December 8, 2014

101 Reel-to-Reel Tapes 86: Eric Burdon & The Animals ~ Winds of Change & San Franciscan Nights

Eric Burdon & The Animals ~ Winds of Chnnge    
reel-to-reel tape
photo by Styrous®  



In addition to my vinyl LP record collection I'm selling, I have hundreds of reel-to-reel, pre-recorded tapes as well. This is an entry about one of them that will be for sale on eBay (see link below) in January of 2015. Interested? Contact me by email, please, not by a comment.

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Winds of Chnnge is an album released in 1967 by Eric Burdon & The Animals. It contains one of my all time favorite songs, San Franciscan Nights. I remember when it came out, I was in my late twenties and just about to have an experience that would devastate my life but I didn't know it at the time; I was in love and the glory that was San Francisco in those years was completely captured in the feeling, if not the message of the song.

reel-to-reel tape
photo by Styrous®  



In spite of it's anti-war lyrics and having been written in the spring; San Franciscan Nights has the sensual feeling of the city in the sixties in the autumn when the days are hot and the nights warm; the still air is filled with the scent of flowers and romance is everywhere. It was a pleasure to experience those warm, voluptuous nights and I'll always treasure them.

The song was composed by Eric Burdon, Vic Briggs, John Weider, Barry Jenkins, and Danny McCulloch. It was written as a protest song against the Vietnam War. It opens with the Dragnet theme followed by a spoken word dedication by Burdon, "To the city and people of San Francisco, who may not know it but they are beautiful and so is their city." And it was so true; we didn't know how beautiful it and we were. It's only in looking back that we can fully understand and appreciate what we had.

San Franciscan Nights was the band's biggest hit; It reached a peak position of number 1 on the Canadian RPM charts, number 9 on the U.S. pop singles chart, and number 7 on the UK pop singles chart. 




The Animals were a British band of the 1960s, formed in Newcastle upon Tyne during the early part of the decade. The band moved to London upon finding fame in 1964. The Animals were known for their gritty, bluesy sound and deep-voiced front man Eric Burdon, as exemplified by their signature song and transatlantic No.1 hit single, The House of the Rising Sun, as well as by hits such as We Gotta Get out of This Place, It's My Life, I'm Crying and Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (during the Disco Craze, Santa Esmeralda did a sensational cover of it).




The band balanced tough, rock-edged pop singles against rhythm and blues-oriented album material. They were known in the US as part of the British Invasion.



reel-to-reel tape box detail
detail photo by Styrous®  


The original Animals, broke up in 1966 and the band on this album was entirely new except for lead singer Eric Burdon and drummer Barry Jenkins, who joined the original lineup when John Steel left in February 1966. With the new band, featuring guitarist Vic Briggs, bassist Danny McCulloch and electric violinist John Weider, Burdon began to move from the gritty blues sound of the original mid-1960s group into psychedelic music.













The Animals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. In 2003, the band's version of The House of the Rising Sun ranked No. 123 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. Their 1965 hit single We Gotta Get out of This Place was ranked No. 233 on the same list. Both songs are included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.







Track listing

All songs written by Eric Burdon, Vic Briggs, John Weider, Barry Jenkins, and Danny McCulloch, except where noted.

Side 1

  1. "Winds of Change" (4:00)
  2. "Poem by the Sea" (2:15)
  3. "Paint It, Black" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) (6:00)
  4. "The Black Plague" (6:05)
  5. "Yes I Am Experienced" (3:40)

Side 2

  1. "San Franciscan Nights" (3:24)
  2. "Man - Woman" (5:25)
  3. "Hotel Hell" (4:53)
  4. "Good Times" (2:50)
  5. "Anything" (3:20)
  6. "It's All Meat" (2:05)

Personnel


Released September 1967
Recorded March [1967] at TTG Studios in Los Angeles
Genre Psychedelic rock
Length 44:29
Label MGM
Producer Tom Wilson

other reel-to-reel tapes on eBay



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