Donovan’s Color-Your-Own Cover

Artsy-craftsy types might find connect-the-dot album covers to be a bit stultifying — where’s the creativity? Connect these dots – and in this precise order, commands the album cover. Sorry, I prefer to make my own decisions.

One Donovan album I have had a hard time finding in second-hand shops is one that tickled my brain as a youngster with its D-I-Y concept: Inside the gatefold of 1973’s Cosmic Wheels, as the Unofficial Donovan website points out, “there’s a copy of The Flammarion woodcut (an anonymous wood engraving) with the note, ‘Get your cosmic crayons, kids, and colour in’.”

Black & white gatefold cover for Donovan’s 1973 LP, Cosmic Wheels

With a bit of grit and a modicum of talent, you, too, can transform this monochromatic image into a dazzling cosmological work of wonderment. Clearly, no half measures will do — full and total commitment is required the moment your colored pencil is pressed into service:

Hard to believe that Cosmic Wheels hit the Top 30 on this side of the Atlantic [20 weeks on Billboard‘s album chart, peaking at the #25 position], given the challenge of locating a used copy. An edited version of “I Like You” from Cosmic Wheels would reach #66 in the US and became the last charting single Donovan would have. Billboard‘s “From the Music Capitals of the World” column reported in their April 14, 1973 edition that “Gramophone Record Company held an unusual promotion announcing the new Donovan album, Cosmic Wheels, with a slide and music presentation at the Johannesburg Planetarium.”

Thanks to brother Bryan for pointing out the quality of musical personnel who helped bring these songs to life: Chris Spedding, John ‘Rabbit‘ Bundrick, Cozy Powell, Alan White, Jim Horn, Bobby Keys, Phil Chen, and even Suzi Quatro, among others. Discogs offers this historical blurb:

Cosmic Wheels is his tenth studio album, and eleventh album overall, released March 1973 in the UK and the US. After a pair of low key self-produced albums that under-performed, Cosmic Wheels brought Donovan back to the pop/rock mainstream. It was his best production since splitting from Mickie Most in 1969, and it resonated with the prevailing glam rock sounds of the day (drawing comparisons to Marc Bolan and David Bowie). Donovan was backed by John “Rabbit” Bundrick, Suzi Quatro, Cozy Powell, Chris Spedding, and Alan White (forecasting Donovan’s touring relationship with Yes). The sessions were partially recorded in the same studio as Alice Cooper when he was working on Billion Dollar Babies (which Donovan guested on). Cosmic Wheels is also remembered for “Intergalactic Laxative,” the “hippie sci-fi novelty song” that became a concert staple.

In 1973, my mom was part of the staff at a mild-mannered classical music station by day, WGUC, that magically transformed into a hard/progressive rock station, WFIB, each midnight and into the late night hours. Both stations, surprisingly, would jointly sponsor a Cosmic Wheels coloring content, with the prizewinner receiving a complete set of Donovan albums, as reported in The Cincinnati Enquirer‘s May 11, 1973 edition. Our family copy of Cosmic Wheels almost certainly came from the radio station.

“Maria Magenta“

Donovan (1973)