Close Your Eyes - Edward Bear, 1973
I dreamed she came back home last night |
In 2004-05, I would occasionally stop and talk to an older guitarist playing in the Yonge/Sheppard subway station. He said his name was Roger, and I really liked the riffs he'd play. One day I noticed a pile of Edward Bear CDs in his guitar case; that's when the light went on - I asked him if he used to be with Edward Bear. Sure enough, Roger Ellis was with the band from 1971 to the break-up in 1974.
Named after A.A. Milne's proper name for Winnie the Pooh, Edward Bear was founded in 1966 by Larry Evoy and Craig Hemming. They signed with Capital Records in 1969, and came up with a series of hits between 1970-74: You, Me and Mexico, Fly Across the Sea, Masquerade, Freedom For the Stallion, and their signature piece, Last Song. The band won a Juno in 1973, in the outstanding group performance category.
1973's Close Your Eyes was a #3 hit in Canada, and fairly typical of Larry Evoy's surprisingly empathetic and down-to-earth lyrics. He even makes reference to a previous song with the line: "I see you've written one Last Song and I realized it's mine".
Today the original members of the group are all still involved in music. Evoy runs a small recording studio, Danny Marks continues to play as a very successful Blues guitarist in Toronto, keyboardist Paul Weldon teaches at Seneca College, and of course, Roger Ellis pops up now again, playing for well-deserved loonies and toonies.
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