1. Mess Around
2. How You've changed
3. Hallelujah I love her so
4. I believe to my soul
5. Worried life blues
6. Roberta
7. I ain't got you
8. Bright lights big city
9. Let the good times roll		play
10. For Miss Caulker
11. Road runner
12. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
13. Club A Go-Go
14. Bring It On Home To Me
15. We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
16. I Can't Believe It
17. It's My Life		play
18. I'm Gonna Change The World
19. Don't Want Much

Eric Burdon (vocals)
Hilton Valentine (guitar)
Mick Gallagher (keyboards)
Chas Chandler (bass)
John Steel (drums)

The Animals' second British album, recorded just before Alan Price exited the lineup, displays far more energy and confidence than its predecessor, and it's fascinating to speculate where they might've gone had the original lineup held together. There are a few lightweight tunes here, such as "Let the Good Times Roll" and the rollicking opener, "Mess Around," that capture the Animals loosening up and having fun, but much of Animal Tracks is pretty intense R&B-based rock. "How You've Changed" is a reflective, downbeat Chuck Berry number that Eric Burdon turns into a dark romantic confessional/inquisition, matched by Hilton Valentine's chopped out, crunchy lead work over the break, while Alan Price does his best to impersonate Johnnie Johnson. The group doesn't do as well with their cover of Billy Boy Arnold's "I Ain't Got You" as the Yardbirds did with the same number, treating it in a little too upbeat a fashion, and Hilton Valentine and Alan Price failing to add very much that's interesting to the break (especially in comparison to Eric Clapton's solo on the Yardbirds' version). "Roberta," by contrast, is a great rock & roll number, and their version of "Bright Lights, Big City," sparked by Burdon's surging, angry performance and Price's hard-driving organ solo. Price's playing opens what is easily the best blues cut on the album, "Worried Life Blues," where Hilton Valentine steps out in front for his most prominent guitar solo in the early history of the band, backed by Price's surging organ. Burdon and company also excel on a pair of Ray Charles covers, turning in a jauntily cheerful, euphoric performance of "Hallelujah I Love Her So," his jubilation matched by Price's ebullient organ work; and a slow, pain-racked performance by Burdon and company on the slow blues "I Believe to My Soul," arguably -- along with "Worried Life Blues" -- the singer's best performance on either of the group's EMI long-players, and matched by Price's quick-fingered yet equally ominous piano playing. ---Bruce Eder, AllMusic Review

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A1 	River Deep Mountain High	7:20
A2 	I'm An Animal	5:32
A3 	I'm Dying (Or Am I)	4:32
B1 	Ring Of Fire 	5:25
B2 	Colored Rain 	9:40
C1 	To Love Somebody 	7:20
C2 	As The Years Go Passing By 	10:12
D1 	Madman 	8:00
D2 	Gemini 	10:45

Drums, Percussion, Vocals – Barry Jenkins
Guitar, Vocals – Andy Summers, John Weider
Organ, Piano, Bass, Vocals – Zoot Money
Vocals – Eric Burdon

