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.
albums by The Animals
Songs by The Animals
"Burdon was also a good friend of the Beatles' John Lennon and was mentioned in one of their songs, "I Am the Walrus" as "the eggman". Eric states, "The nickname stuck after a wild experience I’d had at the time with a Jamaican girlfriend called Sylvia.
I was up early one morning cooking breakfast, naked except for my
socks, and she slid up beside me and slipped an amyl nitrite
capsule under my nose. As the fumes set my brain alight and I slid to
the kitchen floor, she reached to the counter and grabbed an egg, which
she cracked into the pit of my belly. The white and yellow of the egg
ran down my naked front and Sylvia began to show me one Jamaican trick
after another. I shared the story with John at a party at a Mayfair flat
one night with a handful of others." Lennon, finding the story amusing
and hilarious, replied,
“Go on, go get it, Eggman”, incorporating the incident into his song in
tribute to the unique experience."
Well, maybe, but this track was almost a whole decade after rocknroll's first baby steps, and from about the same roots. (Fats's Blueberry Hill and this track, for one example, might have been sons with different daddies.) Since this was more or less simultaneous with the Yardbirds, the early Stones and other blues-based acts, it's part of a movement that was hardly crap.
Never got the recognition he deserved, IMO.
I saw some history of art BS, but interesting BS, that had it the resale value of 20th century paintings was proportional to the size of the artist's signature. The signature tended to be proportional to the ego of the artist, thus Picasso tended to be about 30% more valuable than Matisse. Eric Burdon didn't obviously suffer from LSD, aka Lead Singer's Disease. There wasn't much in the way of performance pyrotechnic with EB, perhaps an equivalence of signature size for lead singers. This could have something to do with why he is played and sweetly rated on RP but commercially less so. Something similar might apply to John Hiatt, John Martyn, Nick Drake, etc...
ugh!
This is “Amazing Grace” (almost chord-for-chord) and it’s truly dated and icky. But golly…it sure has lasted a looooong time. Kudos for that, I guess.
Overall, I don’t like it and suggest you not like it, either. Thank you.
Just to add to others' comments, you can't tell me what to like. So please keep such stupid remarks to yourself.
Haven't learned this much since 10th grade biology class!
Never got the recognition he deserved, IMO.
Remember having this on a 45, with Sky Pilot on the flip side.
Sky Pilot! Yes, the years have rolled by, haven't they?
If only there was a higher score. This is at least an 11 for me.
In 1966 I visited London with my family over Easter, my father was stationed in Germany at the time. We're in the London Officer's Club one evening and ran into a bunch of seniors from my high school who were there for their class trip. Even though I was a lowly freshman I knew a few of them and they were going to a club called Tiles to see a band that night and invited me to tag along, somehow one of the girls talked my parents into letting me go. Turns out the band was The Alan Price Set, Price had just left the Animals and this was one of his first gigs. Needless to say I had one of the best nights of my young life and still a memory I cherish.
Cool story. Thank You for sharing it.