Eric Burdon – The Animals – An Xperience Article by Tony Mastrianni

Eric Burdon – The Animals – An Xperience Article – by Tony Mastrianni.

That LEAPING GNOME who used to make his home in Newcastle, England, Eric Burdon turns 84 on May 11 of this year. Can you believe that “The House of the Rising Sun” celebrated its 60^th Anniversary last year? This is the bluesy R&B track that hit the top of the charts in America in 1964. Here we are some sixty years later, and the “best blues singer to ever come out of England” (as late great Rolling Stones icon Brian Jones called him) is moving up in rock and roll legend territory. In recent years, he has played on a limited basis at blues festivals and rare concert appearances in Europe and the U.S., in addition to becoming an accomplished painter and author.

This gaudy urchin has previously performed onstage with the likes of legends such as Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix (his closest friend), Jimmy Witherspoon, and Otis Redding, just to name a few. Burdon received hard-earned praise from Bruce Springsteen in his keynote speech at South by Southwest in 2012. He then joined Springsteen onstage and soon enjoyed a Renaissance among critics and record collectors alike. Even Rolling Stone (who had called him a pseudo-black man in 1970) praised Mr. Burdon during the latter years. Despite Springsteen’s effort to have Eric and his new band join him on a major tour back some years ago, Eric declined and opted to continue doing limited tours in smaller venues.

Here is a look at some of the robust reissues and rare recordings that have become available on vinyl in recent years:

In 2013, he recorded an impressive four-track, self-titled EP with garage rockers the Greenhorns (Readymade Records), which was soon followed up with the acclaimed, full-length original solo album (now also available in vinyl) “’Til Your River Runs Dry” (ABKCO Records). Bottom line: though he has a reduced workload, his collectability and fame have seen an enormous increase over time. ABKCO Records reissued the first four MGM albums on vinyl in 2022. The sound quality is astounding. “The Animals,” with bonus track “Talkin’ ‘Bout You (unedited)”; “The Animals on Tour,” which includes bonus tracks “Baby What’s Wrong,” “F-E-E-L,” plus “New Year’s Radio Spot”; and “Animal Tracks,” which includes several bonus tracks: “Roadrunner,” “I Don’t Want Much,” “We Gotta Get Out of This Place (UK Single Version),” “It’s My Life,” and “I’m Gonna Change the World.” The fourth album in this reissue collection is the original “Animalization” album, loaded with a blend of bluesy rockers featuring Eric’s most versatile vocal showcase from the mid-’60s. They also reissued the band’s hallmark collection titled “The Animals: Retrospective,” a double vinyl set featuring 22 tracks, 14 of which were Top 40 charted radio tracks encompassing 1964-1966. This artifact contains many mid-period hits and many great musical expressions in such stellar songs as “When I Was Young,” “San Franciscan Nights,” “Monterey,” and “Sky Pilot.” The album concludes with the 1970 hit “Spill the Wine,” by Eric and War.

Eric spoke with passion as he described the sound quality of the ABKCO recordings, stating: “The idea of hearing our earlier work in Atmos spatial audio was like stepping into a whole new dimension for me. It was like rediscovering the magic all over again. I mean, we poured our hearts and souls into those recordings, and to hear them now brought to life in such an immersive way, it’s like a dream come true. The quality and depth of the playback experience, it’s everything.” These original four early ABKCO reissued LP’s are a testimony that the Animals have solidified their place in the top tier of rock and roll history.

Sundazed Music reissued the “Winds Of Change” album a few years back. This MGM 1967 LP featured the new West Coast Eric Burdon & The Animals (spurning merry old England). A blue-colored, vinyl-issue quality pressing and a reproduction of the original gatefold cover. This latter incarnation of the “new” Animals included Danny McCulloch (bass), Vic Briggs on guitar (who recently passed away), drummer Barry Jenkins of the Nashville Teens fame (who also just left this earth), and John Weider (who played the violin, dobro, and other strange instruments).

As far as the later, more obscure Animals MGM albums go, sooner or later, some company is going to obtain rights to reissue Eric & the Animals’ last three LPs: “The Twain Shall Meet,” “Every One Of Us” (which also included the great Zoot Money on keyboards and vocals. Only Zoot could come close in his efforts to out charisma Eric.), and finally “Love Is,” the double-LP that also included newest bandmate, the then 18-year-old guitarist Andy Summers (yes, the lad that grew up and joined the Police years later). These later psych-rock albums were issued in the states between 1967 and 1968 on MGM. Sadly, “Love Is” was never released in the UK back in 1968. Eric had seemingly deserted England when he took up residence in California a couple of years earlier, becoming a West Coast iconic figure.

There is an extremely rare double-LP import issued a couple of years ago by the London Calling label titled “The Animals: Live in the Sixties. This was issued as a gatefold limited edition, hand-numbered, 180-gram orange vinyl with a special color insert. Only 2,000 copies were issued. It includes 1966-67 rare tracks and outtakes from a variety of sources, including French and German TV show live tracks, BBC radio live takes, the group’s performance from a Mike Douglas Cleveland TV show, as well as three interview clips from Eric.

Finally, Rhino Entertainment issued a delectable 3-LP box set in 2022: “Eric Burdon & War: The Complete Vinyl Collection.” Reissued for the very first time in this millennium on colored vinyl, it contains the original MGM albums “Eric Burdon Declares War” and “Black Man’s Burdon,” as well as “Love Is All Around” (ABC Records). The War years started in 1970 when Eric walked into an L.A. nightclub and watched this Compton-based funk band with a Danish harp player (Lee Oskar). He asked, “How would you guys like to come with me and go to the top of the charts?” The wine was spilled, and “Spill The Wine” made Eric the first performer ever to take both a British band and an American Band to the top of the charts. In 1971, Melody Maker (the British music mag) did a front-page feature piece calling Eric and War “the best live band we’d ever seen.” Not bad for a man who grew up in a British seaport industrial town upon the Tyne River and who said he “had to sing like Big Joe Turner.”

 REGARDING  THE REST OF THE 20^th Century and BEYOND:

In September 1970, Jimi Hendrix died after a jam session with Eric Burdon & War at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London. After that, Burdon often broke down on stage. On February 5, 1971, he left the band in the middle of their European tour, allegedly due to exhaustion. After returning home and taking time off, Eric recorded an album in the summer of 1971 with Witherspoon called “Guilty!” The band featured blistering guitar work by the then-young Las Vegas guitarist John Sterling. A decade later, John asked me to write the liner notes for the 2001 Eric Burdon CD “The Night” (issued by the now defunct One Way Records).

Capitol Records deserves praise for originally issuing a pair of standout LPs. “Sun Secrets” is the best of the post-War ’70s recordings by the Eric Burdon Band, released in 1974. It includes bold remakes of Animals’ classic LPs “When I Was Young” and “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.” Also, check out the follow-up LP, “Stop,” if you can find a copy.

I’ll stop here before we get into various Animals reunions and reformations (United Artists Records and IRS Records), solo projects, obscure indie label CDs from the ’80s and ‘90s, and current-century solo recordings, projects, and work with Brian Auger and other luminaries. There were some quite obscure unofficial releases and some originally-issued vinyl (though most were CD-only releases) by predominantly independent or European companies.

Eric presently resides in Greece with his wife. It appears that he is doing pretty well.