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"...The Twain Shall Meet..."
I've enjoyed a few tasty Box
Sets in 2020 (despite lockdowns and other enslavements) - but this has to be
one of my faves and an absolute shoe-in for how reissue should be approached.
What a humdinger this gorgeous looking thing is. And it sounds the Ben Sherman
too.
There's a lot of coloured
rain, meetings of twains, winds of change, uppers and downers and a girl named
Sandoz to wade through - so without any further sky pilots, let's get all San
Franciscan man...
UK released 21 February 2020
- "When I Was Young: The MGM Recordings 1967-1968" by ERIC BURDON and
THE ANIMALS on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 52700 (Barcode 5013929480001) is a
56-Track 5CD Oversized Clamshell Box Set of Remasters covering Four Studio
Albums Plus Ten Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows:
Disc 1 "Winds Of
Change" STEREO (60:34 minutes):
1. Winds Of Change [Side 1]
2. Poem By The Sea
3. Paint It Black
4. The Black Plague
5. Yes I Am Experienced
6. San Franciscan Nights
[Side 2]
7. Man - Woman
8. Hotel Hell
9. Good Times
10. Anything
11. It's All Meat
Tracks 1 to 11 are the album
"Winds Of Change" - released September 1967 in the USA on MGM Records
SE-4484 in Stereo (Mono variant is Disc 5) and November 1967 in the UK on MGM
Records C 8052 (Mono) and CS-8052 (Stereo) – the STEREO MIX is used here. Produced
by TONY WILSON - it peaked at No. 42 in the USA (didn't chart UK).
BONUS TRACKS:
12. When I Was Young
13. A Girl Named Sandoz
Tracks 12 and 13 are the
A&B-sides of a stand-alone 45 7" single released March 1967 in the USA
on MGM Records K 13721 and May 1967 in the UK on MGM Records MGM 1340 - peaked
at No. 15 in the USA and No. 45 in the UK
14. Ain't That So
Track 14 is the non-album
B-side of "Good Times" - a UK 45 7" single released August 1967
on MGM Records MGM 1344 and December 1967 in the USA as the B-side of
"Monterey" on MGM Records K 13868 - it peaked at No. 20 in the UK and
with the different A-side at No. 15 in the USA
15. Gratefully Dead
Track 15 is the non-album
B-side to "San Franciscan Nights" - a UK 45 7" single released
October 1967 on MGM Records MGM 1359. The September 1967 US 45 7" single
for "San Franciscan Nights" had "Good Times" on its B-side
(MGM Records K 13794) - the UK B-side was exclusive
16. Anything (Single
Version)
Track 16 is the non-album
B-side to "Monterey" in the UK on MGM Records MGM 1412 -
"Anything" was issued as a US 45 7" single in May 1968 on MGM
Records K 13917 but as the A-side with "It's All Meat" on the
flipside. The UK A-side is Track 11 on Disc 2
Disc 2 "The Twain Shall
Meet" STEREO and MONO (56:22 minutes):
1. Monterey [Side 1]
2. Just The Thought
3. Closer To The Truth
4. No Self Pity
5. Orange And Red Beams
6. Sky Pilot [Side 2]
7. We Love You Lil
8. All Is One
Tracks 1 to 8 are the album
"The Twain Shall Meet" - released March 1968 in the USA on MGM
Records SE-4537 in Stereo (only Promo copies were in Mono) and May 1968 in the
UK on MGM Records C 8074 (Mono) and CS 8074 (Stereo) - the STEREO MIX is used
here - Produced by TONY WILSON - it peaked at No. 79 in the USA (didn't chart
UK)
BONUS TRACKS:
9. Sky Pilot (Part One)
10. Sky Pilot (Part Two)
Tracks 9 and 10 are the
A&B-sides of a Stereo 45 7" single released January 1968 in the UK on
MGM Records MGM 1373 and May 1968 in the USA on MGM Records K 13939 - it peaked
at No. 14 USA and No. 40 in the UK
11. Monterey (Mono Single
Version)
Track 11 is the A-side of a
May 1968 UK 45 7" single on MGM Records MGM 1412 (the B-side is Track 16
on Disc 1)
Disc 3 "Every One Of
Us" STEREO (49:04 minutes):
1. White Houses [Side 1]
2. Uppers And Downers
3. Serenade To A Sweet Lady
4. The Immigrant Lad
5. Year Of The Guru
6. St. James Infirmary [Side
2]
7. New York 1963 - America
1968
Tracks 1 to 7 are the album
"Every One Of Us" - released August 1968 in the USA on MGM Records
SE-4553 in Stereo (only Promo Copies were in Mono on MGM Records E-4553) - the
STEREO MIX is used. Produced by ERIC BURDON and THE ANIMALS - it peaked at No.
