The Animals (also billed as Animals & Friends and Eric Burdon and the Animals) are an English rock band, formed in Newcastle upon Tyne in the early 1960s. The Animals are known for their deep-voiced frontman Eric Burdon and for their gritty, bluesy sound, exemplified by their signature song and transatlantic number-one hit single "The House of the Rising Sun" as well as by hits such as "We Gotta Get Out of This Place", "It's My Life", "Don't Bring Me Down", "I'm Crying", "See See Rider" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood". They balanced tough, rock-edged pop singles against rhythm-and-blues-oriented album material and were part of the British Invasion of the US.
The Animals underwent numerous personnel changes in the mid-1960s, and suffered from poor business management, leading the original incarnation to split up in 1966. Burdon assembled a mostly new lineup of musicians under the name Eric Burdon and The Animals; the much-changed act moved to California and achieved commercial success as a psychedelic and progressive rock band with hits such as "San Franciscan Nights", "When I Was Young" and "Sky Pilot" before disbanding at the end of the decade. Altogether, the group had 10 top-20 hits in both the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100.
The original lineup of Burdon, Alan Price, Chas Chandler, Hilton Valentine and John Steel reunited for a one-off benefit concert in Newcastle in 1968. They later launched brief comebacks in 1975 and 1983. Several partial regroupings of the original-era members have occurred since then under various names. The Animals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
from this album in RP library
My faith was so much stronger then
I believed in fellow man
And I was so much older then
When I was young
Now Dylan:
Romantic facts of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.
"I smoked my first cigarette at ten
And for girls, I had a bad yen"
I guess if he had smoked his first cigarette at nine instead of ten he could've had more choices for a rhyme in the next line (pine, time, crime, Newcastle upon Tyne, serpentine, etc.) . At least he didn't wait until eleven or twelve to smoke - he really would've been hard-pressed for a rhyme. Anyhow, great tune; I'm surprised there aren't more Animals' tunes on the playlist.
That analysis is too hilarious! Thanks for sharing.
Yeah, but he was young.
(By the way, I think it's an unintentionally funny lyric, written by some 20-something kid about "when he was young". Yeah, right?)
Reminiscent of Auden:
WHEN I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,‘
Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies 5
But keep your fancy free.’
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again, 10‘
The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
’Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue.’
And I am two-and-twenty, 15
And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.
"And for girls, I had a bad yen"
Awesomely bad.
Yeah, but he was young.
(By the way, I think it's an unintentionally funny lyric, written by some 20-something kid about "when he was young". Yeah, right?)
Man, what a great song...
Are you Gary Busey by any chance?
I smoked my first cigarette at ten
And for girls, I had a bad yen
Yikes
Yoda wrote that line.
From the British perspective, that lyric was a natural..........
Fr'instance, I sold my first cigarette at 10 (I had an uncle who ran a cigarette kiosk)
And for girls I had a definite yearning......just a little later.
Yer can keep yer Yikes but do watch "Hope and Glory "
I would guess the "yikes" refers more to the appalling lyrics ... I recall getting stoned in Manchester (UK) to this LP around 1972 and although the music was fine we were creased up in giggles at the tortuous words e.g. Yen to rhyme with Ten... oh dear....