British Invasion band best known for introducing House of The Rising Sun to people who hadn’t bought Dylan’s first album. The original line up centred around vocalist Eric Burdon and organist Alan Price, whose organ playing still failed to distinguish them from every other group playing Chuck Berry covers for white people.
After releasing several albums of blues clichés and tired rock covers, the group began to fall apart as members left for various reasons. Most successful was original bassist Chas Chandler, who swapped performing for management and launched the career of Jimi Hendrix and later of Slade. By 1966 the group had seen more line-up changes than albums with Eric Burdon the only original member.
The Animals, The only authentically rock thing about them is the boulder Pryce is sitting on.
We gotta get out of this place, the other Animals song that people know, which they didn't write either.
Now renamed Eric Burdon And The Animals, the group tired of playing blues covers like every other British invasion band and relocated to America to play psychedelic waffle-like every other American band. They struggled on for a few more albums that nobody bothered listening to and line-up changes that nobody cared about before disbanding completely in 1968 which is where their story finally becomes interesting. The original line up reunited several times in the remaining years but often had to deal with competition from multiple former bandmates with a claim to the name. Throughout the nineties and beyond, “fans” were treated to performances by groups called The Animals, Valentine’s Animals, Animals II, Animals and Friends and Eric Burdon And The Animals.
A one-off reunion album from 1977. The group proved they had developed over the decade by adding a Dylan cover to their repertoire of Blues covers that everyone else considered overdone ten years before.
Comments
Post a Comment