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P-Funky Guys biography, P-Funky Guys discography
Gucci Mane Young Snead and Mr L.But what's really amazing about the group is their leaderless, communal approach to music making.Keyboard player Lonnie Jordan and guitarist Howard Scott did have a leading role in production and writing.Charles Miller was quite competent, and harmonica player Lee Oskar was rivalled only by Stevie Wonder as a popularizer of the instrument.Burdon left after just a couple albums, they continued to spotlight Oskar, an expatriate Dane."New Animals" had burned out in just a couple of years.Eventually, however, War just faded from view, with a string of personnel changes and two tragic deaths in the 80s leaving Lonnie Jordan, Howard Scott, and Harold Brown as the only survivors from the original lineup.War "New Animals" solo albums.But I do have everything he did with War, plus a couple 70s solo records.I'll try to piece together his career as I go along.I've seen a bunch of Eric Burdon web sites, most of them lousy; the most straightforward appears to be the Book of Burdon.Surprisingly, I received a very rude flame letter arguing that I shouldn't review records I haven't heard.As for whether a skeletal page like this one should be on the web, I think the lack of any alternative discography speaks for itself.JA)
Lineups:
The Animals: Eric Burdon (vocals), Chas Chandler (bass), John Steel (drums), Hilton Valentine (guitar).Price replaced by Dave Rowberry, late 1965.Burdon left, 1971, after which all the band members sang lead and harmony.Miller murdered by a robber, 1980.Smith and Rizzo left, 1982.Ricky Green (bass) replaced Rabb, 1984.Brown returned, Kerry Campbell (sax), Charles Green (sax), Tetsuya "Tex" Nakamura (harmonica), Sal Rodriguez (drums), and Rae Valentine (programmer; son of Howard Brown) added, 1993.As of 1997 Brown and Scott are no longer touring with the band.JA)
Animal Tracks (The Animals: 1965)
A bunch of hits here including a cover of Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home To Me" and the classics "We've Got To Get Out Of This Place" and Nina Simone's "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood."JA)
Animalism (The Animals: 1966)
A bunch of cover tunes here like "Shake," "Other Side Of This Life," "Rock Me Baby," "Lucille," "Smoke Stack Lightning," and even "Hit The Road, Jack."The New Animals included Vic Briggs (guitar), Barry Jenkins (drums; he'd appeared on the Animals' last single), Danny McCulloch (bass), and John Weider (guitar).New Animals: 1968)
By late 1967 the Summer of Love had already turned into an orgy of commercialism, and Burdon was happy to cut
a chintzy trojan horse of a pop record slathered with "counter culture" motifs.It's so bad you don't know whether to laugh or cry.Burdon had been one of them, and that the song was a Top 40 hit.George Harrison or Donovan ("No Self Pity"; "All Is One").Zoot Money (keyboards) joined the New Animals at this point.New Animals: 1968)
Burdon's career seemed in trouble at this point; he scored no further hits until joining War.Includes a cover of "St.James Infirmary," also later done by Joe Cocker.Their overwrought arrangement of "Coloured Rain" is mostly just dull, but sports what might be the most amateurish guitar solo I've ever heard.Zoot Money show off a few chops on a sloppy nightclub blues number that also foreshadows Burdon's later vocal improvisations with War (Andy Summers contribution is never clear, but if it's him on this track's second guitar, he just seems incompetent).Eric Burdon Declares "War" (1970)
A classic album that stands in stark contrast to Burdon's earlier string of agonizingly insincere solo albums."Spill The Wine," which reuses Burdon's "Tobacco Road" gimmick of narrating a daydream, but even more effectively.The production is sparse and the sound often not very different from traditional Chicago blues, which creates the feel of a tight and professional live performance: on track after track, the band finds a good groove and stays with it.DBW)
Black Man's Burdon (1970)
A double album, minus anything approaching a hit like "Spill The Wine."I'll review it when I get a chance.There are also two versions of "Nights In White Satin," but mostly the material is new."Magic Mountain," which backed "Spill The Wine").Some of it really works.An early take of "Tobacco Road" has even more energy than the later, released version.Actually, it's so embarassing it's downright funny.So there's a lot here for fans, but the sad truth is that the album is just an official bootleg, and if you haven't already heard Burdon and War you really should start with Declares.War (1971)
