Customer Reviews

I Used to Be an Animal, but I'm All Right Now

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Stream of consciousness reporting on the life and times of Eric Burdon starting with his early days in Newcastle and ending with the British reissue of "House of the Rising Sun" (1972).
You will find very few verifiable dates, names or facts. Eric describes his story telling technique better than I could...
"Most of what you are about to read are memories, dreams, feelings and even hallucinations, but that's rock'n'roll....My story is true. Everything you read happened, although not always in the right chronological order. There's no way it could be, as even after only one or two weeks on the road with a touring band, life becomes a blur."
Published in 1986, long out of print and very difficult to find.

A must read for any Eric Burdon fan and a nice diversion for anyone interested in the sex and drugs aspect of Rock and Roll. As you might expect though, this is not a source of recording dates, discographies, release dates or useful trivia.

i am of course an eric burdon fan. but you don't have to be to read this book and enjoy it. burdon is a survivor and that is what this book is all about. many have died but this guy is still alive and making music. he's also a hell of a nice guy, after meeting him. puts everything into his music, appreciation of life and his performance. has been known to be the most screwed artist by the recording industry and he still keeps swinging. best account of life on the road i've ever read. could and should of been what mick jagger never was. a true blues singer but thats all past. best friend of jimi hendrix. section of that book. did his own art and illustrations. scoured everybook store and resource for two years and finally found a brand new copy in some low life record store in NYC village. paid $5.00 for it. and no its not for sale. try doing what i did. its worth the hunt and read. good luck!

arnold serafin carrollton, texas

This is a super fun read and it took me long enough to find a copy i could afford. But my recommendation comes with a BIG caveat - read it with a grain of salt. I can say that because me and my friends are mentioned in one of Eric's 'stream of consciousness' stories and what he describes is pure fantasy. The characters are right but what he describes never happened. Well, okay, we did sneak up to the 20th floor of the hotel where the Animals were staying...but the rest is totally made up! Still, i'm sure that there are a lot of stories with more validity. I love Eric and his music and first met him when he played at New York City's Paramount theater. My friends and i were kids but we knew talent when we heard it. He was and continues to be, one of the finest blues musicians out there. For a more recent perspective (his writing has improved tremedously too) read his latest "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood". It too is full of fabulous, probably exaggerated, stories, but Eric sure knows how to get your attention. And besides, hearing road stories from a really good racanteur is worth the price of admission. It's like hearing your favorite uncle tell war stories. You know half of it's b*S* but you get sucked in just the same.

This book is important to the proof behind the murder of Jimi Hendrix. Eric Burdon was a client of Jimi Hendrix's manager in the rock group The Animals. Michael Jeffery was a notorious fellow with both mob and MI-5 connections. He ripped the Animals off famously and after many years of success as a band left them broke after his span as manager.

Chas Chandler was Eric's bass player who notified Michael Jeffery of a sensational new find in New York of a talented black guitarist named Jimi Hendrix who Jeffery signed right away. After developing and skyrocketing Hendrix to fame, as he did the Animals, Jeffery then proceeded to rip Hendrix off blind as well. Towards the end Jimi had become a friend of Eric and sat-in on his live act with him two nights before he died.

Because of this Michael Jeffery commonality and friendship it was Eric Burdon whom Monika Dannemann called the night Jimi Hendrix was murdered. Burdon went to the Samarkand Hotel and called Jeffery employees Terry Slater, Eric Barrett, and Gerry Stickells to help clean-up the flat before any ambulance was called.

The reason 'I Used To Be An Animal' is important evidence for Jimi Hendrix's murder is because Burdon admitted, in this 1986 publication, that Dannemann had called him at the crack of dawn and not at 10:30 as she told the official British Inquest. This admission completely destroys Dannemann's account of what happened that morning and draws serious question as to how Jimi died. When combined with recent admissions that manager Michael Jeffery confessed to murdering Jimi, Burdon's admission of the real times involved corroborates the murder evidence. I suppose Burdon was driven by guilt to admit this in 'I Used To Be An Animal', but we thank him for doing so because it is part of the confirmation of Jimi's murder that has yet to be admitted by the British authorities who "investigated" it.

I was a huge fan of Eric Burdon in the mid-1960's, and knew him to be a (sometimes) perceptive observer of the social scene and a walking encyclopedia of Blues and Jazz. Therefore this book - which consists largely of boring anecdotes of on-the-road partying - was a major disappointment.

There is little here of commentary on the music of The Animals, on Burdon's musicial influences, on the inner dynamics of the band, or of the social upheavals of the 1960's. It's mostly sniggering recollections of partytime; we've all "been there/done that," and don't really need to hear about it anymore.