It's an eyebrow-raising experience to encounter the cover of "River Deep, Mountain High" that opens the Animals 1968 album, Love Is. Clocking in at nearly seven and a half minutes, it's the weirdest version of the song ever cut. Self-produced by the band, it juxtaposes vocalist and bandleader Eric Burdon's staggering abilities as a rhythm & blues singer with few peers with then-modern-day psychedelia. The Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry-penned vehicle for Ike & Tina Turner was never envisioned like this. There are moments of pure greatness in the track, a rough, garage-hewn rock and R&B foundation underscored by Burdon's blues wail is, unfortunately, completely messed over by the sound effects and his insistence on yelling "Tina, Tina, Tina..." ad nauseam in the bridge. And this is just the beginning. This version of the Animals contained enough serious players that they should have known better: Burdon, keyboardist Zoot Money, drummer Barry Jenkins, bassist John Wieder, and a young guitarist who'd been booted from Soft Machine after a very brief period named Andy Summers. For those who found charm and even inspiration in the Twain Shall Meet and Winds of Change -- both recorded in San Francisco -- Love Is may hold some sort of place in the heart. For those who looked back to the Animals catalog that included such dynamic albums as Animalism and Animalization as well as a slew of killer four-track EPs, this must have seemed like the bitter end. On the other hand, this trainwreck of an album has some interesting moments -- mainly for hearing how hard they tried to imitate other acts who were successful while at the same time trying to forge a new identity from the ruins of who they once were as a band whose day had come and gone. The utterly awful reading here of "Ring of Fire" is almost laughable. Other covers include a rave-up cum psychedelia version of Sly Stone's "I'm an Animal," Traffic's "Coloured Rain," and the Bee Gees "To Love Somebody." The latter -- which has to be heard to be believed -- begins with Summers playing Chuck Berry licks as an intro before it slows down into a completely over-the-top Don Covay-styled soul shot with Burdon underscored by a female backing chorus which counters to push him into the stratosphere. Despite its cheesy organ sound, it has enough power drumming, crunchy guitar, and a neat little piano break by Money to make it work. It's easily the best thing here even if it is absolutely mental. Burdon had heard ex-bandmate Chas Chandler's young guitar protégé Jimi Hendrix's "Third Stone from the Sun" from the Jimi Hendrix Experience's debut album as well. In fact, he enlisted Money's buddy, guitarist Steve Hammond (of Johnny Almond's Music Machine) to come up with a long-form psychedelic suite that evoked it and some of Pink Floyd's weirder experiments at that time. The end result, "Gemini," is hysterically funny now, and must have just seemed to be ecstatically drug-addled tomfoolery at the time. The closer, "The Madman (Running Through The Fields)," by Summers and Money would have been a killer single if they'd edited the acid-fried middle section out of it. As it stands, Love Is was a mess from a band who, once great, had completely lost its way and was on its last legs. ---Thom Jurek, AllMusic Review

Burdon w początkowym okresie pracy w The Animals wykonywał bardzo ekspresyjne pełne żywiołu bluesy i rhythm & bluesy. Wraz z Alanem Pricem tworzyli jeden z niezapomnianych bandów tzw. brytyjskiej inwazji. Jednak jak to często bywa, konflikt trzech indywidualności – Burdona , Price’a i gitarzysty Hiltona Valentine’a doprowadził do rozstania muzyków i zawieszenia działalności The Animals. Jednak jak to często bywa , konflikt trzech indywidualności Burdona, Price’a i gitarzysty Hiltona Valentine’a doprowadził do rozstania muzyków i zawieszenia działalności The Animals. Jednak już na początku 1967 roku Burdon wraz z nowymi muzykami reaktywował grupę. Szybko zaczęły ukazywać się nowe płyty, teraz sygnowane jako Eric Burdon & The Animals. Po nagraniu albumów, doszło do kolejnych zmian personalnych w grupie – z psychodelicznej formacji Dantalian’s Chariot doszli dwaj muzycy, najpierw klawiszowiec Zoot Money, potem gitarzysta Andy Summers.

Świadomy rozwój Burdona jako wokalisty oraz szersze postrzeganie nowej, otaczającej go rzeczywistości doprowadziło do zmiany charakteru muzyki zespołu. Fascynacja psychodelią , soulem i funkiem zaowocowała płytą „Love Is”. Jest to podwójny album i składa się on z ośmiu utworów z czego siedem jest coverami, a tylko jeden autorstwa Burdona. ”I’m Dying ,or Am I?” tym utworem Eric nawiązuje do korzeni czarnej muzyki. Rhythm & bluesowy numer oparty na zasadzie call and response , gdzie, tak jak kiedyś na polach bawełny podawano sobie pieśń, tak tutaj Burdon wraz z Moneyem robią to samo. Z pozostałych, cudzych kompozycji na szczególne wyróżnienie zasługuje utwór grupy Traffic „Coloured Rain”, w którym niesamowitą solówką popisał się młody Andy Summers. To trwające ponad pięć minut solo, wypływa nagle i snuje się niczym mgła o poranku, aby po jakimś czasie ponownie weń wniknąć. „To Love Somebody” braci Gibb przypomina aranżacyjnie to co robiła grupa Vanilla Fudge . Burdon nie byłby sobą, gdyby na płycie nie było rasowego bluesa. „As The Years Go Passing By” utwór Dona Robeya (napisany pod pseudonimem Deadric Malone) wyróżnia się kwasowymi solami gitarowymi, oraz potężnym pełnym ekspresji i niepokoju głosem głównego wokalisty. Kulminacją płyty „Love Is” jest trwający siedemnaście minut utwór, składający się z dwóch części : „Gemini” grupy Quatermass w którym podobnie jak wcześniej, duet Eric i Zoot używają frazy call and response, oraz drugiej części, którą stanowi cover grupy Dantalian’s Chariots – „The Madman” utrzymany w duchu nagrań Syda Barretta.

