60 albums
1964 - The Animals

When I reached 50 in 2014 I did a series of posts listening to and jotting down my thoughts on an album of each year of my life. In May this year I reach 60 so it seemed like time to try to do that again. So, welcome to 60 albums and I’m going to start close to home… although it was a long way from home until quite recently!

I always have had a slight soft spot for Newcastle’s The Animals, like London’s The Pretty Things, they felt a bit grubbier and less polished than The Stones, and therefore a little closer to the place they started. Having said that I owned a couple of second-hand albums - a compilation and a live album, both sadly went astray (ironically) in our move to the North East. Two albums seemed enough for me, particularly as they only really existed for a couple of years.

The band’s first LP was released in late 1964, the first few months of my life. I started my 50 albums series with The Rolling Stones debut album which was the album that was #1 the day I was born and declared that it opened doors - The Animals (the album) I guess walks the same road as that one and opened those same doors - it calls back on the classic blues and rock and roll past that The Stones did but I think I like it more.

It opens with The Story of Bo Diddley which is just Eric Burdon telling a yarn about Bo Diddley, and The Animals and the birth of rock and roll ~ “we were playing the Club-a-Gogo in Newcastle, our hometown…“. The track opens with Alan Price’s doing the Bo Diddley riff on his organ (and that organ might be the main reason this is an album I love more than The Rolling Stones one).

It then hits most rock and roll touch points ~ Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, John Lee Hooker, and doesn’t let up.

Sadly two members of the band are no longer with us. Bassist Chas Chandler, who went on to manage Jimi Hendrix and Slade passed awat at just 57 in 1996, and guitarist Hilton Valentine left us in 2021.

Both have plaques in the area. Chas in Heaton which I’ve only passed at night so apologies for the fuzzy grey pic:

I was at the unveiling of Hilton Valentine’s plaque in 2021

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