#ALAN PRICE AND ERIC BURDON.... WOW | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

the-alan-price-combo · 2 years ago

Text

A Somewhat Comprehensive Look at Alan Price and Eric Burdon’s Relationship

Please Read This!

The Encounter(s) (1958-59)

In The Beginning (1959-63)

Wild Animals (1963-65)

Animals Photos That Make Me Go “Hmm…” (1964-65)

Setting Out Alone (1965)

Supporting One Another (1965-68)

Rudely Interrupted (1970-83)

Miscellaneous Little Thoughts

Wow, That Was Long. And I’m Gay

Introduction Below Cut

Well, here it is.

To say that I’m excited to finally compile all of this information together into one place would be an understatement… I’ve superseded excitement and now I’m just sitting here with copious amounts of Dr Pepper and Alan’s Metropolitan Man blaring in my ears, surrounded by all of my wonderful Animals merch.

Anyway, what is this? Well, it’s exactly what it says on the tin: a somewhat comprehensive look at Alan Price and Eric Burdon’s relationship. They’re members of an English rock band that emerged from Newcastle in the 60’s - the Animals - with Alan playing the keyboard for the group and Eric supplying the lead vocals. And their relationship… Well, it’s something alright.

And, in my humble opinion, it’s wildly misinterpreted.

Disappointingly, most information about the Animals shared nowadays are either think-pieces about their most well-known song, “House of the Rising Sun”, or about how much of an absolute fractured mess the group turned out to be. Poor management, several break-ups and reunions and iterations… and, of course, the well-known fact that Alan claimed all of the royalties for “House of the Rising Sun” and has allegedly never shared the money with any of his old bandmates, sowing even more tension between all of the members.

Amongst all of this tension are Alan and Eric themselves. Eric Burdon, the charismatic face of the group and its leader throughout each of its iterations, and Alan Price, the moody ex-keyboardist, who seemingly took the money and ran, forging his own path and solo career. Surely, these two must hate each other... shouldn’t they? After everything Alan did, the circumstances that forcefully bound them together as performers and songwriters for a time, and how diametrically opposed they seemed to be in personality; they were practically in their divorce arc before things even started… right?

…No. Not at all.

Set aside Eric’s passive-aggressive, yet relatively tame, comments made over the past few years. Set aside Alan’s staunch refusal to talk about things in detail anymore. Set aside the other Animals’ odd takes on the nature of their relationship, usually colored in such a way to make Alan out to be a despicable person.

Because I’d like to talk about some of the things Alan and Eric have done with and for one another that you might not have known.

#animusings #the animals #eric burdon #alan price #hilton valentine #chas chandler #john steel #dave rowberry #classic rock #60s rock #british invasion #personal essay #the alan and eric essay

15 notes · View notes

the-alan-price-combo · 2 years ago

Text

Wow, That Was Long. And I’m Gay.

“Eric got publicity for a certain amount of time by slagging me off. But that’s just how it was. No one wants to hear you are best buddies.” - Alan Price, 2008. (https://safc.blog/house-of-the-rising-sunderland-fan/)

“These two fascinate me to no end, what the heck? Like, how did they even function around one another? They hated each other so much. (Wrong, 2020!Connie 😐)

Like, everytime I feel I can get a grip on their dynamic, I fail because they were absolutely polar opposites yet attempted to work with each other not only as a band, but as composers, with tensions arising because of pride on both of their parts. Alan was jealous of Eric and Eric was confused by Alan and it shows. What the heck, gay little monkeys.” - Me, November 23rd, 2020.

Wow, so we’ve reached the end. 30,000 words, I wrote about these two… and I’m so, so glad that I did.

Now, I guess the million-dollars-that-Michael-Jefferies-stole question is: why did I do this? And I’m not just referring to spending a month of my life writing this all out, but spending nearly two years of my life combing through the minimal recorded footage of them that exists, the handful of biographies, and an intense amount of obscure magazine scans (many of which, I purchased myself) to compile information about them?

Well, I think it can all be traced back to that expression Alan makes in Dont Look Back, after Bob had asked him if he left the Animals. Anything revolving around Alan all comes back to that expression, for me.

Because that’s an expression that suggests something far deeper than dissatisfaction with how his band was functioning and a distaste for traveling. It was an expression of regret, of fear, of loss, of confusion. Many things could have caused this expression that flashed across his face, and I immediately recognized that as another person. Someone was the root of his uncertainty about this decision, and I wanted to know who.

And once I found out who that was, and how many misconceptions seem to be shared about their relationship, I knew I wanted to learn more.

You see (and, as I mentioned way at the beginning), even I fell into the trap of thinking Alan and Eric’s relationship was nothing but homoerotic pettiness for their entire professional careers together. Frustrated that they couldn’t songwrite together like their contemporaries, Alan jealous of Eric’s abilities and being moody in general, Eric confused about Alan’s attitude and world view, and both constantly forced together, be it because they were in the same social sphere or for arbitrary reunions. I found them compelling, sure, but in more of a meme-esque way. Like, “Look at these guys in their early-20’s acting divorced even before their band breaks up.” - even more hilarious for me after my time observing McLennon for a while and just how affectionate things between “those two particular members of the band” could be. They wouldn’t be the only duo in 60’s bands to be behaving like this, of course… but it was just so hysterical.

However, that’s just with the context of Sean Egan’s biography about the Animals and some miscellaneous documentaries/articles about them fueling me. This was before all of those magazine articles, those seemingly lost pieces of footage of Alan saying they had “common souls” and Eric saying they had a “delicate relationship”, those photographs of them on Ready, Steady, Go!, and those little sprinklings of information here and there. I found most of it steadily, back in late-2020 and early-2021, putting together a somewhat more affectionate picture. Then I met tealightwhimsy in late-2021 and she found the scan archive in early-2022, and the floodgates opened. No, I don’t see Alan Price and Eric Burdon as perpetually divorced, from 1963 to 1983, before actually divorcing from 1983 onwards.

