Fantastic Friday Celebrating the 2024 Birthday of Eric Burdon and Kansas Joe McCoy
by Robert Wilkinson
Yes, our afternoon and evening show features one of the most distinctive voices in all of music, opened by one of the grandfathers of the blues! That's why we're opening the doors early!
Before we put Eric on the main stage, we have one of the most famous songs of all time, performed by two pioneers of the blues! In 1929, Kansas Joe McCoy (May 11, 1905 – January 28, 1950) and Memphis Minnie (June 3, 1897 – August 6, 1973) married in 1929 and promptly recorded this timeless classic, which was later done by Led Zeppelin in a totally different arrangement. For your enjoyment, from the Sunner of 1929, “When the Levee Breaks.” By way of comparison, here’s the LZ version! “When the Levee Breaks”
From 1929, “I Want That”
From 1931, “Crazy Cryin’ Blues”
This one was the original inspiration for “Hey Gyp.” “Can I Do It For You”
We’ll close this short set with their first big hit! From 1930, “Bumble Bee”
For the encore, another sample of his songwriting after he and Minnie broke up in 1935. He took the song “Weed Smoker’s Dream” he recorded in 1936 with the Harlem Hamfats, gave it to Lil Green, rewrote the lyrics, and in 1941 scored big with this tune that’s become a jazz standard “Why Don’t You Do Right?” (Big Bill Broonzy is on guitar!)
(I promise I’ll have more tunes by this pioneering Memphis blues couple next year! Until then, here’s the main show!)
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Eric Burdon (11 May 1941) was one of the most powerful voices in the original British Invasion, fronting for the Animals in some of the most driving R&B ever done by a bunch of white British guys. Eric is a shouter in the old blues tradition, and his voice was all over the airwaves back in the 60s and 70s! Today I can’t do a long tribute, but what I found is awesome!
We begin with one of the most compelling tunes ever done. It got the world’s attention in a huge way, and let the world know the Animals were a primal force of nature!
Here’s a great color video of Eric singing to the original studio track with the rest of the original band “playing” “House of the Rising Sun”
From UK tv in 1964, “House of the Rising Sun”
From October 1964 on The Ed Sullivan Show their live version of “House of the Rising Sun.” The screaming is real!
Here’s a live audio only performance from 1964 in Paris of “House of the Rising Sun.” The crowd goes a little crazy on Alan’s solo!
Nineteen years later, the original Animals got back together for a reunion. From that 1983 event, here’s a live performance of “House of the Rising Sun.”
Here’s a great color video clip with interspersed commentary in a documentary on “House of the Rising Sun”
From 1965, when they won the NME award, “Boom Boom” Last year I had all 3 tunes in their set on one clip, but it’s disappeared. So instead, here are the other two! ”Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” and “Talkin’ ‘Bout You/Shout”
Here’s a fantastic live performance on Ed Sullivan of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.” (NO lip-synching, and the brief intro is real, and funny!)
A great live clip from UK tv in 1964 of their R&B arrangement of Chuck Berry's “Talkin’ Bout You”
Also from 1964, “Blue Feeling.”
From 1965 on Hullaballoo, the Animals crank out “It’s My Life”
Also from 1965, “We Gotta Get Out of This Place”
One of my favorites! Here’s a very dynamic performance of a song he co-wrote with Alan Price, the driving “I’m Crying”
Another great live clip of a Chuck Berry classic! “Around and Around”
Here’s the awesome hit “Bring It On Home To Me”
From 1967, live on US tv, the “New Animals” let us know that times had changed with this live performance of the proto-grunge, fuzz and distortion soaked “When I Was Young”
From the Festival of the Flower Children in the UK in August 1967, Eric and the Animals live performing “Hey Gyp”
From Vancouver tv in 1968, a great live performance, including the song that captured the legend as it was being made! “Children danced night and day, religion was being born, down in Monterey!” ”House of the Rising Sun,” “Monterey,” “The Black Plague,” “San Franciscan Nights,” “When I Was Young,” and “Sky Pilot.”
Here’s the music video that really captures the vibe at the legendary Monterey Pop Festival that put “the Summer of Love” front and center in the global consciousness! “Monterey”
From The Twain Shall Meet, the same album that gave us “Monterey,” three great tunes you probably never heard!
Getting back to live performances from that era, live in 1967 with the “new Animals,” Eric giving us the hit “San Francisco Nights”
From Germany that same year, a live performance of “Tobacco Road”
Live in 1968 on Berlin tv, Eric and the New Animals cranking out ”Every Day I Have the Blues” and “Tobacco Road”
On German TV with War in 1970, Eric gives us a live performance of “Paint It Black.” Also from that gig, his mega-hit “Spill the Wine”
Live in 1995 with Bon Jovi, Eric and John give us a great live performance of “It’s My Life” and “We Gotta Get Out of This Place”
Live in Poland in 1998, a great performance of “Sky Pilot”
In Spain in 2005, Eric gives us the dynamic and very psychedelic “When I Was Young” and “I’m Crying”
From 2006 at the Lugano Jazz fest, Eric gives us his version of the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins bone chilling “I Put A Spell on You” which we follow with another awesome performance of “Sky Pilot”
We’ll close this set with a tune done by the reunited Animals in 1983! This is not the ELP tune, but rather a rocking tune that’s the theme song to the comedy-drama film of the same name. Definitely suitable for dancing! “O Lucky Man”
For the encores, more from that epic reunion tour! First, a bluesy performance of the Sam Cooke classic “Bring it on Home to Me” which we’ll follow with the intense “Melt Down”
We move forward with “Trying to Get to You” and then groove into the very jazzy, driving “We Gotta Get Outta This Place,” take it up a notch with the very rocking "My Favorite Enemy" and finish with the driving “I’m Cryin’”
Copyright © 2024 Robert Wilkinson
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