About
Few voices in rock history carry the raw, bluesy power of Eric Burdon, the gravelly-voiced frontman who burst onto the scene in Newcastle, England in the early 1960s. As the driving force behind The Animals, Burdon channeled American blues and R&B with an authenticity that made his British peers sound polished by comparison. The classic Animals lineup featured Alan Price on keyboards, Hilton Valentine on guitar, Chas Chandler on bass, and John Steel on drums, but it was always Burdon's soulful howl that set the band apart. Their 1964 reimagining of 'House of the Rising Sun' became one of rock's defining moments, a five-minute epic that proved the genre could be genuinely haunting and cinematic.
Burdon never stayed still for long. After the original Animals dissolved, he reinvented himself with Eric Burdon and the Animals, embracing psychedelic rock and flower power on albums like 'Winds of Change' and 'The Twain Shall Meet.' He then teamed with funk outfit War for the early 1970s, producing the classic 'Spill the Wine' and pushing further into soul and groove territory. Throughout his career, Burdon remained a restless blues evangelist, bridging the gap between raw British Invasion energy and American counterculture. His influence on later hard rock and blues-rock artists is immeasurable, and that voice remains one of rock's true originals.