152 in the USA (this LP had no UK release).
BONUS TRACK:
8. White Houses (Single
Version, Stereo Mix)
Track 8 is the A-side of a
November 1968 US 45 7" single on MGM Records K 14013 (the B-side is
"River Deep, Mountain High" – Track 10 on Disc 4)
Disc 4 "Love Is"
STEREO (73:54 minutes):
1. River Deep, Mountain High
[Side 1]
2. I'm An Animal
3. I'm Dying, Or Am I?
4. Ring Of Fire [Side 2]
5. Colored Rain
6. To Love Somebody [Side 3]
7. As The Years Go Passing
BY
8. Gemini
9. The Madman
Tracks 1 to 9 are the US double-album "Love Is" - released December 1968 in the USA on MGM
Records SE-4591-2 in Stereo only and April 1969 in the UK as a 'single album'
on MGM Records CD 8105 in Stereo.
The 6-track UK LP can be sequenced from this
CD as follows - Side A: 1. River Deep, Mountain High 2. I'm An Animal 3. I'm
Dying, Or Am I? Side B: 1. Ring Of Fire 2. Coloured Rain 3. To Love Somebody
BONUS TRACK:
10. River Deep. Mountain
High (Single Version, Stereo Mix)
Track 10 is the B-side of
"White Houses - a November 1968 US 45 7" single on MGM Records K
14013 (the A-side "White Houses" is Track 8 on Disc 3)
Disc 5 "Winds Of
Change" MONO (43:53 minutes):
1. Winds Of Change [Side 1]
2. Poem By The Sea
3. Paint It Black
4. The Black Plague
5. Yes I Am Experienced
6. San Franciscan Nights
[Side 2]
7. Man - Woman
8. Hotel Hell
9. Good Times
10. Anything
11. It's All Meat
Tracks 1 to 11 are the album
"Winds Of Change" - released September 1967 in the USA on MGM Records
E-4484 (Mono) and MGM SE-4484 (Stereo) and November 1967 in the UK on MGM
Records C 8052 (Mono) and CS-8052 (Stereo) – the MONO MIX is used here – Stereo
CD Variant is Disc 1. Produced by TONY WILSON - it peaked at No. 42 in the USA
(didn't chart UK).
Substantial to hold and
pretty to look at - the glossy outer hard-case Box Set has a pull out tray that
offers five Mini LP Card Repro Sleeves of the American Artwork – Discs One to
Five as listed above with the Stereo versions of "Winds Of Change"
and "Love Is" being gatefolds while the other three are single
sleeves (as per their original MGM Records artwork). The one-sided six-leaf
foldout poster is fact an advert for the Box Set (very cool looking) and is a
nice touch.
But the 66-Page Booklet is a
straight-up work of art, a veritable feast of info and images. There are so
many Psych-based posters of the period, concert and festival flyers, rare
ticket stubs, trade adverts, live photos, promotional material and more. But
surely the piece de resistance is Pages 56 to 63, each offering up a huge array
of foreign picture sleeves for both singles and albums – France, Germany,
Brazil, Japan, Norway, Yugoslavia, USA, UK demos – and all in gorgeous colour.
Combined with the preceding text that is in itself peppered with rare period
stuff – it doesn’t half make an impact.
MALCOLM DOME also puts
together a fantastic history of the period – his liner notes liberally dosed
with recent conversations and remembrances on sessions and tours from band
member Antion Meredith (the new name for Vic Briggs), guest Zoot Money (talking
about future Police guitarist Andy Summers), producer Keith Olsen and more.
There are even lists of live dates on the final pages that show the band
criss-crossing the UK, Europe and the States. Although there are loads of snaps
and warm recollections of his talent and charisma, conspicuous is the absence
of EB in the notes? Also Esoteric forgot to put in the catalogue numbers I’ve
provided above for any of the releases. But these minor points don’t stop
"When I Was Young..." from being exemplary in every way.
