My experience is that most of the remaining normal people over the past seventy years fall into two categories — those whose household slogan is "We’ve gotta get out of this place" and those who’d rather align with "I’ll never get out of this world alive", and, as a self-appointed optimist, Eric Burdon would clearly side with the former rather than the latter. Good for him.
Yeah that was one thing about Eric--he saw himself as a preacher as much as a raver. I think this sums up the dichotome of the half-full/half-empty worldview split really well. And the Brill Building tracks encapsulate that duality with the moody verse/shouting chorus dynamic. I guess they proved you could have it both ways!
Great review, thanks George. Just one comment about "the classic opening riff of the song (which would later be shamelessly and defiantly appropriated by Bruce Springsteen for his own ‘Badlands’)".
In his 2012 keynote speech at South By Southwest, Springsteen paid a vibrant tribute to The Animals, finished by an acknowledgement of this "theft" (that's the word he uses).
START QUOTE / And then, for me, it was The Animals. For some, they were just another one of the really good beat groups that came out of the '60s. But to me, The Animals were — they were a revelation. I mean, the first records with full blown class consciousness that I had ever heard. "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place," had that great bass riff, [plays bass line of "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place"] and that was just a clock, a clock marking time.
[Singing and strumming "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" : "In this dirty old part of the city, where the sun refused to shine", etc.]
That's every song I've ever written. Yeah. That's all of them. I'm not kidding, either. That's "Born to Run," "Born in the USA," everything I've done for the past 40 years, including all the new ones.
(...)
"Badlands," "Prove It All Night" - Darkness was filled with The Animals, you know? Youngsters, watch this one. I'm gonna tell you how it's done, right now. I took "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood,"
[Singing and strumming beginning of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" on guitar, then singing the piano melody and playing the guitar riff from "Badlands"] It's the same fucking riff, man. Listen up, youngsters: this is how successful theft is accomplished, all right? / END QUOTE
Great review. Great album. Great band. I once came across an internet comment from Roger Atkins, composer of It's My Life. Quoting from memory, he said "Eric butchered my lyrics to make the song all about himself rather than the lover I was addressing." Example; original line; "Sure I'll do wrong. And hurt you sometimes". As sung by Burden; "Show me I'm wrong. Hurt me sometimes."
Re Alan Price's departure; Eric has said Price received credit for the group arranged traditional, House of Rising Sun because someone (Mickey Most?) told them there wasn't room for all of their names on the record label. As soon as the royalty check arrived Alan grabbed it and split.
Yeah, but did it really take an entire year for the first royalty check to arrive? I'm sure this must have been one of the causes for the split, but probably not the main one.
"How and why exactly, unlike the Beatles and the Stones, the band was unable to make a proper transition into the next era of popular music, is a rather futile question"
But one that you've more or less answered. If they'd had a George Martin rather than a Mickey Most things may well have turned out differently, and Alan Price may have felt it worthwhile to hang around a bit longer.
My re-appreciation of the Animals came once I started to value great covers, instead of only originals (Lennon and Macca are to blame). And singles, of course, as you say The Animals are not very album oriented. I happen to like ego-burdoned (weak pun) Animals, Wind Of Change was their only CD I owned for a while. Burdon's Jim Morrison-like persona (or should I say the opposite) impressed me a lot. The Twain Shall Meet too (Sky Pilot!). Singles like When I Was Young. But you may be right, it turned out to be too much (The White Album "what-if incident" is a clear and terrifying analogy). Then I realized the original Animals have a weight and magic I hadn't understood beyond the rising sun and their super classic singles. Yeah, singles is where it's at until '66 at least. By the way I don't think I had heard Nina's original version of Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood. It's fascinating at this age.
Please read the review carefully before commenting - I say "consistent quality", not "inventiveness", and specifically indicate "earliest Kinks", i.e. their early LPs replete with mediocre covers. The Kinks were poor interpreters of American R&B, and Ray Davies would probably be the first to agree with me on that. The Animals, on the other hand, were magnificent interpreters of American R&B.
My experience is that most of the remaining normal people over the past seventy years fall into two categories — those whose household slogan is "We’ve gotta get out of this place" and those who’d rather align with "I’ll never get out of this world alive", and, as a self-appointed optimist, Eric Burdon would clearly side with the former rather than the latter. Good for him.
