The members were all siblings of the Dedrick family: Chris Dedrick (who wrote most of the songs), sister Sandy Dedrick and brother Bruce Dedrick were the original lineup. Younger sister Ellen Dedrick joined the group later, as did cousin Jeff Dedrick for a brief time, and youngest sister Stefanie joined near the end of their initial career. Their father, Art Dedrick, was a trombonist and music arranger. Their uncle, Rusty Dedrick, was a jazz trumpeter with Claude Thornhill and Red Norvo. They formed the band while living in New York City. Chris has said the group was influenced by vocal groups like The Hi-Los (who performed in Greenwich Village frequently at the time) along with Peter, Paul and Mary and the counterpoint experiments of Benjamin Britten. Their trademark sound involved complex harmonies, jazz-like chord progressions, and off-beat time signatures; all products of Chris's classical training.
The band released six albums from 1967 to 1972, all on Enoch Light's Project 3 label. For the most part, they were accompanied on the albums by studio musicians.
Revival of interest
During their career, The Free Design never gained the commercial success they, and a small fan-base, felt they deserved; a plight they noted in their 1969 song "2002 - A Hit Song", in which they describe how to create a hit, then continue, "there's just one fact that we can't quite shirk/ we did all this last time, but it did not work." They remained in obscurity after disbanding in 1972. Starting in the mid-90's, however, interest in them began to grow as part of a general resurge of interest in easy listening music from the 60's and 70's. In 1994, Japanese musician Cornelius began the revival by re-issuing the Free Design catalog on his "Trattoria" label. In 1997, the band Tomorrow's World covered their song "Kites Are Fun", and in 1998, the Spanish "Siesta" label put out four compilation albums of their music. Stereolab, whose lounge-inspired music clearly showed a Free Design influence, named a 1999 single "The Free Design" (though the song itself had no direct connection to the band). The Free Design song "Bubbles" was covered by Dressy Bessy on the 2000 Powerpuff Girls soundtrack.
Perhaps inspired by this newfound interest, in 2000 the band re-grouped, after a nearly 30-year retirement, to record the song "Endless Harmony" on the Beach Boys tribute album Caroline Now. This experience convinced them to record a new full-length album, 2001's Cosmic Peekaboo, which featured the original lineup minus Ellen Dedrick.
In 2001 the label Cherry Red released a Best of Free Design compilation. Their song "I Found Love" was included on the 2002 Gilmore Girls soundtrack. Another song, 'Love You' featured over the end credits to the Emma Thompson and Will Ferrell film, 'Stranger Than Fiction' in 2006. From 2002 to 2005, the original albums were reissued in the United States by the Light in the Attic label. In 2005, the label put out The Now Sound Redesigned, an album of Free Design remixes from established acts like Stereolab, Super Furry Animals and Peanut Butter Wolf.
The recognizable sound of this influential band can be felt in modern-day acts such as Stereolab, Cornelius, The Pizzicato Five, Beck, The High Llamas, and many others.
Chris Dedrick is now an established film composer, most notably for his Genie-awarded soundtrack for Guy Maddin's "The Saddest Music In The World."
Love Me
The Free Design Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Once more, try to be my friend and lover
Love me
If I could take you to another world
Where just you and I could learn to live together
We could leave behind the memories of
How our love was lost like hidden treasure
Where we learn again to read each other's faces
Come away with me and love again
Once more try to be my friend and lover
Love me
If we could free ourselves from all the petty things of life
I think we could learn to love
And when you think of how we spent the time so wrong before
It has to be our turn to love
If we really live to love each other more
We can learn again about what love is for
Come away with me and love again
Once more, try to be my friend and lover
Love me
Love me
The Free Design's song "Love Me" is a beautiful plea to a past lover, asking to start anew and rekindle their love. The song opens with "Come away with me and love again / Once more, try to be my friend and lover / Love me", expressing the desire to escape to a different world where they can start fresh and forget about their past problems. The singer of the song suggests that they can begin anew, away from the memories of their lost love, and learn to read each other's faces once again.
The next verse of the song invites the listener to imagine a world where they are free from the "petty things of life" and can focus solely on learning to love each other once more. The lyrics suggest that they have wasted time in the past, and now it is their turn to truly love each other. The final verse of the song reiterates the importance of relearning what love is for, and how it can help them to "live to love each other more".
Overall, "Love Me" is a hopeful and optimistic song about the power of love to heal past wounds and start anew. It reminds listeners that even when love is lost, it is possible to regain it and create a better future.
Line by Line Meaning
Come away with me and love again
Let's leave our old ways behind and start over with love.
Once more, try to be my friend and lover
Let's try to go back to how we were before, friends and lovers.
Love me
This is a plea for love and affection.
If I could take you to another world
If there was a way to escape the problems of our current lives.
Where just you and I could learn to live together
Being able to live together without outside distractions would be beneficial.
We could leave behind the memories of
Leaving behind the negative thoughts and memories that have affected us.
How our love was lost like hidden treasure
Our love has been lost and we need to rediscover it like finding hidden treasure.
To be found again in some forgotten place
Rediscovering our love may not happen where we expect it to.
Where we learn again to read each other's faces
We need to learn to understand each other again.
If we could free ourselves from all the petty things of life
Let's get rid of all the small, insignificant things that cause problems in our lives.
I think we could learn to love
Removing these distractions would allow us to rediscover love.
And when you think of how we spent the time so wrong before
Looking back at our past and realizing how we did things wrong.
It has to be our turn to love
It's our chance to rekindle our love for each other.
If we really live to love each other more
Our purpose in life should be to love each other more and more.
We can learn again about what love is for
Let's rediscover the meaning and purpose of love.
Love me
This is a plea for love and affection, repeated for emphasis.
Lyrics © LAMPLIGHTER MUSIC PUBLISHING CO
Written by: CHRISTOPHER DEDRICK
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind