) – 2:56 - "Ramblin' Boy" (Donovan Leitch) – 2:33
1996 Sequel Records CD-reissue (Title: Catch the Wind)
The original album plus the following bonus tracks:- "Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?" (Donovan Leitch) – 2:56
- "Catch the Wind" (Donovan Leitch) – 2:18
- "Every Man Has His Chain" (Donovan Leitch) – 2:09
2002 Sanctuary Records CD-reissue
The original album plus the following bonus tracks- "Catch the Wind" (single version with strings) (Donovan Leitch) – 2:18
- "Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?" (single b-side) (Donovan Leitch) – 2:56
- "Every Man Has His Chain" (French EP track) (Donovan Leitch) – 2:12
- "Colours" (single version) (Donovan Leitch) – 2:45