The Free Design
Kites Are Fun
(Project 3, 1967)

The Free Design was not cool. There’s no use denying it; they were about as far from cool as you can possibly imagine. In an era of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, the Free Design was playing music together as a family. In the days of the Beatles and Stones singing about Vietnam and “warm guns,” the Free Design were singing about kites and umbrellas and their little brother Woody. And to top it all off, at a time when it must have seemed like every band in the world was hopped up on goofballs, the Free Design were saying things like, “If it takes drugs to free your mind, you’re reaching out for nothing. Your imagination is where it’s at.” Not exactly the kind of attitude we usually associate with the Summer of Love.

But just because they weren’t very cool, that doesn’t mean the Free Design weren’t damn good. And their 1967 debut, Kites Are Fun, is ample proof of that.

It’s a record of folksy, sunshine pop, with an endless supply of memorable hooks and youthful enthusiasm. It’s filled with the kind of gentle melodies that make you think of summer afternoons, tall grasses, and cloud-flecked blue skies. And most striking of all, Kites Are Fun is drowning in gorgeous, layered harmonies. Chris Dedrick, the band’s main songwriter, and all of his brothers and sisters in the group, were formally trained musicians—and they don’t let their talents go to waste. The Free Design’s vocal arrangements are as elaborate as they are beautiful. Taking their cue from the likes of Peter, Paul and Mary, the Association, and Simon and Garfunkel (there’s even a mellow cover of “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)” on the record), their harmonies are amongst the best the ’60s ever produced. At their very finest, as in a song like “Umbrellas”, they even rival Brian Wilson.

That kind of talent is rare. You can’t blame the Free Design for thinking that they had a hit on their hands with their debut LP. But, as it turned out, they didn’t. The album’s sales didn’t live up to the band’s expectations (and neither would any of the other six records they would release over the course of the next five years). Forty years down the road, it’s hard to know exactly why, but you can’t help but think that the band’s straight-laced image might have played some part. The lyrics on Kites Are Fun are about wide-eyed innocence and life’s simple joys. The only time they come even remotely close to tackling a political issue, is to warn against the use of drugs in “Make the Madness Stop” (”Whoa, whoa / Blow your mind but not completely / Make the madness stop). To the band’s target audience, teenagers coming of age in a time of violent protest, race riots, and bra burnings, songs about climbing trees and flying kites must have seemed naïve and childish. Sure, family-friendly acts had managed to connect with that same generation before, however, by the end of 1967 “Puff the Magic Dragon” was being hailed as a hippie drug anthem, and even the Lovin’ Spoonful had members busted for possession.

And so, despite their debut’s upbeat and catchy tunes, the Free Design was destined for obscurity. Kites Are Fun would actually prove to be their biggest hit, having produced the title track, which appeared on Billboard’s Easy Listening Top 40. Before long, the band would split, with Dedrick heading North to become a composer for Canadian indie films. Nearly three decades would come and go before the group finally started to get some of the recognition they deserved. In 1994, their records were reissued. Then, Stereolab named a song after them. Soon they found themselves remixed by artists like the Super Furry Animals, Belle & Sebastian, and Danger Mouse. Their songs turned up on the soundtracks to Gilmore Girls and Stranger Than Fiction. And before we knew it—40 years after Kites Are Fun first hit the shelves—Free Design was pretty cool after all.

Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]

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