[1] Having previously played solo then with a shifting cast of session musicians, Open Road was Donovan's effort toward writing and recording music as a member of a band.
With this lineup they recorded the 1971 album Windy Daze and the single "Swamp Fever", before the newer members left in 1971 to form the duo Lanzon and Husband.
[2] For the first two months of 1970, Donovan booked time at London's newly renovated Morgan Studios and began recording and producing the tracks that would form his next album.
[2] The band met up on the Mediterranean isle of Crete to prepare the ship, rehearse material, and document their time there for the film There is an Ocean, which went unreleased until 2005 when it surfaced as a DVD in the box set Try for the Sun: The Journey of Donovan.
[3] Reduced to its the original members of Thomson and Carr, the duo returned to Olympic Studios between March and May 1972 and recorded one more album, produced by Vic Coppersmith-Heaven, before disbanding.
It was finally released in 2021, as a bonus disc on a CD reissue of Windy Daze under the title The Open Road, based on what was written on the session tape reel boxes.
[8] Lanzon (as Simon Commonknowledge) would later be associated with anarchist punk band Chumbawamba, appearing as a guest and occasional member on most of their releases from 1985-1995, and also managed Credit to the Nation.