War was still backing Burdon when they signed their own record contract, but they split with him soon after."War Drums" they frame some frenetic sax and conga solos with a completely goofy group vocal.War had finally made the big time.But at least all of this proves the band's amazing versatility, and unlike several other War albums this one escapes without any real embarassments."The Cisco Kid," uses a loping Caribbean beat to irresistable effect."Where Was You At"), a desolate blues with soulful harmonies and spacey Eastern effects ("Four Cornered Room"), and a lulling funk riff with crowd harmonies and steel drums ("Beetles In The Bog").So pretty much everything here is a retread.But like the record in general, it just doesn't add up to much.There are just eight tracks, so almost everything other than "Lonely Feelin'" gets stretched out.The material's worse: basically a set of Animals oldies ("It's My Life"; boring, bombastic, eight minute takes of "When I Was Young" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"), salted with a cover of Johnny Cash's ancient hit "Ring Of Fire" and a few new tunes like the overpowered "The Real Me" and the endless "Letter From The Country Farm" (yet another loping Burdon poetry bash, this time graced with a screeching pentatonic lead guitar).You'd think that War had never happened.Why Can't We Be Friends?"Low Rider," one big, complicated groove propelled by a creepy whispered vocal, cheesy Latin percussion, and a beat so compelling only a deaf person could resist it.But the rest of the album is completely serious and frequently fascinating, with some experiments that teeter on the edge of disaster.And the conventional tunes effectively recycle the band's mellow, harmonious formula: "Don't Let No One Get You Down" and "So" are gorgeous and soulful; the instrumental "Smile Happy" delivers what it promises, with a super Lee Oskar solo.Possibly the band's greatest moment, and as an artifact of the era it's unsurpassed.John Sterling, who also collaborated with producer Jerry Goldstein.JA)
Lee Oskar (Oskar: 1976)
Oskar's solo album wasn't a smash hit, but it did climb into the Top 40.Suffice it to say that Oskar gets an awful lot of mileage out of one harmonica, a couple of borrowed Santana players, and a bunch of easy funk and Latin grooves.Blue Note and quickly went gold (no, not platinum), but didn't fare too well in the Top 40.Three of the tracks were salvaged from an incomplete movie soundtrack to be called The River Niger.JA)
Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted (The Animals: 1977)
The first reunion record by the original band.Youngblood (1978)
Soundtrack to the blaxploitation film.Rommel") and skeletal jams flavored with snippets of movie dialogue ("Junk Yard").Far from a key record, but it's pleasant background music and has some personality.They also made their first personnel change, adding singer Alice Tweed Smith.The sentimental orchestration
and acoustic guitar on "My Road" make it sound like a European movie soundtrack theme.That leaves the catchy, cheerful, and economical "Ima Haru" as the only really successful effort.Produced by Toshikatsu Kawamura, with writing credits split about evenly between Oskar and Furasawa."Promised Land," and "Our Road.""Ano Koro" completely bogs down with its dreamy, mellow stylishness.Lee Oskar's solos are as sweet as ever.After this a lineup with four original members continued touring, but mostly not recording; when Allen died in 1988 and Oskar quit in 1992, that left only Jordan (keyboards) and Scott (guitar).JA)
Ark (The Animals: 1983)
A second reunion record.JA)
Rap Declares War (1992)
Apparently this is an experiment matching War with a bunch of L.Peace Sign (1994)
This easily available, misguided comeback effort has a funny little 60s peace sign on the cover instead of a proper title.And with a whole pile of new members, War now had a sax section for the first time in more than a decade."Wild Rodriguez," a virtual rewrite of "Low Rider"), but they unwisely recycle old gimmicks like dubbing female spoken Spanish mutterings over a repetitive salsa groove ("UB O."I'm The One (Who Understands)").Adult Contemporary ballad "Smile For Me"; on other numbers like "The Smuggler" Oskar's replacement "Tex" Nakamura sounds just like him).Manhattan, NYC) to see Cameo.The set was a hour long, from 8:35am to 9:35am."Funkadelic Groupie", which was sung by O.Funkadelic songs can touch "Take Your Dead Ass Home"!!!"Miss Lucifer's Love" and "Balance"......The amusing thing about this concert is the way "Clip" sings......Clip did during the song "Balance"!!!If only Bootsy was there to sing "Balance"......ONE WORLD UNDER A GROOVE!
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