Eric Burdon

Eric Burdon stood out among British Invasion frontmen as the Animals’ lead vocalist, his voice delivering a raw, commanding force rooted in blues-rock. After the original lineup dissolved during 1966, he sustained the band’s name by recruiting replacement musicians over the next several years. Performing most often under the Eric Burdon & the Animals banner, he steered the project toward an expansive psychedelic sound that moved away from its earlier R&B foundation. A handful of tracks, among them the solid psychedelic single “Sky Pilot,” found modest success, yet much of the output felt excessive and quickly seemed dated. His strongest solo-era achievements arrived at the start of the 1970s after he assembled a group of Los Angeles session soul and funk players who became the band War. In roughly two years the partnership produced enough material for three albums; although the recordings sometimes stretched without focus and would have gained from tighter editing, they yielded atmospheric, high-quality funk, most notably the number-three single “Spill the Wine,” captured almost incidentally during lengthy jam sessions. Already established as major concert and recording artists, Eric Burdon & War lost their singer when Burdon abruptly departed in 1971. War thrived without him and reached greater commercial heights, while Burdon first collaborated on an album with blues veteran Jimmy Witherspoon before issuing a run of largely uninspired solo efforts. Subsequent recordings appeared sporadically, occasionally reuniting him with Animals sidemen, but none recaptured the stature of his work with the original group or with War. Live performance remained a consistent strength, and he kept touring under varying Animals lineups as well as alone, extending his activities into painting and writing while entering the studio only when inspiration struck. That steady, workmanlike course persisted well into the 2000s, marked by the well-received albums My Secret Life in 2004 and Soul of a Man in 2006. An unforeseen resurgence began in 2012 when Bruce Springsteen highlighted him during the keynote address at South by Southwest; Burdon appeared onstage with Springsteen and quickly attracted new attention. He first cut an EP alongside the Ohio garage-rock band the Greenhornes, then focused on completing the full-length ’Til Your River Runs Dry, which received prominent release in January 2013.