Eric Burdon: a new page in musical history

This name - Eric Burdon - is known to every music lover. The musician left a significant mark in the history, becoming a part of the "British breakthrough". The history of his work is a series of ups and downs mixed with alcohol and drugs.

Early life

Eric Burdon was born in Newcastle (Great Britain), when he was heavily bombed by German troops in 1941. By origin, the future singer is a proletarian, despite the fact that his father was an electrical engineer.

He grew up among ordinary workers and went to school, which was located between the shipyard and the slaughterhouse. This gave rise to his musical preferences and the closeness of his views to the philosophy of the blues.

Fifteen-year-old boy, he enters the College of Arts, where he masters the specialty of "artist-decorator." Here he is more fond of blues and jazz. Being white, he fully understands the mood of black musicians, who revealed in their work the problems of rogue and losers, not choosing beautiful words for this.

The plate of his idol Jimmy Waderspoon, he listened to the holes. Could the young student dream then that his idol would ever want to record a general album with him?

It is under the influence of this artist that Eric Burdon will appear on the light - a singer: one day a young student will venture out on a stage in a smoky club full of people.

The appearance of The Animals

When Erik Berdon came as a vocalist in the ensemble of Alan Price, no one could suspect that it would be the beginning of a musical breakthrough on the world stage. The young man immediately offered to rename the collective more sonorous - The Animals. These "Beasts" quickly grew out of the format of the team for the zabegalkov and began to perform in the best clubs in the center of Newcastle.

In the spring of 1963, they go on tour in the UK along with Chuck Berry. Between performances, musicians are actively working on recording their own material and releasing the fateful song "The House of the Rising Sun" for them. Before this song was performed by various singers and bands, but it became popular only thanks to The Animals. This song made the band known to the whole world. It took first place in the popular British and American charts.

But fate decreed that the group soon disintegrated, having existed only a couple of years. In the future, Erik Berdon will repeatedly attempt to revive the team under different names.

The Conquest of America

Eric Burdon & the New Animals is a new musician team that allowed the British team to conquer the American mainland. In 1967, this group was born, headed by Eric Burdon. The discography of the band is a lot of good albums, the best among them is The Wind of Change.

It is with him that Eric goes to San Francisco (USA) to become part of a new subculture - the hippies. Here the San Francisco Nights hit.

With the development of a new fashionable musical style - psychedelic - among the musicians actively spreading drugs, many of which in those years were not yet banned. Berdon did not stay in Side: along with the hippies, he began to try various psychotropic drugs.

At the music festival in Monterey, the band performs on the same stage as Jimmy Hendrix. They became so friends that they started touring together.

Despite all the success, "New Beasts" also lasted for long. After the breakup of the group, the musician stops speaking for a year.

With War Against War

Not being dark-skinned, the musician has always been close to the spirit of creativity of Negro musicians. He said that black blood flows in his veins.

That's why Eric happily begins to collaborate with the African-American sextet The Night Shift. He just did not like the name of the little-known collective. Therefore, he renames it War and then gradually leads to world fame.

The whole power of his talent was invested in a new project by Eric Burdon. The photo of the band began to appear on the covers of musical publications, and the songs were played on almost all radio stations.

In the early seventies the band toured extensively throughout America and Europe. At one of the concerts due to drugs, Erica gets sick and he can not continue the tour any more. But the team does an excellent job without it. This fact caused Berdon's departure from the group.

Attempts to subdue the scene

After that, Eric Burdon will repeatedly try to return to the big stage, but he will not be able to reach the former popularity. New projects do not find a response in recording studios. Therefore, the musician is trying to revive his first group in the original composition.

For some time he manages to recall himself, having copied the immortal hit "The House of ...", but it was not enough. The popularity of the "new" group was very selective: in America and Britain it collected small audiences of fans, while in Germany it was possible to do concerts in stadiums.

Throughout the 80-90s of the last century, Burdon repeatedly tries to return to the big stage, but it never succeeds. The musician is gradually becoming a legend.

Eric Berdon: family

Active concert activity, drugs and drinking, crowds of fans did not contribute to the strengthening of family life. Eric got married twice. His first wife in 1967 was Angie King, but the marriage lasted just over a year.

The second time Eric married in 1972, and already in 1974, his beloved Rose gave birth to a daughter. But this marriage did not last long.

Talented musicians must pay something for their glory. For Eric, this price was the family, but the popularity came to him a lot. Today his name is forever inscribed in the textbooks on the history of world music. Despite the impressive age, the musician continues his activity, actively traveling around the world.