Animals - The White Path to Rhythm 'n' Blues

When it comes to the British Invasion and the love of blues shown by bands from across the Channel, it's impossible not to mention the group that, more than any other, helped spark widespread interest in roots Black music, forging a white path to rhythm & blues. A band that managed to anticipate half the history of rock music, from the garage-rock of the Sixties to the punk-rock of the Seventies.

The group formed in Newcastle Upon Tyne around keyboardist Alan Price (1942, County Durham, Great Britain) and singer Eric Burdon (1941, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Great Britain). In 1962 Burdon joined the Alan Price R&B Combo, a lineup that also included bassist Bryan "Chas" Chandler (1938, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Great Britain), drummer John Steel (1941, Gateshead, Great Britain) and guitarist Hilton Valentine (1943, North Shields, Great Britain). They changed their name to The Animals, an apt description of the wild shows the band put on.

Thanks to a tip from Graham Bond, talent scout Giorgio Gomelsky brought the famous bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson to Newcastle to record with these young rhythm & blues enthusiasts: the result of that meeting is documented on the LPs The Animals Live At The Club A Go Go and The Animals With Sonny Boy Williamson.

The quintet's London debut took place at Gomelsky's Crawdaddy Club, but it was producer Mickie Most who signed the band.

In 1964 they recorded their first two singles: "Baby Let Me Take You Home" (the band's recording debut) featured an original blend of rhythm & blues, beat and folk. Taking a cue from the same Josh White album that had provided the traditional source for that first song, they recorded a memorable version of another traditional, "The House Of The Rising Sun", which that summer (shortly before their first tour of the United States) made them famous worldwide.

At the end of July, the group recorded twelve songs, adding "Boom Boom" and "Dimples" (leftovers from the first sessions in February) to complete The Animals, their debut LP, which in November climbed high up the sales charts and confirmed their deep love for the fathers of Black music such as John Lee Hooker, as well as for rock & roll ("Around and Around" is by Chuck Berry and "I've Been Around" is by Fats Domino). That same day at the end of July they also recorded two songs by Price and Burdon, "I'm Crying" and "Take It Easy", which became their third single, followed in January 1965 by another sensational hit: "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", inspired by Nina Simone's version. In a period of exceptional enthusiasm for this rediscovery of Black music, the Animals recorded another classic, released as a single in March 1965: Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home".

During the sessions for these last two singles, the group also completed enough material for their second album, Animal Tracks, which hit the market in May 1965. Besides being Price's last record with the group - he was replaced by Dave Rowberry (1943, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Great Britain) - it confirmed their shrewd choice of revisiting classics such as "Roadrunner", "I Ain't Got You" and Ray Charles's gorgeous "Hallelujah", "I Love Her So" and "I Believe To My Soul".

The sixth single, titled "We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place", is another landmark of the era's music, reaching the top of the charts and marking the last recording with the original lineup.

After the single "It's My Life" (the last collaboration with producer Mickie Most) and the departure of John Steel in favor of Barry Jenkins (1944, Leicester, UK), the band opens 1966 with the remarkable single "Inside Looking Out", followed a month later by "Don't Bring Me Down" and then by the excellent third album Animalism (released in the United States in September 1966 as Animalization, with a different tracklist from the British edition).

At this point Burdon leaves the group, but in September releases the single "See See Rider" credited to the New Animals (though actually recorded by Burdon alone). It marks a turn towards the burgeoning psychedelic movement, to the point that in California the New Animals take shape around the singer and Jenkins: guitarist Johnny Weider (1947, Shepherd's Bush, UK), bassist Danny McCulloch (1945, London) and guitarist Vic Briggs (1945, Twickenham, UK) round out the quintet.

The first fruit of this new direction is the uneven Eric Is Here, released in spring 1967, recorded (before the New Animals were formed) with session musicians and weighed down by cumbersome orchestrations that feel decidedly out of place.

It's Winds Of Change (released a few months later) that unveils the true new Eric Burdon & The New Animals sound, with a style far more in step with that extraordinary year, during which the singer also performed at the Monterey Pop Festival. The album includes "San Franciscan Nights" (one of the anthems of the hippie generation), "Paint It Black" and "Yes I'm Experienced" (the answer to the Hendrix question "Are You Experienced?").

In 1968, buoyed by the excellent Monterey performance and the pacifist anthem "Sky Pilot", the albums The Twain Shall Meet and Every One Of Us (with keyboardist Zoot Money added to the lineup) confirm an Eric Burdon exploring paths far removed from his beginnings ("New York 1963-America 1968" is a sprawling twenty-minute piece). Discouraged by the poor reception at home, by the time the last two albums were released he had already disbanded the New Animals to pursue an intriguing solo career.

In 1977 Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted documents the reunion of the original quintet, offering compositions that are surprisingly fresh, gutsy and superbly played. But it's just a pleasant one-off, as confirmed by the disappointing The Ark (1983) and the sorry live album Rip It To Shreds: Their Greatest Hits Live (1984).

(taken from "La storia del rock")

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