Remember Edwin? Singer of s̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶h̶i̶t̶s̶ ̶a̶s̶ the hit “Alive”?
I work above a fabrication shop that listens to the local classic rock radio station eight hours a day. It’s mostly a constant rotation of AC/DC, Queen, and Twisted Sister, but sometimes they throw on something by the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Green Day, which makes me feel old. On Tuesday, no undoubtedly as an attempt to diversify their Canadian content from constant plays of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, they played “Alive” by Edwin, a song I had completely forgot about until the moment I heard it, when suddenly I knew all the words.
When I was your age, kids, the best way to hear an overplayed radio hit was to tune into MuchMusic and hope it was playing. Weekly I would watch the MuchMusic Countdown and sigh with relief when they finally played the songs that had been stuck in my head all week.
When this video emerged, circa the year 2000 (after we all miraculously surviving Y2K) my classmates were burning mixed CDs of tunes downloaded via Napster with their fancy computers. At home, we had dial-up internet and a 15 MB hard drive, so I had to resort to recording my favourite earworms onto a cassette tape using a karaoke machine my dad hooked up to the TV. Believe me, it was archaic even at the time.
I listened to a lot of the same songs over and over again, and like Edwin’s song, for better or worse they’re now burned into my brain.
Back to Edwin.
After hearing the song, I took a coffee break from my mundanely adult life to google the video and relive a moment of high school.
The video opens with our hero, Edwin, donning mirror-lense Oakley sunglasses, not wearing a helmet, jumping from an airplane with a snowboard strapped to his feet. He descends quickly and slays some super sweet backcountry powder, drops cliffs, and doesn't put on a helmet.
Twenty seconds later we cut to Edwin, now in orange-lense sunglasses resembling aviators (still refusing to wear a helmet) is mountain biking through the forest. Suddenly, he’s trail-running.
The video then takes a momentary break from adventure activities. Edwin, in typical turn-of-the-century fashion is wearing a short-sleeve button down, completely unbuttoned and exposing his plain white t-shirt. He spreads his arms like Jesus and belts out to no one in particular.
I work above a fabrication shop that listens to the local classic rock radio station eight hours a day. It’s mostly a constant rotation of AC/DC, Queen, and Twisted Sister, but sometimes they throw on something by the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Green Day, which makes me feel old. On Tuesday, no undoubtedly as an attempt to diversify their Canadian content from constant plays of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, they played “Alive” by Edwin, a song I had completely forgot about until the moment I heard it, when suddenly I knew all the words.
When I was your age, kids, the best way to hear an overplayed radio hit was to tune into MuchMusic and hope it was playing. Weekly I would watch the MuchMusic Countdown and sigh with relief when they finally played the songs that had been stuck in my head all week.
When this video emerged, circa the year 2000 (after we all miraculously surviving Y2K) my classmates were burning mixed CDs of tunes downloaded via Napster with their fancy computers. At home, we had dial-up internet and a 15 MB hard drive, so I had to resort to recording my favourite earworms onto a cassette tape using a karaoke machine my dad hooked up to the TV. Believe me, it was archaic even at the time.
I listened to a lot of the same songs over and over again, and like Edwin’s song, for better or worse they’re now burned into my brain.
Back to Edwin.
After hearing the song, I took a coffee break from my mundanely adult life to google the video and relive a moment of high school.
The video opens with our hero, Edwin, donning mirror-lense Oakley sunglasses, not wearing a helmet, jumping from an airplane with a snowboard strapped to his feet. He descends quickly and slays some super sweet backcountry powder, drops cliffs, and doesn't put on a helmet.
Twenty seconds later we cut to Edwin, now in orange-lense sunglasses resembling aviators (still refusing to wear a helmet) is mountain biking through the forest. Suddenly, he’s trail-running.
The video then takes a momentary break from adventure activities. Edwin, in typical turn-of-the-century fashion is wearing a short-sleeve button down, completely unbuttoned and exposing his plain white t-shirt. He spreads his arms like Jesus and belts out to no one in particular.
In the video, Edwin completes the following activities:
On a scale of 1-to-Edwin, my life is a 7/10. It would be a 6/10 except that anyone can fake hang glide.
I did not know when I was in highschool that I would assemble a life that imitates an Edwin music video. What if it had been another hit from that year like Lady Marmalade?
- Skydiving
- Snowboarding
- Mountain biking
- Trail Running
- Singing on a beach
- Base Jumping
- Snorkeling
- Swimming with dolphins
- Fake hang gliding
- Beach running
On a scale of 1-to-Edwin, my life is a 7/10. It would be a 6/10 except that anyone can fake hang glide.
I did not know when I was in highschool that I would assemble a life that imitates an Edwin music video. What if it had been another hit from that year like Lady Marmalade?
The music video for “Alive” won a Juno Award in 2001 for Best Video and Edwin won a People's Choice Award for Best Canadian Artist at MuchMusic's 2000 MMVAs, Edwin is now bartending at a bar in Toronto. He probably still refuses to wear a helmet