Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 46

Record label: Columbia

Produced: Mickey Most

Recorded: EMI Studios, London; 1964

Released: October 1964

Chart peaks: 6 (UK) 7 (US)

Personnel: Eric Burdon (v); Alan Price (k); Hilton Valentine (g); Chas Chandler (b); John Steel (d)

Track listing: Story Of Bo Diddley; Bury My Body; Dimples; I’ve Been Around; I’m In Love Again; The Girl Can’t Help It; I’m Mad Again; She Said Yeah; The Right Time; Memphis, Tennessee; Boom Boom (S/US); Around And Around

Running time: 38.52

Current CD: EMI Gold 4732722 adds: Rare Tracks album

Further listening: The Complete Animals (1990)

Further Reading: I Used To Be An Animal – But I’m All Right Now (Eric Burdon, 1992)

Download: iTunes; HMV Digital

By 1964, the Merseybeat boom had fizzled out. Only The Beatles and The Searchers proved to have staying power. The new boom on the block was tough, rootsy R&B, propagated by a network of clubs across the UK. Newcastle’s Club Au Go Go was an essential stop on any American bluesman’s tour itinerary. However, when elder statesmen such as Sonny Boy Williamson II hit town, they ran the risk of being blown off-stage by the toughest outfit of the British blues boom. The Animals majored on the musicianship of Alan Price on piano and Vox Continental organ and the secret weapon of the raw impassioned vocals of Eric Burdon and their repertoire, drawn from the rougher end of Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, et al.

They were signed to EMI by producer Mickey Most, and debuted during three one-day sessions in January 1964. A second date in February and third in July provided the material for this album, the first three singles and their B-sides. The second of these was The House Of The Rising Sun, which, released in July, quickly topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

For the album, The Animals essentially played their live set and that was it. Burdon gave out true bottled soul on Bury My Body and I’m Mad Again (one of three John Lee Hooker songs), while the unsung Hilton Valentine (the final member to join) provided a great growling guitar solo. Alan Price contributed rolling piano to Hooker standard Dimples. (‘He was always better on piano,’ says Burdon, ‘I hated the sound of that fucking Vox Continental, but it was the only practical thing to use for live dates.’)

Thanks to The Animals and two other eponymous, largely R&B-influenced albums by British bands the same year – The Kinks and The Rolling Stones – this music would remain the dominant form in the clubs and charts until the end of 1965, with the rise of the mod bands, soul and an increasing air of experimentation.

1965 also saw Alan Price’s departure, officially citing ‘fear of flying’. Burdon himself blames Price’s sole arrangement credit on the band’s biggest hit as the real reason: ‘When Alan Price walked off with the publishing for House Of The Rising Sun, well, what does that amount to in terms of finances? It would have given everybody a sense of success and achievement if the money had been distributed equally. So the band was always split into factions.’