Niestety po nagraniu „Love Is” grupa praktycznie przestała istnieć. Burdona coraz bardziej zaczęły pociągać funkujące rytmy, czego dał wyraz wiążąc się z murzyńską grupą War i nagrywając z nią niezapomnianą płytę „Eric Burdon Declares War”. ---Grzegorz Wiśniewski, artrock.pl

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1.    San Franciscan Nights
2.    Gin House Blues
3.    Hey Gyp
4.    Paint It Black

    Eric Burdon - vocals
    Barry Jenkins - drums
    Vic Briggs - guitar, piano
    Danny McCulloch - bass, vocals
    John Weider - guitar, violin, bass

From a purely musical perspective, the Monterey Pop Festival was a groundbreaking event, bringing together nearly three dozen well-known and unknown acts representing an eclectic mix of styles and sounds. The great soul singer Otis Redding, the Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar and South African singer/trumpeter Hugh Masekala, for instance, all had their first significant exposure to a primarily white American audience at the Monterey Pop Festival, which also featured such well-known acts as the Animals, the Association, the Byrds, Jefferson Airplane and the Mamas and the Papas. In this sense, the festival not only pioneered the basic idea of a large-scale, multi-day rock festival, but it also provided the creative template that such festivals still follow to this day.

The organizers of the charitable Monterey Pop Festival also set a standard for logistical organization that the organizers of the for-profit Woodstock festival would attempt to follow, only to fall short under the immense pressure of overflow crowds and bad weather. In addition to arranging for private security and medical staff, the organizers of Monterey also deployed a staff of trained volunteers, for instance, whose sole task was to manage episodes among audience members partaking in the nearly ubiquitous psychedelic drugs.

Some 200,000 people attended the Monterey Pop Festival over its three-day schedule, many of whom had descended upon the west coast inspired by the same spirit expressed in the Scott McKenzie song “San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair),” written by festival organizer John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas expressly as a promotional tune for the festival. The Summer of Love that followed Monterey may have failed to usher in a lasting era of peace and love, but the festival introduced much of the music that has come to define that particular place and time. --- history.com

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London ‘67
1. Maudie                  play
2. Inside Looking Out
3. Instrumental
4. Love Like Yours
5. Shake Rattle and Roll
6. When I Was Young        play
7. Connection

Eric Burdon – vocals
Barry Denkins – drums
John Weiders – guitars
Danny McCulloch – bass
Vic Briggs – guitars & keyboards

Stockholm ‘68
8. Yes, I am Experienced
9. San Francisco Nights
10. Monterey
11. Paint It Black

Eric Burdon – vocals
Barry Denkins – drums
Danny McCulloch – bass
Vic Briggs – guitars & keyboards
Zoot Money – keyboards

The Animals were an English music group of the 1960s formed in Newcastle upon Tyne during the early part of the decade, and later relocated to London. Known for their gritty, bluesy sound and deep-voiced frontman Eric Burdon – as exemplified by their number one signature song "The House of the Rising Sun" as well as by hits such as "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" and "It's My Life" – the band balanced tough, rock-edged pop singles against rhythm and blues-oriented album material The Animals underwent numerous personnel changes in the mid-1960s and suffered from poor business management. Under the name Eric Burdon and the Animals, they moved to California and achieved commercial success as a psychedelic rock band, before disbanding at the end of the decade. Altogether, the group had ten Top Twenty hits in both the UK and U.S.

