mail: daniel_fjall@hotmail.com
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gold
Gold Released: 19?? Rating: 9/10 Track listing: 1. House of The Rising Sun/ 2. San Francisco Nights/ 3. We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place/ 4. Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood/ 5. I’m Crying/ 6. Boom Boom/ 7.It’s My Life/ 8. Good Times/ 9. C.C. Rider/ 10. Inside/ 11. Don’t Bring Me Down/ 12. Ring of Fire/ 13. I Put A Spell On You/ 14. Help Me Girl The Animals was a major ass-kicking band way back when. They rivaled The Who for the award as the hardest band, they had a tighter sound than the mighty Stones and were fronted by a singer of Paul Simon-size but with a pipe more powerful than the Newcastle United-supporters combined. Indeed, Eric Burdon was an excellent front-man with the skills to back it up. Sadly, The Animals reputation has demised over the years. Partly because they broke up too soon, partly because they didn’t quite have the songwriting skills that their more recognized contemporaries had, and yet another partly because they never were able to release one truly classic album. On the other hand, when albums started to become important to realize so-called artistic visions, the group had already started to self-destruct and was never given the chance to create their version of Quadrophenia, Sgt Pepper or Their Satanics Majesties Request. Instead they released a number of deadly singles that ought to be enough to keep the memory of them alive for another two centuries or so. There are more treasures to be found than the overplayed, but still amazing, “House of The Rising Sun”. The pop-adjusted “We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place” and “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” are cemented forever among the best singles of the 60’s. However, the best moments appears when they lay their hands on the old blues tracks. John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom” and Ma Rainey’s classic “C.C. Rider” (also infamously covered by Ray Charles) are so jaw-droppingly energetic that it’s the closest thing to a religious experience you’ll ever get without going to church on Christmas Day or shooting needles up your arms. Sadly, The Animals catalogue has been heavily abused and the original albums are difficult to find on CD these days. Instead there are numerous cash-in compilations (there are more “best of”-albums out there than actual albums released by the band), but with some luck you’ll be able to avoid those and get a really good compilation like this one. As the line-up changed towards the end, Eric Burdon continued under the name Eric Burdon & The New Animals which eventually turned into Eric Burdon & War. Keyboard-player Alan Price also continued with solo-projects (The Alan Price Rhythm & Blues Combo) and bass player Chas Chandler became a successful producer and manager (discovering both Jimi Hendrix and booze-rockers Slade).
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