I did a previous Vinyl Vault entry about The Animals (13 July 2020) and mentioned that I'd seen them in concert in April 1967. Although the poster said 'Eric Burdon & The Animals' the small print mentioned the 'new' Animals. By 1967 Eric Burdon was the only member of the original 5 who was still there. What I saw was about the 3rd or 4th incarnation of the group. Gone was the magical hypnotic keyboard playing of Alan Price, whose stirring swirling organ had drawn me into 'House of the Rising Sun' just 3 short years before. Gone too were Chas Chandler, bassist, Hilton Valentine on guitar and John Steel on drums. I remember leaving that concert feeling a bit deflated, their performance was not as memorable as I'd hoped and I recall enjoying the support acts more.
Fast forward to 1977. After getting together for a one-off benefit concert in 1968 the original 5 Animals reformed briefly in late 1975, did a mini-tour in '76 and recorded this album in 1977. The album title is very apt - there was a 12 year 'interruption' since the last recording by this line-up. They would do it once more in 1983 for another album 'Ark' but sadly it can never happen again. Chas Chandler the original bassist, who went on to manage Slade and Jimi Hendrix, passed away in 1996 aged just 57. Guitarist Hilton Valentine died in January 2021 aged 77.
This album though rekindles that early magic. The bluesiness, particularly on tracks like 'As The Crow Flies' and then 'Please Send Me Someone To Love' let's Eric's voice do what it does best. Alan Price gets his moments in the sun on 'Just a Little Bit' when he breaks out the organ and again with piano on the bands own composition 'Riverside County'. 'Fool' ends the album on a foot-tapping high, but the track that brought me back to this LP is the second song on side 1.
Looking for something to watch on TV, we spotted the new Netflix release 'Gunpowder Milkshake' - a mindless bang-bang shoot-em-up with ex-Doctor Who companion Karen Gillan playing Amy Pond as a serial killer. It was a couple of hours of graphic, violent entertainment that you didn't need to think about, but part way through my ears pricked up. The soundtrack burst into song. A Dylan song. A Dylan song done by The Animals - the second song on side 1 of this album - 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue'.
No theatrics, no fancy attempts at creating anything ridiculously outlandish, just a raw solid interpretation of a great song. Eric puts his heart and feeling into his vocals and Alan makes the piano take the workload away from the others by creating atmosphere. A great version almost lost in an album that literally fell through the cracks.
Released at the height of punk and disco - two ends of the spectrum - there seemed to be nowhere for this album to sit comfortably. Add to that the lack of a promotional tour and virtually no other advertising for the album itself and it really didn't stand much of a chance. That's a shame because it's a great piece of work. Some tracks are better than others, that's always the case, but no tracks are duds. There's no filler on this album, each song stands on it's own and each song works.
'Gunpowder Milkshake' was not a memorable movie, but it pointed me back to a memorable LP. For that I give it 5 stars.
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