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AUSTRALIAN IMPORT: Display image may vary since this item is an import
The main problem with this Australian compilation is its subtitle, "A Decade of Rock Blues." Fans of the Animals will be aware that the group wasn't actually around for anything like a decade, but the tenure of the unit known as Eric Burdon & the Animals was even shorter, stretching only from the fall of 1966 to the end of 1968, and the length of time covered by the recordings on this disc is even shorter. Then there is the phrase "Rock Blues." Actually, Burdon & the Animals had shifted musical styles by this point. So, to be accurate, the subtitle of this album would have to read "18 Months of Psychedelic Rock." By that measure, however, it really does include the short-lived unit's essential recordings, among them its U.S. Top 40 hits "San Franciscan Nights," "Monterey," and "Sky Pilot," as well as the chart entries "Anything" and "White Houses," along with LP tracks from Winds of Change, Every One of Us, and Love Is. For the most part, the band's originals were the singles (the exception here being the title song from Winds of Change), while the album tracks tend to be covers. Either way, Burdon and the band often stretch out and improvise so that, for example, the leadoff track, "River Deep Mountain High," one of four tracks on the disc that run more than seven minutes, veers into a Burdon ad lib about Tina Turner, the singer on the original version of the song.
Track Listings
1. River Deep, Mountain High
2. San Franciscan Nights
3. Anything
4. Monterey
5. White Houses
6. Winds of Change
7. To Love Somebody
8. Sky Pilot
9. Ring of Fire
10. Coloured Rain
11. Serenade to a Sweet Lady
12. St. James Infirmary
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