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anybody else into The Free Design?











Far-Out Folk/Psychedelic/Pop-Jazz


Way Back, circa 1967- While Hendrix and The Experience and Cream were blowing minds, and The Beatles' Sgt Pepper and the Beach Boys were helping to usher in the Summer of Love-- very quietly, way, way on the other side of things, a group called The Free Design made their debut. Soft-Pop/Psychedelic/Jazz-Folk would probably be the best way to describe their sound - they seemed to be able to effortlessly swing from light folk/pop to trippy pyschedelia with ease, often in the same song! And in adddition to their own original tunes, they would cover everyone from The Beatles to Duke Ellington, The Doors, Thad Jones, Laura Nyro, Burt Bacharach and Michel LeGrand...



Celestial harmonies, lithe melodies and blissful arrangements, the group's records recalled artists like Brian Wilson, the Association and the Cowsills, (with a little Rotary Connection, and even the Hi-Los thrown in), but none of their singles ever saw the Hot 100. The Free Design originally comprised siblings Chris, Bruce and Sandy Dedrick, natives of Delevan, New York whose father Art was as a trombonist and arranger in the 40's and 50's. When Chris Dedrick moved to New York City to attend the Manhattan School of Music, he recruited brothers Bruce and Sandy to form a group, and the trio would become a fairly popular attraction on the Greenwich Village coffeehouse circuit.



The title track from their 1967 debut LP Kites Are Fun was also their first single, cracking the Top 40 on the Billboard adult contemporary chart but reaching only number 114 on the pop chart and that was the Free Design's biggest hit...their label, Enoch Light's Project 3 records was pretty small, and had no idea how to market the group. Another Dedrick sister, Ellen, joined the group after graduating high school, making her debut on 1968's You Could Be Born Again.

Although they made several more records that were featured on adult radio stations on the east coast (Mainly in the New York, Connecticut, and DC areas), the group was eventually dropped by Project 3, at which time they relocated from New York to Canada. There Chris Dedrick recorded a solo album, Be Free, which went unreleased; signing to the Ambrotype label, the Free Design recorded one final LP, 1973's There Is a Song, before disbanding in 1975. Chris remained the most musically active sibling, forming the choral ensemble Star Scape Singers as well as arranging and composing for the Canadian Brass. He also won a series of Gemini Awards for his scores for film and television productions. By the late 1990s, hipster favorites Cornelius, Stereolab,, Belle and Sebastien, Pizzicato 5 and Louis Philippe were regularly citing the Free Design as a key influence, resulting in the 1998 release of Kites Are Fun: The Best of the Free Design. The new millennium saw the Free Design convene for another album — 2001's Cosmic Peekaboo — which gathered Sandy, Chris, and Bruce Dedrick back together again.

and Now, just like those clothes deep in the back of the closet that will come back in style if you hang on to 'em long enough, the Free Design seem to be emerging once more, with Dj's and mixmasters putting out several Free Design remixes and compilations....








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[Edited 5/3/06 12:45pm]

paligap said:

I have this:




My parents played in a 'top 40' lounge type band in the 60's and covered the song "Kites are Fun" for years. I grew up listening to that Free Design Record.

Jestyr said:

Yup, me Too! "Kites Are Fun" is definitely one of the first songs I ever heard in my life --I was a baby in the crib, but I remember that tune,



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paligap said:

My first was "Yummy Yummy Yummy (I Got Love in My Tummy)" by Ohio Express. And then "Build Me Up Buttercup" by The Foundation. I vividly remember both from my crib.

Jestyr said:

We must've been hearing the same stations! For some reason, I remember (again, from the crib) hearing Sonny and Cher singing what turned out to be "The Beat Goes On", I wanna know who in my household was listening to this



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i gotta cop some Free design...

i looove free design...they're kinda like a tweaked-out mamas & papas. i have one best-of CD by them, and as much as i like it, i can kinda tell that's all the free design i need...

Anx said:

The Best Of is Kool, but IMO, it doesn't show their whole range...but I guess it is pretty decent as an intro, though....


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paligap said:

gotta hip anx to some Rotary tho'

IAintTheOne said:

Oh Ndeed!!!!! The Connection needs to be Recognized!!!!!



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paligap said:

yeah i'll hip him to the Connection

IAintTheOne said:

Go To It!!!!


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Dig Charles Stepney, Minnie, and Rotary Connection!!!!

(Man, I'm Jackin' my own Thread, !)




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[Edited 5/3/06 13:31pm]

paligap said:

I wonder!? Are you on the east coast? Our hot station was WKBW in Buffalo, New York. The Beat Goes On is one that escaped me for some reason. I Got You Babe was the one for me.

Jestyr said:

Yeah, I'm in DC--and I guess that explains the Free Design thing-- back then, it seems like their stuff wasn't heard much further beyond this corridor of the east coast---



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paligap said:

Yep, they were pretty regional.