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The purpose of the Friday call-in show was to promote Rockin’ For Joshua Tree, an Earth Day benefit
concert in Palm Springs for the fight against the Eagle Mountain Landfill.
Most of Burdon’s one hour on the air, however, focused on his legendary rock-and-roll music and his nearly four decades of life on the road, beginning with Eric Burdon & The Animals
in the Sixties. Fans calling from all over the desert, from Twentynine Palms to Indio, reminisced about Burdon’s musical repertoire and his impact on modern music history. They also commended his present-day efforts to help the environmental fight against the proposed mega dump.
At first appearance, sitting at the radio desk, Burdon seemed a quiet, almost somber individual--certainly not the gregarious
rock-star image one might expect from a musician of his stature. Instead, he conveyed an unassuming, late-50's persona; his wind-tossed brown hair and nonchalant manner matched by his desert-casual T-shirt,
sunglasses hanging on the collar, jeans and Wellingtons.
Harbored within the solemn demeanor, however, is a dry British sense of humor that reacts with sharp, quick wit and a rare
smile to any statement resembling a cosmic (or comic) observation of life. He’s “been there, done that” enough to recognize the ring of universal truth when he hears it, and, warming up to the show at hand, he
responded with an immediate, knowing retort to callers who hit the mark with their comments.
As to compliments about his life of music, he responded with a modest “thank you” and a nod. The 59-year-old Burdon
seems equally unfettered by titles--whether he’s being called the “legendary Eric Burdon,” a Rock-and-Roll Hall of Famer, or razzed about being an aging hippie. He takes it all in stride.
“I have a book in the works, it will be out soon,” Burdon announced early in the show. “It’s called House of the Rising Sun
.” Admittedly, that is probably the most recognizable title associated with his name, and he agrees that he couldn’t think of a better title to sum up his life in his autobiography, Part Two. (His first book,
Part One, was aptly titled: I Used To Be An Animal, But I’m All Right Now.)
While Gary put on a CD of “The House of the Rising Sun” for his radio listeners, Burdon took a breath and sat back in his
chair.
We listened to the recording from Burdon’s 1988 live performance at Wembley Stadium. He reminisced about discovering the song when he was still back in Newcastle, England, and the transition from its early versions in the late 1950s to its progression into one of the most famous songs of the ‘60s.
“I first heard it in a folk house, at age 15,” Burdon said. “Then Bob Dylan recorded it and came up with more lyrics than I’d
ever dreamed of.” Eventually, Eric Burdon & The Animals picked it up and ran with it. Their electrified version of “The House of the Rising Sun” took the music world by storm in the mid-60s and it became
their signature song.
“At the time it was the longest single ever recorded,” he said, explaining how they had to splice it and record it without a
lot of the verses in order to get it played on the radio. The irony, he said, was when later bands copied and recorded it, “they even included our splice marks!”
Another famous song of the era was “It’s My Life,” rallying a generation to do their thing. “That was sent to us when
we were a budding, up-and-coming rock group in England,” he said. “We’ll sing this on TV next week with Roseanne,” Burdon added. “Don’t know how I got myself in that situation! Ha!”
“I sang on stage with Nancy Sinatra, and a representative for Roseanne was in the audience,” he explained. This woman rushed
up to him after the performance, told him all about how Roseanne loved his music, and said, among other things, “She’s your biggest fan!” “So... I’ll be on her show next week,” Burdon said, shaking his head.
Other classics from Eric Burdon & The Animals, included “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,”
“Inside Looking Out,” “The Story of Bo Didley,” “Bring it on Home to Me,” and “See See Rider.”
According to Burdon, the original Animals were 1964-66.
The New Animals band was born in 1967. He had taken some time and sought out his musician friends who shared his dream of moving on. “Then we came to America,” he said. “To a house in Beverly Hills. We were the real Beverly Hillbillies!”
Eric Burdon’s lengthy recording career and live stage performances have spanned the decades and run the gamut of musical
styles.
From a gritty British R&B band, to flying with Jimi Hendrix to the Monterey Pop Festival, to pioneering the San Francisco psychedelic rock scene, to forming the funk band WAR in the ‘70s, to recording jazz-blues with Jimmy Witherspoon, to later collaborations with ex-Doors guitarist Robby Krieger and keyboard great Brian Auger. From hits like “San Franciscan Nights” and “Sky Pilot,” to TV and film soundtracks. From more than 100 television and video performances, to a few guest appearances in movies, including Oliver Stone’s film The Doors.
Burdon’s role in rock history has been impressive and he is featured prominently in every documentary of the genre.
Over the years, EB&A has disbanded and reunited numerous times; Burdon continuing his solo career and collaboration with
other musicians, then reuniting the Animals for reunion tours and recording new studio albums.
In 1994 the original Animals were officially inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “I was on the road in Germany at
the time and couldn’t make the event,” Burdon admitted, “which was tough, because folks thought I was snubbing the honor.”
His latest resurgence with Eric Burdon & The New Animals has him in the recording studio again. (“I’ve got a book and a CD running neck and neck right now,” he says.) Finding much of modern electronic recording “too perfect,” he promises that he’s putting “more soul back into the new album.” And the band is on tour again, in fact just returning from a long gig in Australia a week before his appearance here at the Z107.7 studios in Joshua Tree.
“How long have you been on the road?” Gary asks him.
“Constantly!” Burdon responds with a laugh. “That’s why I live here--in the desert. This is the best place to rest and
recuperate.”
So how did he end up here, in our Southern California desert?
“I had a house here as early as 1968,” he says. “I first came out to see the Joshua Tree Monument.” His first and lasting impression of Joshua Tree National Park was and is----“It Rocks!”
Finding it a “mecca for music,” the park has “great mysticism,” he says. That sense of mysticism is vital to his life as a
musician. “As artists, if we don’t have it, we have to create it.”
A regular visitor to the park for over 20 years, he appreciates the park and surrounding desert for its beauty and inspiration. It’s another world, he says. “Past Yucca Valley, you’re off the planet!”
As a permanent denizen, he has always felt at home in our California desert... from Joshua Tree to Whitewater to the Coachella
Valley and the magnificent national park in between. For him it offers a reprieve from the outside world and the demands of his life on the road.
Burdon, who says of himself, “I’m not normally an activist,” is now joining the fight to help protect our local ecosystem.
He’ll use his music to help the cause, supporting the grass roots movement to stop Eagle Mountain Dump.
“I’m only active on issues I can see, feel, touch, smell and relate to,” he says.
This one, the proposed mega dump in his desert backyard and less than a mile from our pristine Joshua Tree National Park, affects him. “That’s part of being American,” he says, “to speak up.”
Writer Vickie Waite is Publisher/Editor of The Sun Runner Magazine, Twentynine Palms, CA. Email: sunrun@cci-29palms.com
WEB INFO: www.ericburdon.com and www.stopthedump.com
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