And the Rockpalast hits – boots, actually – just keep coming. If you’re looking for a superbly-recorded artifact of Eric Burdon circa now, this one’s for you. His Animals currently include Dean Restum, Martin Gershwitz, Dave Meros and Bernie Pershey, and they still bring out all the old workhorses for your listening pleasure. Some of those classics still sound as timeless as ever: “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place,” a marathon 11 minute version, is a great showcase for all the players, full of dynamic twists and even including a spooky midsection that recalls The Doors’ “The End” (as Burdon had a band a few years that featured Robby Krieger as his partner-guitarist, maybe he picked up on that). But then you have a reggae reworking of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” that is, frankly, atrocious. Whiteboy reggae is a dubious pleasure at best; old rock classics done up inna reggae stylee are rarely any fun at all.
Included on tracks 11 and 13 are a couple of brief interview segments, one in which Burdon quite convincingly justifies his continuing use of the name The Animals after all these years.
As an FYI, for some reason the makers of this disc listed on the sleeve two songs, “When I Was Young” and “Once Upon A Time,” that apparently were performed but not broadcast.
I can’t tell for sure what type of broadcast this actually is, FM, webcast or the audio portion of a TV broadcast. It sounds fine in any event.
Nominal artwork, just one-sided insert and panel. -- OSWALD