The transfers are care of
the vastly experienced Audio Engineer BEN WISEMAN – 24-bit digital Remasters
from original tapes done at Broadlake Studios in Herefordshire. Those of us who
have had to pick at the bones of these recordings across the decades will
marvel at these punchy little beasts – only the BGO CD reissue of "Every
One Of Us" gets close to how good these CDs sound. To the music...
After the dissolution of the
R&B phase of the Animals with November 1966's "Animalisms",
Burdon relocated to San Francisco and soaking up the hippy Psych
counter-culture exploding there, he relaunched as Eric Burdon & The
Animals. Drummer Barry Jenkins remained from the old line-up and in came the
trio of John Weider on Guitar, Violin and Bass, Vic Briggs on Guitar and Piano
(now known as Antoin Meredith) and Danny McCulloch on Bass. Wasting no time,
the band launched their MGM contract with the Eddie Kramer engineered 45 times
were very hard "When I Was Young" in April 1967 with the heavy
fuzz-guitar Psych-based "A Girl Called Sandoz" on the flipside. Also
recorded at that session was "And Just That" - a tune used in the
1967 James Mason, Geraldine Chaplin and Bobby Darin movie "Stranger In The
House" (all three turn up in the Bonuses on Disc One). Burdon's new
incarnation of The Animals hit big and fast - the single peaking at No. 9 in
the USA while his native England seemed less interested with a No. 45 placing
(Tina Turner, The Ramones and The Smashing Pumpkins have subsequently covered "When I Was Young"). To the mish-mash that was their MGM debut...
The "Winds Of
Change" album is a product of Tom Wilson's one-take lackadaisical
Production and the band's have-no-material, let's-make-it-up-right-here
approach. But it did give way to experimentation with styles - the Tex Mex
trumpet on "Hotel Hell", strings and Jazz moments on the ballad
"Anything", Music Machine Bassist and future Producer Keith Olsen playing
Bass on "Winds Of Change" and "The Black Plague" and Piano
on "Good Times" because McCulloch had broken his wrist. A patchy
album anyway, but when MGM put Burdon’s liner notes (a eulogy to acid) on the
front cover instead of the inside (without his permission) – the band hated it
and the public thought he was a preachy git. So even with good tunes like
"San Franciscan Nights" and the Ray Charles, Ravi Shankar praising
"It's All Meat" – stupid moves like Producer Wilson tricking the band
into recording a substandard cover of "Paint It Black" by The Stones
and then putting it on the album without their knowledge or permission – left a
ranker.
And of course it's a period
piece so stuff like the Tabla 'n' words experimentation of "Man -
Woman" sound a tad trite 52 years on – but with this cracking audio –
tunes like the sitar-driven eternity song "Winds Of Change", the I
took a walk and wrote a "Poem By The Sea" song (with crashing
percussion) and the take you under my wing "Anything" sound ahead of
their time and not bound by it. I also rejigger the track list of the LP – drop
"Man - Woman" and "Paint It Black" to include the
Cream-sounding British B-side "Gratefully Dead" and "When I Was
Young" – to get the album I really want (but that's just me!).
Ravi Shankar, The Who, Hugh
Masekela, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix all get praised in the cool sounding
"Monterey" – a fab groover about the famous 60ts Festival. With
Guitar, Sitar and Horns ripping along like the theme song to some Tarantino
movie about car chases and drugs – that sexy opener for "The Twain Shall
Meet" album from March 1968 quickly segues into the Summer of Love swish
and sway flower song "Just The Thought" (fab audio). Clever cross
channel panning of the vocals and guitars opens the equally wicked "Closer
To The Truth" and already three songs in and the album feels like the
masterpiece the first LP struggled to be. Burdon advises that no matter how low
you are, there is always someone lower in the philosophically dodgy and sound
(at the same time) "No Self Pity" – a be what you are piece given
hippy nuances with the Harpsichord and Sitar doing battle with the Bass and
Burdon's otherworldly delivery. The seven minutes and thirty-six seconds of
"Sky Pilot" is all flanged vocals and guitars - soldier's blood and crying
mothers back home filling up the anti-war song with genuinely well-written
lyrics. Another near eight-minute piece ends this excellent album - "All
Is One" - opening with an uncredited Royal Scots Guards giving in some
highland moaning bagpipes before we embark on a very-Doors we're all one and
the sun is your son hippy trip. Yeah baby...
