The Animals
I listen to a lot of sixties music (I'm a Boomer--so sue me) and one of the bands that gets lost in the shuffle of the British invasion are the Animals. They weren't cute like The Beatles, or even as pretty as the Rolling Stones, and of all the British boys who grew up worshiping black American music, they were the ones who stuck most consistently with a Mississippi Delta blues style. Of course, as with many of those bands other than the Stones, it was all over in a matter of a few years.
The Animals were from the working class English town of Newcastle, and their front man was the dour Eric Burdon (who would later refer to himself as "an overfed, long-haired leaping gnome.") They burst upon the scene in 1964 with a version of an old folk-blues song, The House of the Rising Sun, which is presumably about a brothel. It was unlike anything else that was coming out of England, with an eery background of funeral-like organ music, no bridge, and a desperate howl from Burdon. It was also over four-minutes long (though cut for the American release). Even today when this song comes on the radio I have to stop what I'm thinking about and focus on it, it's that compelling a listen.
I had a few Animals song scattered on some of those Best of the Sixties compilations, but hadn't any discs devoted solely to them, so I picked one up called Retrospective, which contains all of their hits plus a few by a post-Animals Burdon. When presented in a greatest hits package, it becomes more evident how many good songs they had. Most of them in the early days were covers, like Boom Boom, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, Don't Bring Me Down, and We've Got to Get Out of This Place, all of which are outstanding. Burdon then started writing (although the songs are credited to all of the band members, who changed over the years) and came up with the very evocative When I Was Young.
As with many musicians, Burdon was then touched by LSD. Apparently a lot of LSD. He delved into psychedelia with songs like San Francisco Nights, Monterey (which is a laundry list of a lot of bands who performed at that memorable 1967 concert) and A Girl Named Sandoz (Sandoz being a lab where LSD was made). I think his greatest achievement during this period is the epic and loopy Sky Pilot, an over-seven minute anti-war song, that includes audio from battle, as well as bagpipe music. I've listened to a few times since getting the record and it's easy to get lost in the delirious world of the song.
His last hit was with the band War, in 1970, Spill the Wine, which included a lot of spoken-word portions and an accompanying flute which immediately brands it as hippie-dippy. It's a fun song, though, and it seems a shame that ended Burdon's life on the charts, when he was only 29. He's still around, though, and touring, but he and The Animals are today only artifacts from a great period of music.
The Animals were from the working class English town of Newcastle, and their front man was the dour Eric Burdon (who would later refer to himself as "an overfed, long-haired leaping gnome.") They burst upon the scene in 1964 with a version of an old folk-blues song, The House of the Rising Sun, which is presumably about a brothel. It was unlike anything else that was coming out of England, with an eery background of funeral-like organ music, no bridge, and a desperate howl from Burdon. It was also over four-minutes long (though cut for the American release). Even today when this song comes on the radio I have to stop what I'm thinking about and focus on it, it's that compelling a listen.
I had a few Animals song scattered on some of those Best of the Sixties compilations, but hadn't any discs devoted solely to them, so I picked one up called Retrospective, which contains all of their hits plus a few by a post-Animals Burdon. When presented in a greatest hits package, it becomes more evident how many good songs they had. Most of them in the early days were covers, like Boom Boom, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, Don't Bring Me Down, and We've Got to Get Out of This Place, all of which are outstanding. Burdon then started writing (although the songs are credited to all of the band members, who changed over the years) and came up with the very evocative When I Was Young.
As with many musicians, Burdon was then touched by LSD. Apparently a lot of LSD. He delved into psychedelia with songs like San Francisco Nights, Monterey (which is a laundry list of a lot of bands who performed at that memorable 1967 concert) and A Girl Named Sandoz (Sandoz being a lab where LSD was made). I think his greatest achievement during this period is the epic and loopy Sky Pilot, an over-seven minute anti-war song, that includes audio from battle, as well as bagpipe music. I've listened to a few times since getting the record and it's easy to get lost in the delirious world of the song.
His last hit was with the band War, in 1970, Spill the Wine, which included a lot of spoken-word portions and an accompanying flute which immediately brands it as hippie-dippy. It's a fun song, though, and it seems a shame that ended Burdon's life on the charts, when he was only 29. He's still around, though, and touring, but he and The Animals are today only artifacts from a great period of music.
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