The Animals & Other Great British Singers

[Dayna]

I really liked a few of the songs I've heard of this band, like House Of The Rising Son, especially.

Did anyone else like them?

[Gordon Neill]

Dayna, given that the song is about a brothel, your typo gives it another layer of meaning!

I think the Animals were historically important, helping to popularise R&B to a white audience. But looking back, it's really only 'House of the Rising Son' and their version of Nina Simone's 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood' that have stayed with me.

[kevin]

I think the Animals were historically important, helping to popularise R&B to a white audience. But looking back, it's really only 'House of the Rising Son' and their version of Nina Simone's 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood' that have stayed with me.

I would have to add We Gotta Get Out of This Place to your selections. I think it is the best thing The Animals recorded.

[Dayna]

Dayna, given that the song is about a brothel, your typo gives it another layer of meaning!

Oh no!
I didn't mean to do that, really.


Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood

[Rob Hall]

After many years of thinking I had an Animals-shaped hole in my musical library, I recently bought a CD of the Animals singles ("A's B's & EP's"). Gordon's right to say that they were historically significant - they were in there with the early Rolling Stones, Ireland's Them, various bands from Birmingham, and others in the first wave of Brit bands who assimilated American RnB with varying degrees of success. The Animals were particularly successful with their hits "House Of The Rising Sun", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", "Boom Boom", "Dimples", "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place". Looking at it, that's not a bad series of records, all fine covers. I suppose their failing was that they didn't have a decent songwriter in the band. It was, apparently, keyboard player Alan Price who came up with what has become the definitive arrangement of "House Of The Rising Sun". I think he left shortly after they had a hit with it. Another reason for their success was the gritty voice of the singer, Eric Burdon. He went on to a patchy solo career, peaking early when he recruited the band that went onto become War as his backing band - they had a hit with a song called "Spill The Wine" that was very good. The Animals' other claim to fame was after they broke up, when bass player Chas Chandler went onto manage Jimi Hendrix and Slade.

The Animals' hits were great, but the CD that I bought recently suggests that there are no great undiscovered masterpieces laying around in the vaults.

[judith]

Eric Burdon will be performing at one of the Indian casinos in this remote part of northern California sometime this month. It will probably be sold out. I am curious to hear about it.

[Charlie]

It was, apparently, keyboard player Alan Price who came up with what has become the definitive arrangement of "House Of The Rising Sun". I think he left shortly after they had a hit with it.

When the rest of the band discovered that only A.Price's name was included in the song-writing credits, there was an almighty row that resulted in Alan having to leave the band pronto. Guitarist Hilton Valentine had the idea to do the song and worked out a unique guitar part, and they all thought it should have been an five-way split. It must have taken nerves of steel on Price's part to insist that only he was going to take the spoils.

I sometimes think that Eric Burdon was the UK's greatest male singer ever - it's between him and Steve Winwood.

[Adam Blake]

It must have taken nerves of steel on Price's part to insist that only he was going to take the spoils.

I sometimes think that Eric Burdon was the UK's greatest male singer ever - it's between him and Steve Winwood.

Amazing what a solid diet of whiskey and amphetamines can do to your ego.

Burdon was great but not in Winwood's league, surely. And does John Lennon not count cos he wuz in The Beatles?

[Charlie]

And does John Lennon not count cos he wuz in The Beatles?

On the contrary, he counts only for how he sounded when he was in the Beatles. I had him in my list, then took him out. I herewith reinstate him. it's a top three.

[tulsehill charlie]

Burdon for me every time. As a schoolboy in Joburg in 64 I heard this almighty sound coming out of the valve radio on the World Service - "I'm Cryin'". That was the beginning of the end, my complete downfall into rock 'n roll. As Dave Marsh says, they sounded "as much like horny young Geordies as hungry beasts". I was gone.

At one point in 65/66 they were voted more popular than the Stones (in Melody Maker I think so it probably doesn't count - however these things were important then).

I always liked Burdon's singing on "Animalisms" after Alan Price had been replaced by Dave Rowberry, especially "Gin House".

[NormanD]

They were proudly regional, with EB never trying to "tone down" - or Londonise - the Geordie accent. Was it "Story Of Bo Diddley" they did? A longish album cut where EB talks us through their musical history.

I also reckon that they pushed Dylan to go electric. "Rising Sun" and "Baby Let Me Follow You Down" were taken from his first album (though neither was a Dylan song) and, it's been claimed, showed Dylan the formula Folk+Electricity=Success. In fact, Columbia later added studio rock backing to his "Rising Sun", though never officially released it (not that good, I have to say - it's very similar to the studio backing Columbia added to Simon & Garfunkel's earlier acoustic "Sounds Of Silence, which then became a global success. Maybe they thought they might find gold a second time with Dylan's "Rising Sun").

The Animals also picked up on some very good Brill songs - "Don't Bring Me Down", "It's My Life", "Gotta Get Out Of This Place" - and did hard-hitting versions of them, far better than contemporaries like Manfred Mann whose covers were rather too polite and rather saccharine.

[Adam Blake]

Well that's alright then. I'm very fond of Eric Burdon but I think his range was a bit minimal compared to Stevie Winwood, who was also better at pitching. I know these are technical details but they both had so much soul it comes down to technical details! Lennon, on the other hand, had the range and the pitch but he wasn't as good a soul singer - even though he was covering Smokey Robinson and Arthur Alexander before anyone else in the UK, and doing a fine job. As a rock'n'roll singer, however, he left them both in the dust. So it's horses for courses, I guess.

[Chris P]

what about Steve Marriott and Robert Wyatt ?

[Rob Hall]

Hang about. This was a thread about the Animals. If you want a thread about male Brit singers, go start yer own.

And when you do, add this in: Steve Marriot I'll grant you, but Robert Wyatt - admirable though he is in many ways - is not a great singer. Idiosyncratic, yes. Unique, possibly. Brit, certainly. Loveable, cuddly, curmudgeonly, etc. But he doesn't do passion. If he feels strongly about something it gets across by virtue of what he's singing rather than the way he sings it. He was profiled in the Guardian just today, and he was reported as comparing his own voice to that of "Jimmy Somerville on valium". But there's many good male Brit singers: Frankie Miller; even the likes of Rod Stewart and Paul Rogers at their best; Van Morrison on a good day; Tom Jones has surprised me on occasion - given the right setting and a halfway decent song he's capable of much more than he's sometimes given credit for. But the great lost Brit singer is Terry Reid. He produced some glorious stuff, in his day. His "Terry Reid" album shows him at his best, in my opinion, with "The River" and "Seeds Of Memory" close behind. He's not produced much of to match those peaks since, and his recent resurgence has been plagued by his liking for a drink before going on stage. But his records stand the test of time and, live, he can still press the buttons when he gets a groove on - his version of "Don't Worry Baby" has to be heard to be believed.

[Adam Blake]

Well if you're gonna go there with Frankie Miller and Rod Stewart and Paul Rodgers and Terry Reid we'll have to do the decent thing by Robert Plant as well, AND Victor Brox, AND Chris Farlowe (even though I never liked him).

Steve Marriott was probably the South's closest answer to Eric Burdon in the soul and passion/ pitching and range stakes. He also shared with Burdon the ability that true soul singers have of making his audience really care about him.

Robert Wyatt would probably be dead tickled to see himself mixed up with that lot.

These threads have a habit of wandering about y'know. That's half the fun.