Monday, June 30, 2008

GEORGE EDWARDS - Norwegian Wood / Never Mind, I'm Freezing - Dunwich - 1966

Once again, here's a record I picked up for totally superficial reasons. During one of my thrift store rummages I found a record on the Dunwich label with a song titled 'Never Mind, I'm Freezing' by some guy I'd never heard of before. Seeing that the flip side was another cover of 'Norwegian Wood' didn't exactly inspire confidence, but the record was a buck, making it worth checking out something else from the Dunwich label with a cool song title.

Here's the problem though: My first experience with Dunwich was the Shadows of Knight 'Gloria / Dark Side' 45, so without fully realizing it, I put this record on expecting something similar, some garage-y filth, or at least something mean. So... I played the record, catagorized it almost immediately as sappy folk, and didn't even bother listening to what was surely a shitty version of a Beatles song. I took the record off and shoved it into a box where it sat for quite some time.

Then a few months ago, for whatever reason, I decided to pull this single out and give it another shot. What a difference a change of perspective makes. I actually started wondering what the hell was up my ass when I first listened and met this record with such disdain. Never Mind... certainly isn't as nasty as the title may suggest, but it's still a pretty good song, negative but charming, in the folky, light-psych vein. After a few more listens it grew on me a bit more, now I actually dig the song.

I was impressed enough to try out the other side (actually it's A-side) and see if this guy could come close to pulling off a Lennon tune. Well, it's not great, but much better than I had expected. He does the song justice and there's a pretty cool sounding harpsichord part. Not a total failure, as I had expected.

With just a touch of research I learned that George actually sang backups on the Shadows of Knight recording 'Oh Yeah' which was recorded directly after the Never Mind single was finished. After his very brief solo career he started H.P. Lovecraft and had a bit more success with that.

It's not worth going crazy to try to find, but I'd suggest picking it up if you ever happen to come across this little slab.

PsychedelicElvis

(Side Note: Actual picture is coming soon-ish (my copy of the record isn't pictured.). Sadly, I have very limited access to my records & the internet right now, as I technically don't live anywhere in particular, so the blog may be neglected until I have my shit re-situated. It won't be abandoned though.)

2 comments:

Kyle Brown said...

you got kicked out AGAIN? what the heck's going on. ps. i want to plan for a couple days to visit in August. any suggestions?

Kyle Brown said...

i need to get back my copy of gloria. that shit was stolen from benoit's van.