Eric Burdon, Still One Cool Animal

Before the 1960s British Invasion came the British rhythm and blues boom. From its inception in the 1950s, London was ground zero. By the early sixties, local groups like The Rolling Stones, Kinks and Yardbirds began taking the music out of the clubs and onto the pop charts.

But there were great bands anchoring strong R&B scenes elsewhere across the U.K., including in Belfast – Them, featuring the young Van Morrison – and Birmingham – the Spencer Davis Group, with a 15-year old belter named Stevie Winwood.

In Newcastle, it was all about The Animals. Led by keyboard player Alan Price and featuring charismatic lead singer Eric Burdon, they signed with EMI’s Columbia label and, in June 1964, had a worldwide smash with, “House of The Rising Sun.” A U.S. tour followed, including appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.

The original band splintered, Burdon formed a new lineup and moved to California. The music was still blues-based, but heavily influenced by his experiences with LSD, for which he was an enthusiastic evangelist. In 1969, he hooked up with the WAR, a funky Latin fusion band out of Long Beach, California, and scored a worldwide hit with, “Spill The Wine.”

Burdon, now 82, later pursued acting and wrote two highly entertaining books: I Used To Be An Animal, But I’m All Right Now; and Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood: A Memoir. He still tours occasionally. This interview was conducted between gigs just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, parts of which ran previously.

Jim Clash: When did you discover that you could sing?

Eric Burdon: They tell me I was born shouting the blues. I know that I was kicked out of the school choir because my voice was drowning out the others. As a teen, I would go to the jazz and blues clubs around Newcastle and beg for a chance to sing.

Finally, one evening, I was asked to take the singer’s seat with a jazz outfit when I was 17, and as soon as I grabbed the microphone, I knew the power of my own voice. The band was Pagan Jazzmen 5, 6 or 7, depending on how many band members were on stage at the time. They brought me in because I was the only guy around that could sing Joe Turner and Pete Johnson types of songs.

Not long after, I had a chance to record “direct to disc” and hear my own voice coming over the gramophone at Morton Sound Studio, Newcastle West End. The recording would last for about 10 plays and then disintegrate, but it let me hear my voice for the first time. That was a strange experience. A few years later, I was sharing the stage and got to record with big names such as Sonny Boy Williamson.

Clash: You skipped The Animals Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction in 1994.

Burdon: I didn’t skip the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction. I wish I’d been there at the time, but I was working abroad in Germany, and I couldn’t afford the time to be back for the ceremony. Sadly, I was only told that I’d been inducted, and that was that.

Clash: You knew Jimi Hendrix. What was he like?

Burdon: Jimi was a great friend with a wonderful sense of humor, a strong sense of purpose and meteoric drive. He was also a handful, a complicated person. I miss him and think of him often.

Clash: What are you afraid of and how do you handle fear?

Burdon: Winston Churchill once said, “Try not to fear to do or say what you believe to be right.” I have nothing to fear! Especially now. I’ve lived a full life, and my advice is that you are never going to go anywhere if you allow fear to get in the way.

Clash: When you wrote, “When I Was Young,” did you think you’d still be performing it in your late 70s?

Burdon: No, I didn’t. I never believed that I would live to have that durability. But I do remember when George Harrison heard the song for the first time. He went out of his way to find me and tell me that he thought it was great, and to, “Keep on keeping on.”

Clash: How did The Animals get chosen as the band’s name?

Burdon: Contrary to the notion popularized by our record label at the time, we did not choose the name The Animals because of our “wild stage antics,” but after the coolest outlaw in Newcastle, a guy named Animal Hogg, who was a prominent member of our gang, which we called the Squatters. He was a colorful local character, living out in the countryside with his faithful dog by his side. We would join him out in the wild on the weekends, and share stories around a campfire. We named ourselves in honor of his free “animal spirit.”

Clash: As part of the British Invasion, what are your recollections of America?

Burdon: We always laughed at the notion of a British Invasion, simply because it was just a catchphrase that Walter Cronkite, America’s No. 1 anchorman at CBS, coined to put us all in one basket. So the British Invasion had little to do with the music. There was no plot to storm America.

That said, it was good for Americans to hear the music they’d invented, but now returned to them with a new passion. It was a sympathetic relationship that helped escalate awareness a bit. Some would say it was a musical renaissance. I think in many ways it opened people’s minds and erased some barriers.

For us, it was just a ticket out of Newcastle, out of the U.K. and off to the U.S. We were all just thrilled to be in the land where jazz, blues and rock ‘n’ roll were born. In those days, a lot of the early greats had trouble making a living in the U.S., but found an eager audience in the U.K. We simply returned the music to the place where it had come from. In a way, we helped show Americans the music that was being created in their own backyard.

Clash: Do you remember being in the studio when you recorded the original version of, “House of the Rising Sun”?

Burdon: Of course I do. It was recorded in one take on our day off between tour dates opening for our hero, Chuck Berry. We wanted one song to really set us apart from not only his sound, but the type of R&B people expected from The Animals. We heard the reaction from the crowd and knew we had a hit.

The opening chords captivate you from the very start. The guitar part is one that every kid wants to play. It’s not blues, it’s not folk. It’s not even rock. It’s its own thing. It’s the mounting sexual tension of the song, which I changed the point of view from the female to the male. Even before The Animals did it, it was a song that struck me. I heard it in folk clubs in Newcastle, and then I heard Bob Dylan’s version on his first album.

There’s a reason why it has resonated with so many people for so long. The song itself is a tale of life gone wrong, with redemption in the end. It’s an honest reflection of the tension of the time, which was actually very dark and moody, with a haunting melody that one never forgets. It was the first song from a British band to knock The Beatles out of the No. 1 slot in the U.S.

There are times when I think I’m tired of it, but then I hear those opening notes on the guitar. It’s the one song that I’ve had to perform every time or I’d never have made it out of the venue alive!

Clash: How have audiences changed over the past half century?

Burdon: [When I tour], I see all ages at the shows. The original fans have kids and grandkids, and they bring them along. Then there’s just the younger ones who discover the music on their own, more or less. I know that when I was young, I was seeking out the elders of blues, and now that I’m one of the elders, there are a lot of kids out there, just like me, searching for their roots. As for performances, though I am slowing down a bit and not jumping around on stage as I used to do, I am lucky my voice is still there as strong and seasoned as ever.

Clash: You were on The Ed Sullivan Show more than once. What was that like, and what was Ed like?

Burdon: Ed was a good showman who knew how to please his audience, which was suddenly and disproportionately teenage girls. The screaming was over the top in that little theater, which looked much bigger on television. If you didn’t do his show, you weren’t anybody. Watching those clips today, I have to say, they look hilariously ridiculous. When I look at the suits that we were wearing, and I look at my hair – it looked like a wig – I can’t help but laugh.