The Animals: Yay or Nay?

One of my mother's favorite British Invasion groups. Love them!

 

Some of my favorite Record Store Day purchases are the 4 Animals EP's. Great rock and and roll with great (mono) sound.

 

Wasn't old enough to see the "real" Animals, but saw Eric enough over the past 25 or so years to really appreciate what he has done all these years. Eric Burdon's New Animals, the I-Band and later incarnations with Valentine on guitar. I just wish he would come close enough so I can see him at least one more time. To hell with the criticism of his "reggae" flavoring the hits. Rather see/hear that than NO Burdon performing live.

 

Same here. I remember seeing him twice a year when NOLA HOB was booking good acts. Back in the late 90's, they did 3 shows at a casino. Made all three. At one time, was seeing them so much, Eric was greeting me by name. That means a lot to me when a touring musician knows you.

 

Did anybody like the reunion album. Before we were rudely interrupted.

 

Yay from me, one of the all time great rock groups. "I'm Crying" is a favourite of mine, Eric's voice is almost equal to Steve Marriott's.

Some random notes:

I've heard it said that Bruce Springsteen's entire output is comprised of variations of "We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place".

I think Eric lost his way in the late 60s, not taking control of his career and getting involved with drugs.

Like a lot of 60s greats, the Animals suffer from there being too many haphazard reissues and compilations.

The later Animals with Eric did a great version of Donovan's "Hey Gyp" live at Monterey.

Many fabulous Animals performances can be seen on the German "Beat Club" DVDs.

The New Animals without Eric became Dantalian's Chariot, who released a psychedelic classic "The Madman Running Through The Fields". Well worth hearing.

 

Love The Animals. Got all their albums (went with UK rather than US discography) on MP3, as well as the two reunion albums on vinyl. There's far too many songs by them that I'd consider a favourite.

 

Have about everything from both incarnations 1963-68. The early stuff very good for its time, but I actually prefer what they did as "Eric Burdon & The Animals". Melodic psych filled with drugged ideas and groovy pretentious lyrics - gotta love it!

My three favorites...

 

I don't mind Eric Burdon And The Animals, love When I Was Young, Monterey and Sky Pilot. Though I much prefer The Animals.

 

Have the box set and the psych albums on German Polydor CDs as well as Animalism and Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted as well as Eric Was Here. Met Burdon at Jaxx club in Springfield VA several years ago as a former college room mate owned it. He was very gracious regarding signing autos and just meeting me as a fan.

 

I prefer War

 

Hearing House Of The Rising Sun back in 1964 was a revelation. From the opening Am chord you knew there was more going on here than She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand. Mysterious. Deeper. Darker. Heavier. This was the band that held the key for a young white kid from the 'burbs to unlock the door to the Blues. All I had to do was backtrack and follow the trail to the real deal. So yay. And I'll be eternally grateful.

 

You nailed it, You Better You Bet!

 

Even a cranky revisionist like me has to say yay to the Animals. As the years pass, the beat groups of the era sound more fey and gutless to my ears, and the Animals managed to keep some good working class grit to their sound. I think Burdon is something of a mush head, which led to his career becoming derailed, but when he was "on" he could really bring the song. The rest of the band could play too.

I do separate the Animals from post-1966 Eric Burdon & the Animals, though. Two different bands with two different agendas. The later group is one I don't take seriously at all, although they fall into my "guilty pleasures of the 60's" list. The original band is one I don't feel guilty about.

One of my favorite songs of the original band was one of their last. I usually post studio versions of songs in my posts, but I'm going with the live one here because it manages to retain all the ferocious intensity of the studio cut. This is permanently ensconced on my 'favorite 500 songs of all time' list:

The Animals - Inside Looking Out (1966)

 

I love the 7 minute epic Talkin' Bout You and it's sister F-E-E-L!

 

One of the great British Blues Bands of the 60's . The "complete animals" issued by Music On Vinyl last year is a great introduction for anyone who would like to find out more about the music of what in my opinion is a most underrated band.

 

Just one compilation CD - The Most Of... (which I have read, not their best sounding disc but it has a stunning tracklist IMO) and I did have the LP of their 'comeback' Before We Were Rudely Interrupted and thought that was very good. I should have a lot more Animals in my collection, but I can say the same of a multitude of other artists too!

 

So great that Eric covered Sly Stones "I'm An Animal" .

 

Great video! One of my favorites as well. The b-side "You're On My Mind" is great too along with all those '66 Tom Wilson sessions.

 

Guess i'm a hits guy, but what hits!

This was the first clip i saw of them, when Ready Steady Go was repeated in the early '80s

 

I love "It's My Life", "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", and "The Night", which was a moderate hit from their 1983 reunion album Ark.

 

That album was my 50th birthday present to myself in the same year.

 

The stereo mix of The House Of The Rising Sun which just came out on HARD TO FIND JUKEBOX CLASSICS – 1964: ROCK, RHYTHM & POP sounds superb. You can listen to a sample at the link.

 

*This track is presented in Digitally Extracted Stereo (DES), a technological advance that uses the original mono recording to produce an authentic stereo listening experience.
not that there's anything wrong with that

 

The Animals were great from beginning to end and I get as much pleasure listening to their music as I do the Beatles, actually probably more seeing that I'm not burned out on them.