A Psychedelic Tune with Edwyn Collins – A Girl Like You – Flashback Song Review

I keep reminiscing about the 90s with this song. It brings memories of my teenage and school years. When life was simpler and besides studying, I spent my days watching MTV’s music videos and listening to albums from top to bottom in one sitting.

The Singer

Edwyn Collins is a Scottish musician. He was the singer of the 80s post-punk band Orange Juice. After his band split, he became a solo artist.

The Album 

Gorgeous George is the third solo studio album by Edwyn Collins. It was released on July 1st, 1994. It features Paul Cook on drums (Sex Pistol’s drummer).    

Band Members

• Edwyn Collins – vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass, and drums. 
• Paul Cook – drums, percussion
• Clare Kenny – bass guitar

The Song

A Girl Like You samples the drum track of the 1965 song 1-2-3 by the American singer Len Barry. That’s why it has that ’60s feeling mixed with Edwyn’s style of guitar playing which, at least in this song, it’s very psychedelic crowned with a great guitar solo.

The song was a worldwide hit, and it was a part of the soundtrack of the movie Empire Records.

The Movie

Empire Records is a 1995 American movie. The cast included Anthony LaPaglia, Maxwell Caulfield, Debi Mazar, Rory Cochrane, Johnny Whitworth, Robin Tunney, Renée Zellweger, and Liv Tyler. The film is about a group of record store employees who try to stop the store from being sold to a major chain. The movie wasn’t a commercial success, but it became a cult movie to the fans.

I remember seeing this movie multiple times on cable at that time, and because it was about a record store in the ’90s (grunge style and all that relates) quickly became a part of my favorite movies list.

The soundtrack of this movie was epic, too, featuring Edwyn Collins’s A Girl Like You, and other big bands like The Cranberries. Another song of a band that I got to know thanks to this movie was Gin Blossoms’s Til I Hear It From You.  

The movie trailer:

The video version with the movie’s images:

The nostalgic feeling hits hard with this song, at least for me. In regard to the singer, Edwyn Collins had two cerebral hemorrhages in 2005 and after his recovery, he continued making music and playing live, from time to time. His recovery process was filmed and made into a BBC Scotland documentary narrated by Alex Kapranos (Franz Ferdinand‘s singer).

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Lyrics

I’ve never known a girl like you before

Now just like in a song from days of yore

Here you come knocking, knocking on my door

Well, I’ve never met a girl like you before

 

You give me just a taste so I want more

Now my hands are bleeding and my knees are raw

‘Cause now you got me crawling, crawling on the floor

And I’ve never known a girl like you before

 

You made me acknowledge the devil in me

I hope to God I’m talking metaphorically

Hope that I’m talking allegorically

Know that I’m talking about the way I feel

 

And I’ve never known a girl like you before

Never, never, never, never

Never known a girl like you before

 

This old town’s changed so much

Don’t feel like I belong

Too many protest singers

Not enough protest songs

And now you’ve come along

Yes, you’ve come along

And I’ve never met a girl like you before

 

It’s alright, yeah, it’s alright, yeah, it’s alright, yeah, it’s alright, yeah (x 7)