I see Alan Price and Eric Burdon as two, genuine friends, sharing a bond with one another, in music and in each other, that they didn’t have with anyone else. They contrasted, yet also complemented one another in personality and energy. While they could only function effectively with the other in specific circumstances where they weren’t pressured by other people - due to their individual stubbornness, Eric’s headstrong nature, and Alan’s moods - when they did get together on their own time, they blossomed. And they always did. Even now, when Eric is thoroughly salty and refuses to speak to Alan and Alan is fully aware of the bridges he’s burned… they still hold an immense amount of respect for each other. In a different universe where things turned out a little better and Alan wasn’t so stingy with the royalties and his recounting of the story, there’s no doubt that their friendship would’ve persisted to this day, much like Eric and Hilton’s had. We don’t live in that universe, but that doesn’t mean we have to ignore the friendship that was so clearly there.

I understand that some folks, be they classic rock fandom-dwellers or musical boomers, may find their relationship unsalvageable for many reasons, and that’s completely okay. Some people can’t get over what Alan did in general, so of course, their relationship is already tainted right out of the gate. I’m not saying they’re perfect, or the most healthy relationship in the world; they’re entirely imperfect, which is what I love about them. They’re unabashedly human, especially with one another. Of course, I have my immense Alan Price Bias that makes it easier to look past that one unequivocally, objectively terrible thing he did to see the nicer moments he had with the Animals and Eric, but it’s also pretty easy to adopt this mindset once you learn a bit more about his psyche. They were never rivals, and they were never enemies… even now.

Tying back to that quote I started with at the beginning of this section, Alan’s “No one wants to hear that you are best buddies” speaks volumes here, because he’s completely right, at least about a certain point in time. I observed this in the Beatles/McLennon fandom a while back as well: interesting how so many think-pieces written by folks from basically the break-up of the Beatles in 1970 to the early 2000’s leaned so antagonistic, especially between John and Paul (but also all of them, if we’re being honest), despite all four of them saying time and time again that they still cared about each other. It wasn’t until the rise of prominent online fandoms in the late-2000’s and 2010’s that there emerged vocal groups of fans that wanted to learn and document all of the more affectionate moments between all of them, even during their own “divorce arc” in the 70’s.

And it’s interesting that a lot of this digging done by fandoms is spearheaded by young, LGBT+ folks, both to find hints of homoeroticism as well as paint a less antagonistic picture than the… ah, mostly cishet men had been writing about for 30 years, pitting the four (but particularly John and Paul) against each other like action figures.

There’s no doubt about it: drama sells, rivalry sells, even back then. Funnily enough, Alan and Eric and the rest of the Animals weren’t nearly antagonistic enough with each other for this to be marketed upon, even post-’83. They were too tired and mellow to say much of anything besides passing jabs at one another, yet reads of them are still skewed so negatively. People think Alan Price and Eric Burdon hated each other since day one, even though Eric dressed up as a bear on live television for Alan to help him promote a song. Because it’s a lot easier to consume regurgitated, half-hearted information circulated since the 90’s about all of them hating one another. It doesn’t force you to confront heteronormativity or toxic masculinity, in other words. 😐

Anyway, that’s why I’m thankful that there’s been a shift - be it thanks to renewed fandom or culture as a whole - towards more positivity in research and wanting to look for the more pleasant, affectionate moments between all of these rock bands. Sure, for a lot of us, this is fueled by a lot of us being flaming homosexuals looking for flaming homosexual moments in the music history we enjoy for validation, but we also… just want some good vibes.

It’s the reason I’ve hyper-fixated on the original Animals so specifically. Alan in particular, and of course his relationship with Eric, but all of them. It’s unmarked territory, populated by earnest 60+ folks on Facebook, with just three biased biographies, two autobiographies from a band member, and a few dozen bad-faith-in-good-faith articles that don’t have the full picture to show for it. It’s a niche, in other words, and a niche that I absolutely love - one I can forge my own path within, and a path other folks can also explore if they so choose. I’m not trying to change the world or anything… but I do try to be lighthearted and fun with my art and writings like this to reflect this relative lack of antagonism early on, so folks of all ages can appreciate the Animals, and Alan and Eric, as a unit. And it makes me so incredibly happy that, already, I’ve touched people’s lives and helped them learn, through the legitimate stuff and the silly, gay, speculative stuff.

With all of that being said, thank you so much for reading. Be it just a few parts, or the entire thing - the fact that you read me gushing about and awkwardly quoting Alan Price and Eric Burdon for who knows how long truly means so much to me, and I appreciate it. I don’t want to get too sappy and personal, but these two (and the Animals as a whole) have been an immense source of comfort and respite for me over the past two years - I honestly don’t know where I’d be without them, or if I’d even be alive. I’m so thankful for them - their contributions to music and music history as a whole. And Alan and Eric… I’m thankful that, through their imperfections and troubles, they found each other, time and time again.

Feel free to message or send me asks if you have any questions, about these two or the Animals in general! And, of course, questions can regard speculation or headcanon as well! I love talking about them… even with 30.000 words already out there. Also, I draw the Animals (especially Alan and Eric) a lot so… look forward to more silly stuff.

Anyway, time for another Dr. Pepper as I watch Alan Price and Eric Burdon - Live at Newcastle City Hall 1982 (ARCHIVE MASTER TAPE) for the 437th time. Comfort, I tell you!

– Connie

All Sections | Thanks for reading; I love Alan Price and Eric Burdon

#animusings #the alan and eric essay

2 notes · View notes