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The seismic epicenter of the psychedelic wave was San Francisco, where, in the second half of the sixties, the demands for change had Haight-Ashbury as the headquarters of the best minds of that generation, who genuinely believed that with peace, love, and brotherhood, they could change the fate of a world destined to extinguish under the weight of consumerist and selfish implosion.
And unfortunately, they were defeated.
Eric Burdon had just moved there permanently, disbanding the formation known until then as The Animals, authors of the most lascivious and murky blues among the wave of bands that marked the British Invasion of the early sixties. A completely atypical band in the English music scene of the period, because the Newcastle quintet was much more inclined to the rough and rambling American sounds of blues and rock 'n' roll, compared to the energetic and rigorous "mannerism" beat reigning among bands from the land of Albion. Authors of hit songs like "The House Of The Rising Sun", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", or "We've Got To Get Out Of This Place", their popularity was much wider overseas than at home, and despite the new contract with Decca/London, "Animalism" (1966), their most compact and powerful work was released only in the United States, thus effectively putting an end to the experience (bassist Chas Chandler moved to New York and aspiring producer "discovered" the young guitarist Jimi Hendrix, bringing him to London and making history). As mentioned, Burdon (the guiding spirit of the group) decided to immerse himself in the kaleidoscopic life of Frisco and, surrounded by a series of trusted musicians (after some experiments also supervised by the young genius Zappa), released the manifesto of the Love Generation, "Winds Of Changes" (August 1967). Burdon became its spokesperson and the megaphone directed at the world, and the album opens with his abrasive voice that smoothly unfolds in unraveling the litany of the new winds of change taking place, laying it down on the magic carpet woven by the acidic violin of John Weider and the visionary guitar of Vic Briggs, in a hypnotic mantra guided by a visionary sitar that weaves in and out of the rhythmic mesh of Danny McCullogh's bass and Barry Jenkins' trusted drums, for the Lysergic Manifesto that is the title track:
"There are winds of changes blowing
Gathering leaves up in its path
And the people who are the leaves
Will remain in our hearts
With love, till eternity"
"Poem By The Sea" lives on noise that underlies Burdon's voice, which bursts into a melancholic desolate land, torn by a nomadic violin that takes the final scene to gently introduce us to the psychotic fury of "Paint It Black", a worldwide hit from a few years earlier by the Rolling Stones, that, despite the lyrics, the animals pour buckets of multicolored paint on, wildly indulging in a pagan orgy of purification. "The Black Plague" lives on a structure reminiscent of Gregorian chants and allows Burdon to recite his visionary surreal parable; before launching into the fiery blues of "Yes I Am Experienced" (it's superfluous to underline whom he addresses his response to...). The feelings for the city that adopted him are sublimated in the splendid love song that is "San Franciscan Nights", acid folk of the finest lineage, so much so that it climbs the sales charts while not selling out and competing equally with Country Joe & The Fish, Kaleidoscope (USA), The Byrds, Beau Brummels.
The second part of the album perhaps loses a bit of incisiveness, and the proclamation in perfect Leary-style "Man-Woman" musically is only a hint at vaguely tribal rhythms, with Burdon's proto-rap reminding us "This is the beginning of the end"; while "Hotel Hell" closely resembles the rarefied atmospheres of "Forever Changes" by Love, with Spanish-tinged moods, but without being as incisive as the work of Arthur Lee and company, who also return in the other hit of the album "Good Times", albeit bastardized by a (mersey)beat penumbra... as if Burdon didn't want to break the umbilical cord with his origins. "Anything" is a very soft ballad balanced between Bacharach's easy-listening from the box office and the more cultured one of Lee Hazelwood; the only track of the album to sound understated, before erupting into the Zappa-esque freakedelia of the concluding "It's All Meat".
Exhausted by the energy expended (maliciously defined by many as the furious hysteria of Burdon's experiments with LSD) even Eric Burdon & The Animals ended their activity, and our man assembled another formation for what would be his sublime swan song "The Twain Shall Meet" (1968).
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Poem by the Sea (02:15)
I took a walk down by the sea
And I listened to her strength
And I saw how tall I was
Realized how small I was
And I wonder...
Why the world should care for me?
