Search - Eric Burdon & the Animals :: Winds of Change

"You Know What I'm Talkin' Bout........JIMI"

Gary Wright | Apple Valley, Ca. | 11/10/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

""For Those Of Another Generation......". Yep.....I guess we certainly were. Like many, I was turned onto this album back when I was a youngster in the late 60's and couldn't get enough of this album to the point of owning the mono & stereo vinyl versions as well as the 8 track and reel to reel audio tapes. My only complaint with any of the releases pertained to the overall "compressed" sound quality, especially on tracks such as "Paint It Black" & "Yes, I'm Experienced" (two of my favorites).



In the late 80's, Polydor finally released this album on CD and to my horror, the sound quality didn't differ one bit from the vinyl. Then came BGO in 2002 with their CD version, coupled along with The Twain Shall Meet (another great album) and although the mix had been somewhat improved, much of the compressed atmosphere still lingered. I began to believe that no actual master tapes would surface to right the various wrongs, but I was "Gratefully Dead" wrong ( a bonus track :)



As it turns out, Repertoire came to the rescue and did the impossible...gave a newly found face lift to the original grooves on this album and what we now have is the ultimate remastered version ever released during the past 37 years since it was first recorded. The original muffled high end frequencies now have a uniformity of clarity & brightness never heard before throughout the entire album. It's amazing to finally be able to hear what Barry Jenkins drumming really sounds like.



If you're a fan of this brilliant album, I strongly recommend you buy a copy and hear it for the VERY first time in your life and while you're at it, also pick up a copy of The Twain Shall Meet also released by the good folks at Repertoire. They deserve numerous kudos for their excellent work and I look forward to seeing what other albums they release in the future."

Wow! What A Sonic Improvement!

Gary Wright | 06/06/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've had this eratic--but brilliant 1967 masterpiece in one form or another (both vinyl and cd) for most of its 37 years of existence up to this point, but never have I heard it sound anywhere near as good as does this 2003 remaster on Repertoire. Both the Polydor and One Way cd reissues were marred with tape hiss which, combined with a relatively low recording level, made for somewhat muffled, muted sound. No such problem here: The sound is strong and crisp...obviously first-generation. That said, a few additional thoughts:
This is the first, and (in my humble opinion) the best of the four original albums by the revamped, psychedelic Animals line-up Eric Burdon formed in late 1966. This band actually made its debut on record in the late winter/early spring of 1967 with the terrific "When I Was Young"/bw/"A Girl Named Sandoz" single. They performed at the legendary Monterey Pop Festival in June, and it was during that time period that the songs for this album were being written and recorded. I really cannot think of another album from the psychedelic era which runs as wide a gamut as does this one: From the rollicking, electric Hendrix answer "Yes, I'm Experienced" to the downright eerie, solemn "The Black Plague," from the brooding self-deprecation of "Poem By The Sea" to the back-to-R&B roots rough edge of "It's All Meat." Now, if you are endeavoring to read this, you probably know about all that, but you may not know about a couple of the bonus tracks on this edition of the album. The mono single versions of Good Times" and "San Francisco Nights" (notice the difference in the title) are not really all that different from the stereo versions, save for perhaps offering Burdon's vocal a tad more prominence. However:
The two UK B-sides offered here as tracks 13 and 15 are both Killers! First, "Ain't That So" calls to mind some of the raw, three-chord grungy blues the earlier Animals were doing after leaving Mickey Most and signing up with Decca. If you dug songs like "She'll Return It" and "That's All I Am To You," you're sure to dig "Ain't That So": Not psychedelic at all, just tough-guy, in-your-face garagy rock. An then there is the cd's closer, "Gratefully Dead." This song could easily be mistaken for an out-take from the Are You Experienced? album sessions, with the same Stratocaster sound popularized by the master himself jumping down your throat from the songs' opening note. Again, it's a basic three-chord blues, but it's The Experience as well as The Experience themselves could play it--right down to Barry Jenkins' drumming being a deadwringer for Mitch Mitchell's sound and style at the time. The song even features a great false ending, where the tape suddenly slows down to a dead stop . . .and after perhaps a second-and-a-half of silence, the music just explodes back out your speakers. Through all that, Eric shouts his lungs out, and provides an extra track of low vocals periodically through the track which calls to mind Hendrix's spoken vocal on "Third Stone From The Sun." Apt to say, these two B-sides alone are worth the price of this cd: they're two of the best, hardest-rocking recordings by _any incarnation of The Animals.
About the only possible complaint I can render about this reissue is the failure to include the above-mentioned two songs from the first single by this latter-day version of the band: That would have made this package absolutely perfect! As is, the dramatically improved sound quality on the original album, those two priceless B-side bonus tracks and pretty decent liner notes (especially by comparison to older versions) make this cd an absolute must-have for any Eric Burdon fan or any fan of late-Sixties psychedelia. Also recommended: The Repertoire reissue of The Twain Shall Meet: Not quite as good an album as this one, but good enough, also boasting superior remastered sound, and the mammoth raw single version of "Monterey" as a bonus track."

Winds Of Change

Martin Eilertsen | Sarpsborg, Norway | 06/08/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Excellent re-release of Eric Burdon & The Animals' first album together, Winds of Change. It's a very interesting and good album, superbly remastered by Repertoire. Throughout strong songs. San Fransiscan Nights, their biggest hit ever, can be found here along with such gems as Hotel Hell, Good Times and Paint it Black. It also contains some extra tracks.
If you're fond of psychedelic music, or like Eric Burdon, buy this album."