THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF EDWYN COLLINS (Part 10)

So, having gotten himself noticed with The Magic Piper of Love in the summer of 97 it made perfect commercial sense for Edwyn Collins to select a really catch commercial sounding track as the follow-up.

Why he chose Adidas World remains a mystery.....

There was no way with the multiple mentions of the German-based leisure-wear company (and a number of its rivals) that radio station controllers were going to be comfortable playing the song.  Indeed, the record label in full acknowledgement of this actually used the same cover and b-sides as had been used for Adidas World in the UK but instead released the track No-One Waved Goodbye across mainland Europe:-

It's also the case that Adidas World isn't all that strong a tune, albeit it does contain a caustic and biting lyric. The album version ends at just over two and a half minutes, but for the single it was decided to tag on about another minute of music at the end which only made things worse:-

mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Adidas World (7" Extended Radio Re-Mix)

The vinyl came with one track:-

mp3 : Edwyn Collins - High Fashion

It's a very strange recording as at no time is  the vocal typically Edwyn-esque.  It's also a bit on the dull side.

Two CD singles came out.  The first had two tracks that were immediately more recognisable:-

mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Mr Bojangles
mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Talkin' Bout The Times

The former is a cover of a song originally written and recorded by American country & western performer Jerry Jeff Walker in 1968 and one that has since been covered by a multitude of singers and bands as can be seen here.

The latter is a track that sounds rather like a solo track from Lloyd Cole...so much so that Edwyn may even well have been taking the piss, but I can't say for sure.

As for CD2:-

mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Episode 3
mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Episode 5
mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Episode 10 (No, No, No Adidas World)

The least said the better.  Boring, self-indulgent nonsense.