The Animals – brytyjski zespół rockowy, jeden z najważniejszych zespołów lat 60. Grupa powstała w 1963, po przystąpieniu wokalisty Erica Burdona do The Alan Price Combo. Zespół grał przede wszystkim rhythm and blues, później także psychodelicznego rocka. Już we wczesnych dokonaniach grupy daje się zauważyć psychodeliczne cechy – długie i powtarzane gitarowe riffy oraz wibrujące pasaże organowe. Grupa cierpiała na typowy dla rockowego świata syndrom konfliktu indywidualności. Wokalista Eric Burdon, organista Alan Price czy gitarzysta Hilton Valentine często reprezentowali różne idee muzyczne. Sytuacja taka prowadziła do ciągłego napięcia w grupie, a w konsekwencji do zmian personalnych (w 1965 odszedł Price) i ostatecznego rozpadu grupy.

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1. Don't Bring Me Down	The Animals	3:15
2. See See Rider	Eric Burdon & The Animals	4:01
3. Inside-Looking Out	The Animals	3:47
4. Hey Gyp	The Animals	3:49	
5. Help Me Girl	Eric Burdon & The Animals	2:38	
6. When I Was Young	Eric Burdon & The Animals	3:01
7. A Girl Named Sandoz	Eric Burdon & The Animals	3:06
8. San Franciscan Nights	Eric Burdon & The Animals	3:20	
9. Good Times	Eric Burdon & The Animals	3:00	
10. Anything	Eric Burdon & The Animals	3:23	
11. Winds Of Change	Eric Burdon & The Animals	3:59
12. Monterey	Eric Burdon & The Animals	4:16	
13. Sky Pilot	Eric Burdon & The Animals	7:30	
14. White Houses	Eric Burdon & The Animals	3:46
15. River Deep Mountain High	Eric Burdon & The Animals	7:21

Despite its being credited to Eric Burdon & the Animals, this hour-long compilation may prove to be of equal interest to serious fans of the original Animals (i.e. the quintet that recorded "House of the Rising Sun," "It's My Life," etc.). The first four cuts, at least -- "Don't Bring Me Down," "See See Rider," "Inside Looking Out," and "Hey Gyp" -- were done by the classic second lineup, featuring Burdon and original members Hilton Valentine, Chas Chandler, and John Steel, along with Dave Rowberry on keyboards, and those tracks all sprang from the original Animals' R&B roots. They also happen to be first-rate recordings and, indeed, are superior to many of the tracks off of the original band's first two LPs. As for the rest, overlooking "Help Me Girl" -- an Eric Burdon solo release on which it isn't clear who played, other than drummer Barry Jenkins -- it's all the work of Eric Burdon & the Animals, the psychedelic outfit that Burdon and his management assembled in 1966 around Jenkins; and John Weider on guitar, bass, violin, and keyboards; Vic Briggs on guitar, vibes, keyboards, and saxophone; and Danny McCulloch on bass, with Andy Summers showing up late in the day on "River Deep, Mountain High." Their material is surprisingly engaging, even if it isn't what anyone really wants to remember Burdon for -- in contrast to the typical British psychedelic music of the period, which tended to sound very fey and elegant, the "new Animals" played a hard, ballsy kind of psychedelia that never lost sight of the rhythm (and, at its best, didn't stray too far from the blues) of their R&B roots. The sides represented here are played more than competently and show occasional inspiration in the writing, arrangements, and performance. Though their sound is more of an acquired taste than that of the original Animals, they were a talented band, and perhaps if they could have pulled together one album that was as inspired as the singles "When I Was Young," "Monterey," or "Sky Pilot," they might have sustained some success. Instead, their albums tended toward the self-consciously heavy, spaced-out noodling that we hear on "Winds of Change," where Burdon sounds as though he's doing a burlesque of Jim Morrison. This disc lives up to its name, however, distilling down the best elements of the group's various facets, so you get their most accessible single sides and the best of the album noodling (the sitar and violin on "Winds of Change" are beautifully played, even if they don't go anywhere). The disc could have been extended to include cuts like "Shake" by the early transitional lineup, and "Paint It Black," which would have come close to making it definitive, but those did turn up later on Polygram Special Products' budget-priced best-of on the group. The sound is very good for a 1991 CD release, and the notes are reasonably thorough. ---Bruce Eder, AllMusic Review

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