Yeah that was one thing about Eric--he saw himself as a preacher as much as a raver. I think this sums up the dichotome of the half-full/half-empty worldview split really well. And the Brill Building tracks encapsulate that duality with the moody verse/shouting chorus dynamic. I guess they proved you could have it both ways!
Great review, thanks George. Just one comment about "the classic opening riff of the song (which would later be shamelessly and defiantly appropriated by Bruce Springsteen for his own ‘Badlands’)".
In his 2012 keynote speech at South By Southwest, Springsteen paid a vibrant tribute to The Animals, finished by an acknowledgement of this "theft" (that's the word he uses).
START QUOTE / And then, for me, it was The Animals. For some, they were just another one of the really good beat groups that came out of the '60s. But to me, The Animals were — they were a revelation. I mean, the first records with full blown class consciousness that I had ever heard. "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place," had that great bass riff, [plays bass line of "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place"] and that was just a clock, a clock marking time.
[Singing and strumming "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" : "In this dirty old part of the city, where the sun refused to shine", etc.]
That's every song I've ever written. Yeah. That's all of them. I'm not kidding, either. That's "Born to Run," "Born in the USA," everything I've done for the past 40 years, including all the new ones.
(...)
"Badlands," "Prove It All Night" - Darkness was filled with The Animals, you know? Youngsters, watch this one. I'm gonna tell you how it's done, right now. I took "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood,"
[Singing and strumming beginning of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" on guitar, then singing the piano melody and playing the guitar riff from "Badlands"] It's the same fucking riff, man. Listen up, youngsters: this is how successful theft is accomplished, all right? / END QUOTE
( the whole speech can be read here : https://www.npr.org/2012/03/16/148778665/bruce-springsteens-sxsw-2012-keynote-speech )
Yeah, Bruce is so much more talkative than I am. And poetic. :)
Great review. Great album. Great band. I once came across an internet comment from Roger Atkins, composer of It's My Life. Quoting from memory, he said "Eric butchered my lyrics to make the song all about himself rather than the lover I was addressing." Example; original line; "Sure I'll do wrong. And hurt you sometimes". As sung by Burden; "Show me I'm wrong. Hurt me sometimes."
Re Alan Price's departure; Eric has said Price received credit for the group arranged traditional, House of Rising Sun because someone (Mickey Most?) told them there wasn't room for all of their names on the record label. As soon as the royalty check arrived Alan grabbed it and split.
Yeah, but did it really take an entire year for the first royalty check to arrive? I'm sure this must have been one of the causes for the split, but probably not the main one.
"How and why exactly, unlike the Beatles and the Stones, the band was unable to make a proper transition into the next era of popular music, is a rather futile question"
But one that you've more or less answered. If they'd had a George Martin rather than a Mickey Most things may well have turned out differently, and Alan Price may have felt it worthwhile to hang around a bit longer.
My re-appreciation of the Animals came once I started to value great covers, instead of only originals (Lennon and Macca are to blame). And singles, of course, as you say The Animals are not very album oriented. I happen to like ego-burdoned (weak pun) Animals, Wind Of Change was their only CD I owned for a while. Burdon's Jim Morrison-like persona (or should I say the opposite) impressed me a lot. The Twain Shall Meet too (Sky Pilot!). Singles like When I Was Young. But you may be right, it turned out to be too much (The White Album "what-if incident" is a clear and terrifying analogy). Then I realized the original Animals have a weight and magic I hadn't understood beyond the rising sun and their super classic singles. Yeah, singles is where it's at until '66 at least. By the way I don't think I had heard Nina's original version of Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood. It's fascinating at this age.
You Really Got Me !
Sorry , but no way were the Animals more inventive than the Kinks
Please read the review carefully before commenting - I say "consistent quality", not "inventiveness", and specifically indicate "earliest Kinks", i.e. their early LPs replete with mediocre covers. The Kinks were poor interpreters of American R&B, and Ray Davies would probably be the first to agree with me on that. The Animals, on the other hand, were magnificent interpreters of American R&B.