#30: You’ll Never Know (My Love) : Edwyn Collins (Heavenly Records, HVN 158, 2007)
20 February 2005 was the date of the first of Edwyn Collins‘ brain haemorrhages. The second came five days later while he was in a bed in an intensive care ward of a London hospital. Shortly afterwards, he developed a severe case of MRSA, all of which left him with significant brain damage, aphasia, and paralysis on his right side and led to a six-month stay in hospital followed by intensive therapy at home.
10 September 2007 was the date when Edwyn Collins’ new single was released.
The road to recovery had proven to be long and difficult as we would later learn thanks to the publication, in 2009, of Falling and Laughing, the book written by his wife, Grace Maxwell. From near death to a comeback was nothing short of miraculous.
One of the things we learned with the release of the new single was that, by the end of 2004, Edwyn had made a great deal of progress on a new album, but that the final mixing and tweaking had only been completed when he had been deemed well enough to return to the studio in late 2006. Unsurprisingly, the process of completing the album was time-consuming, and with him now also being signed to a new label at Heavenly Records, it was an absolute joy to hear first this in the later summer of 2007:-
mp3: Edwyn Collins – You’ll Never Know (My Love)
It was a totally different sound to that of the songs on the previous album, Doctor Syntax. It was once again produced by Edwyn with help from Sebastian Lewsley, but despite the lack of info on either the 7″ or CD, it was clear that Edwyn hadn’t played all the instruments this time around.
The single was joyous sounding and tailor-made for radio. But for whatever reason, it never got much traction, which surprised me given the feel-good story surrounding its release. The b-side on the 7″ and one of the tracks on the CD single was a ballad of the type Edwyn had been making for decades. Ordinarily, I might have thought it nothing special, but given the events of the previous few years, then I was more than happy just to hear new songs of any type:-
mp3 : Edwyn Collins – Forsaken
The extra track on the CD I knew to be a cover version as it was written by Thom Bell and Linda Creed, and thanks to t’internet, I soon learned it had been a Top 10 hit in the UK for US soul group The Stylistics back in 1973.
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Rockin’ Roll Baby
Edwyn’s take has a real roots flavour to it, and listening to all three songs created a great deal of excitement here for the release of the sixth studio album, Home Again, on 17 September 2007. This was followed shortly afterwards by Edwyn’s return to live performances, at Dingwall’s in London before what was reported to be a packed and very appreciative and emotional audience.
There’s a wee PS to be added to this one.
In April 2008, a 12″ version of You’ll Never Know (My Love) was issued. It came in a cut-out plain black sleeve with very little info. I have no idea what the idea or thinking was, and indeed I didn’t know such a thing existed for quite a few years when I came across a copy being sold via Discogs.
mp3: Edwyn Collins – You’ll Never Know (My Love) (Ashley Beedle’s We Love You Edwyn Edit)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – You’ll Never Know (My Love) (Dennis Lovell Dub)
The former stretches out to seven minutes, and if you’re a fan of the song, then you’re bound to fall for its charms. It’s the perfect soundtrack to a hot and sunny day.
The latter sees Edwyn reunite with his old pal, and the end product would not have been out of place on the final few Orange Juice releases back in the late 80s. Marvellous stuff if you really want my take on things.
Oh……and there’s even more. Here’s our good friend Khayem, from the always entertaining Dubhed blog.
Thank you for continuing to delight with TVV, not least the long running Edwyn Collins series.
As You’ll Never Know (My Love) is looming, I have provided a link for the versions on the promo CD single that I bought on eBay back in the day, in case you don’t have them.
There’s an instrumental version and (a big motivation for me to track it down) an exclusive dub mix by Dennis Bovell.
At the time, I also discovered the Audacity music editing freeware online. The bedrock of Dubhed Selections ever since, but YNKML was one of my first experiments in editing a 12”/extended version.
It may be for your interest only (!) but I thought you might like to hear it.
mp3: Edwyn Collins – You’ll Never Know (My Love) (instrumental)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – You’ll Never Know (My Love) (Dub My Love Re-Edit by Khayem)
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 