The "Every One of
Us" LP divides people – I think its part genius and part crap. It starts
out so well too. Eric thinks people better get straight in "White Houses"
– a rather good jaunty tune tail-ended by cool guitar soloing. "Uppers And
Downers" is a 20-second piss-take on the Grand Ole Duke of York melody of
olde. Better is the John Weider instrumental "Serenade To A Sweet
Lady" – a polished toe-tapping piece of Rock-Jazz music for the woman who
would become his wife of the next 50 years (she sadly passed in 2019). Seagull
screeches begin "The Immigrant Lad" – a very Donovan/Dylan strummed
acoustic song - the Remastered audio gorgeous as Eric sings of coal and old
sailors and the waters of time. Side 1 then ends with a tambourine-shaking
shuffling rocker called "Year Of The Guru" that could have been a
kick-ass single - clever follow-your-leader warning lyrics backed by brilliant
piano fills and sexy overdubbed guitars.
Side 2 opens with "St.
James Infirmary" – a brilliant Eric Burdon groove that is quickly
side-swapped by the beast the album is most remembered for - the infamous near
19-minutes of "New York 1963 – America 1968" playing out Side 2 and
overstaying its welcome big-time. Starting out well with sung lyrics about
arriving in New York in 1963 where EB goes to the Bronx and the Apollo theatre
– his Newcastle mind blown by multicultural parts of the city and the
possibilities it offered. But of course assassinations in the news and the
riots that followed soured the dream. Throughout this social commentary workout
that then extends into 1968, John Weider plays a stormer on guitar while Zoot
Money (credited as George Bruno) plays Organ and Piano. About 6:16, the music
stops and becomes a spoken dialogue about a Government-abused pilot only to
return to a slow-build of I Feel Free chants and music. You can either love it
or hate it – and like most – you'll probably feel a bit of both.
Ex Dandelion's Lion and
future Police axeman Andy Summers joined EB, Zoot Money, John Weider and Barry
Jenkins for the double-album "Love Is" from December 1968. In an
interesting aside, Eric Burdon & The Animals would join a very minimalist
set of ranks - bands or artists who released three studio albums in the same
year or three albums of original material in the same year (Creedence,
Fleetwood Mac and Fairport Convention in 1969, Canned Heat and Matthews
Southern Comfort in 1970, Nilsson in 1971, James Brown in 1973 to name but a
few - my list is on-going and presently has only 22 names on it). Another cover
of the Ike & Tina Turner classic "River Deep, Mountain High"
might induce a yawn amongst listeners - but EB and his newly infused band go at
it with Rocking R 'n' B gusto for seven and half minutes - his love for the
lady boundless. Sly Stone's "I'm An Animal" gets an almost DIY punk
ethic going on - hey hey hey, they shout - before it gets all mellow yellow and
Soul-Rock-ish.
Their cover of Johnny Cash's
"Ring Of Fire" sees EB give it some welly on those burns-burns-burns
lyrics. But one of the double's undoubted highlights is the nine and half
minutes of "Coloured Rain" where Summers and the other guitarists in
the band get to stretch out with chops and changes on the Traffic cover that
are almost Prog in their structure. Seven minutes of "To Love
Somebody" does The Bee Gees proud - a daring re-working of their catchy
hit made into an epic Rock tune. Don Robey's "As The Years Go Passing
By" has Eric waxing lyrical about Blues Music and its effect - a fantastic
ten-minute piano-and-guitar Blues Rock shuffler than got left off the single
British LP when "Love Is" was finally released April 1969 in Blighty.
"Gemini" gets eleven minutes of Psych blissed out free form brilliance
- an obscure Steve Hammond song that would eventually show up on the lone
self-titled Quatermass LP in May 1970 on Harvest Records (Hammond has also been
in the ranks of Fat Mattress). It ends on the huge chunky doomy riffage of
"The Madman" - a song that soon becomes a bopper as Eric ponders the
world.
I'm fairly sure that
'outsiders' who do not know this part of Eric Burdon and The Animals story
might wonder what all the fuss is about. But do I love you (my oh my) - bet
your life baby. Well done to all the good bods who brought the legacy of "When
I Was Young: The MGM Recordings 1967-1968" to life...
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