The Animals - "Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted"
Vinyl rip in 24 / 96
Polydor 2341.104 | 1977 | Brazilian Pressing
RS & FF | 665 MB
The title refers to the first sentence of William Connor's first column in the Daily Mirror after World War II: "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted,...".
This was a reunion of the five original Animals from the group's first incarnation — Eric Burdon, Alan Price, Hilton Valentine, Chas Chandler, and John Steel, in their first recording sessions (and, save for a one-off concert in 1968, their first musical project at all) since 1965.
Cut 11 years after the Animals' original lineup recorded their last LP and six years before their more well-remembered reunion tour, this often overlooked album is just short of a lost classic.
Recorded under the auspices of the late Chas Chandler's Barn Productions, the album is highlighted by a dramatically Flamenco rendition of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue,", embellished with castanets and boasting superb playing by Alan Price.
Hilton Valentine's soaring guitar pyrotechnics light up "Fire on the Sun," perhaps the flashiest performance of his career for this most introspective of '60s British blues axemen, and "As the Crow Flies" has the group returning to its roots, as a dark, brooding rendition of the Jimmy Reed song that gives room for Chandler, Valentine, Price, and John Steel to show off their '60s-era blues chops in a more expansive form.
After a promising start, the gospel number "Many Rivers to Cross" falls apart a bit, but "Just a Little Bit," with its rippling organ break, the group original "Riverside County," and the pounding finale, "The Fool," make the rest of side two eminently enjoyable.
The real pinnacle of this album are the renditions of two true blues classics, Percy Mayfield's "Please Send Me Someone To Love" and Ray Charles' "Lonely Avenue", showing why Eric Burdon is one of the greatest vocalists of all times, all genders, all countries.
I love this album so much I couldn't resist ripping and posting it, although I don't have a "first world" version, but I think Brazilian Polygram did a great job mastering it. Real quiet vinyl and nicely balanced sound.
That why it is here, too.
foobar2000 1.1.7 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
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Analyzed:
DR Peak RMS Duration Track
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DR15 -3.15 dB -20.38 dB 3:20 ?-Last Clean Shirt
DR16 -4.44 dB -24.19 dB 4:38 ?-I's All Over Now, Baby Blue
DR13 -6.46 dB -21.86 dB 2:21 ?-Fire On The Sun
DR16 -3.86 dB -23.06 dB 3:37 ?-As The Crow Flies
DR16 -3.22 dB -26.49 dB 4:43 ?-Please Send Me Someone To Love
DR14 -6.19 dB -22.29 dB 4:10 ?-Many Rivers To Cross
DR13 -6.56 dB -23.47 dB 2:05 ?-Just A Little Bit
DR16 -6.92 dB -26.18 dB 3:46 ?-Riverside Country
DR14 -4.56 dB -24.06 dB 5:17 ?-Lonely Avenue
DR14 -8.46 dB -24.39 dB 3:24 ?-The Fool
Number of tracks: 10
Official DR value: DR15
Samplerate: 96000 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 24
Bitrate: 2447 kbps
Codec: FLAC
Track listing
Side one
1."Brother Bill (The Last Clean Shirt)" (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Clyde Otis) - 3:18
2."It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" (Bob Dylan) - 4:39
3."Fire on the Sun" (Shaky Jake) - 2:23
4."As the Crow Flies" (Jimmy Reed) - 3:37
5."Please Send Me Someone to Love" (Percy Mayfield) - 4:44
Side two
1."Many Rivers to Cross" (Jimmy Cliff) - 4:06
2."Just a Little Bit" (John Thornton, Ralph Bass, Earl Washington, Piney Brown) - 2:04
3."Riverside County" (Eric Burdon, Alan Price, Hilton Valentine, Chas Chandler, John Steel) - 3:46
4."Lonely Avenue" (Doc Pomus) - 5:16
5."The Fool" (Sanford Clark) - 3:24
Personnel
Eric Burdon – vocals
Alan Price – keyboards
Hilton Valentine – guitar
Chas Chandler – bass
John Steel – drums
My rig:
Nitty Gritty 1.5 RCM
Rega P5 with TTPSU
Rega Exact
Pro Ject Phono Box SE II
Tascam US-144 MK II
HP Pavillion Windows 7 HP
Adobe Audition CS6
Izotope RX2 manual mode only.
FLAC frontend
PW is PEIXE