Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Artist: Edward Bear, Album: Bearings, Song: Sinking Ship

Edward Bear were a three piece band that migrated from the coffee house circuit of Yorkville in Toronto, to main stages across the continent.  They were Larry Evoy, Paul Weldon and Danny Marks originally.  However, the band did go through some major line up changes and Evoy was the only constant member through those years.  The band released 4 albums between 1969 and 1973.  They signed with Capitol Records and released their debut in 1969, entitled, Bearings.  Their sound was a mix of folk, pop and blues.  The latter was more a result of Marks' influence on some of the band's work.  The band had some major hits in Canada and the U.S. and this particular album went gold.  Their first hit was the opening track from this album, entitled, You, Me And Mexico.  The tune, Sinking Ship, is another deep album cut that really shows the band's ability to craft sixties style pop music.  Marks would eventually leave the band and go on to great success as a blues guitarist.  He has also toured as a member of the Average White Band and has done session work for everybody from Stephen Stills to Bo Diddley.  Edward Bear would go on to win a couple of Junos in 1973 for their later work and likely biggest hit, Last Song.  Sadly though, for a major Canadian act, their discography is very hard to come by these days, despite having two compilations of their work released by Capitol Records.  However, both do not include the track Sinking Ship.  At the time of this blog, there was one copy of Bearings trading on Ebay for $50.  You can hear the song, Sinking Ship, on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jzGePSwKWQ&feature=channel_video_title).  Thanks for reading and enjoy!