I looked up into the swirling sky
Saw the clouds go rushing by
Realized how slow I was
And I saw how low I was
And I wondered....
Why the sun should shine for me?
03 Paint It Black (05:59)
Hmm, aahhhh
I see a red door and I want to paint it black
No colors in my life, you better turn them black
I see them walking by dressed in their colorful clothes
My happiness de?
No more will my grey sea turn a deeper blue
I cannot foresee this thing happening to you
No
I see people walking by dressed their summer clothes
I see them strolling by, my happiness ?
Turn it black
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
I said I know baby
Everything is black I know
Since you been gone
Eveything is black before my eyes
Baby eh
Everything is black I know
Turn to me
And help me see again baby
Help me walk once more
And help me talk again, walk again
Stand up like a man baby
Since you been gone, gone
There is no color in my life baby
Its turning so very very ? black
Humph, I walk down the street
And I see a line of cars
Maybe blue, maybe brown, maybe green
But their turning black
Before my very eyes
And you could not know
What its like when your whole world is black
When everything you see and touch
Turns so very very black hmm
Oh baby now
I need you by my side
Bring some color into my life
Once again
I even tripped down and fell
Didn't see no colors anymore baby
Bad, bad scene
And I have to tell you baby
No more will my grey sea go turn a deeper blue
I cannot foresee this thing ever happening to you
No
I see people walking by me
They're all going in different directions
I see them strolling by and my heart splinters like a flame
Turning black baby
Turning black I know
Everything
Since you've been gone is turning black, turning black, turning black, turning black, turning black
Yeah yeah yeah yeah, baby
Oh lord, oh babe, whoa lord, help me see again, baby
Help me walk, talk, walk stand up like a man I know
Need you standing by my side
Because I'm blind and I cannot see
Color blind
I'm color blind
Paint everything so black
Go ahead and paint it black baby
Everyhing is black black, black, its turning black I know
Need some color in my life...
(Richards-Jagger)
08 Hotel Hell (04:48)
The neon sign flashes,
Leaves its mark against the wall
The TV is silent
And will stay that way until dawn
The sheets are so cold,
The telephone is dumb
And I'm so very far from my home
In the dark I hear a siren
It screams across the night
Someone else is in trouble
I am not the only one
The cigarette glows,
I'm all alone
And I'm so very far from my home
I would leave here tomorrow
But I know I've got to stay
If only you were here with me
I'm holding on to every memory, memory
Memory, memory, memory, memory…
It is four o'clock in the morning,
The sun begins to rise
Another day I have to face,
Baby, I'm so dissatisfied
Breakfast is served
The morning news is heard
And I'm so very far from my home
Yes, I'm so very far from my home
Yes, I'm so very far from my home
So very…
Well, I'm so very far, far away from home
So very…
10 Anything (03:21)
For you, my friend, I'd do anything
Shine your shoes, anything
Lose your blues, make love to you
Take you under my wing, anything
For you, my hero, I'd do anything
Paint your picture, anything
Kiss your photograph even though I know you'd laugh
Stand beneath your wings, Oh, anything
And for you, my love, I would do anything
Kiss your feet and everything
Suffer your pain but I'd ride your train
Spread our tiny wings, baby, anything
And for you, my son, I'd do everything
Protect your mind from everything
I could read your lies, dry tears from your eyes
Spread your tiny wings, anything
'Cause everything is anything
And everything is anything
11 It's All Meat (02:01)
The sound of Muddy Waters and the voice of Jimmy Reed
When Ray Charles moans
It's all meat on that same bone
It's all meat on just one bone
When Miles Davis blows his horn,
When Ravi Shankar plays
It's all down home
But it's all meat on the same bone
It's all meat on just one bone
When Erkel Darbies walks,
When Eric Clapton talks
There's only one place it can come from
And it's all meat on the same bone
All meat, same bone,
Do it!
Don't you listen to none of them jive hip squares
Try to tell you where the blues is from
'Cause the blues is from the whole wide world
Deep within the souls of men.
When Muhammad Ali gets mad
When an Irishman drinks
It's all for a woman
It's all for his home
It's all meat on the same bone
It's all meat, same bone
It's all meat, same bone
Same bone, same thing
It's all soul, It's all meat…
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