Eric Burdon and the Animals - The Twain Shall Meet (1968 British Psychedelia)

Eric Victor Burdon (born 11 May 1941, in Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne) was the lead singer of The Animals, and War before becoming a solo artist.

He was a founding member and vocalist of the Animals, a band originally formed in Newcastle in the early 1960s. The Animals were one of the leading bands of the "British Invasion", and the band had quite a following around the world. Along with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Dave Clark Five, and Gerry and The Pacemakers, they introduced British music and fashion to an entire generation in an explosion of great tunes and outspoken attitude on, and off the stage. Burdon sang on such Animal classics as "The House of the Rising Sun", "Good Times", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", "Bring It On Home to Me", "A Girl Named Sandoz," and "We Gotta Get Out of this Place". The Animals combined the traditional blues with rock to create a unique sound.

Original Animals members keyboardist Alan Price and drummer John Steel quit, and were replaced by Dave Rowberry and Barry Jenkins respectively. By 1966 the other members had left, except for Barry Jenkins, and the band was reformed as Eric Burdon and the Animals, which featured future Family member John Weider and future The Police guitarist Andy Summers. This incarnation had hits with songs such as "When I Was Young", "Sky Pilot" and "Monterey".

This ensemble lasted until 1969, going through several line-up changes, and changing the name from Eric Burdon and the Animals to Eric Burdon and the New Animals.

When the New Animals disbanded, Burdon joined forces with funky California jam band War. The resulting album, Eric Burdon Declares "War" yielded the classics "Spill the Wine" and "Tobacco Road". A second Burdon and War album, a two-disc set, The Black-Man's Burdon, was released later in 1970.

In 1971 Burdon began a solo career. Around this time, he also recorded the album Guilty! (later released on CD as Black & White Blues) with the great blues shouter Jimmy Witherspoon and also featuring Ike White & the San Quentin Prison Band.

Burdon rejoined briefly with the other original Animals in 1976 and 1983, but neither union lasted, although the 1983 reunion yielded the ignored single "The Night".

He has led a number of groups named Eric Burdon Band or some variation thereof, with constantly changing personnel. His popularity has remained stronger in continental Europe than in the UK or U.S. Today he continues to record and tour either on his own, or in front of yet another version of "Eric Burdon and the Animals". In 1990, a re-formed "Eric Burdon and the Animals" recorded a cover of the Merle Travis single "Sixteen Tons" for the film Joe Versus the Volcano, which played over the opening credits of the film.

As of 2007 he was touring as the headlining act of the "Hippiefest" lineup, produced and hosted by Country Joe McDonald.

The Twain Shall Meet is an album released in 1968 by Eric Burdon and The Animals. It includes "Sky Pilot," one of the most famous anti-war songs of the Vietnam War era, including the sound of a plane crashing and a terrific guitar riff by Vic Briggs, and "Monterey," the band's tribute to the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Reviewer Bruce Elder of All Music Guide describes the song, "All Is One," as "unique in the history of pop music as a psychedelic piece, mixing bagpipes, sitar, oboes, horns, flutes, and a fairly idiotic lyric, all within the framework of a piece that picks up its tempo like the dance music from Zorba the Greek while mimicking the Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin'."

"Sky Pilot" is a 1968 song by Eric Burdon and The Animals, released on the album The Twain Shall Meet. When released as a single the song was split across both sides, due to its length. As "Sky Pilot (Parts 1 & 2)" it reached number 14 on the U.S. pop charts.

The Sky Pilot of the title is a military chaplain, as revealed by the opening verse:

He blesses the boys
As they stand in line
The smell of gun grease
And the bayonets they shine
He's there to help them
All that he can
To make them feel wanted
He's a good holy man
The line-up includes Eric Burdon on lead vocals, Vic Briggs on guitar, John Weider on guitar and electric violin, Danny McCulloch on bass guitar, and Barry Jenkins on drums.

The song is a balladic "slice of life" story about a chaplain who blesses a body of troops just before they set out on an overnight raid or patrol, and then retires to await their return.

"Sky Pilot" is organized into three movements: an introduction, a programmatic interlude, and a conclusion.

The introduction begins with the verse quoted above, sung a cappella and solo by Eric Burdon. Thereafter the band joins in with instruments for the chorus. Several verse-chorus iterations follow, leaving the story with the "boys" gone to battle and the Sky Pilot retired to his bed. The verses are musically lean, dominated by the vocal and a pulsing bass guitar, with a strummed acoustic guitar and drum mixed in quietly.

The interlude starts as a guitar solo, but the guitar is quickly submerged under a montage of battle sounds. First come the sounds of an airstrike; then the airstrike and Rock band fade into the sounds of shouting, gunfire, and bagpipes. Near the end of the interlude the battle sounds fade, briefly leaving the bagpipes playing alone before the third movement begins. (The bagpipe music is a covert recording of the pipers of The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards playing "All The Bluebonnets Are Over The Border", captured by Burdon while performing at a school. He received an angry letter from the UK government (or possibly the Crown) over his use of the recording in the song. [1])

The conclusion begins with the return of the bass and strummed acoustic guitar, accompanied by strings. After a few measures the verses resume, but with a quieter, melancholy atmosphere: one verse is sung along with bass, guitar, and strings, and then without a choral break a final verse (quoted below) is sung to bass, guitar, and woodwinds. Finally a strong bass line announces the return of the chorus, now accompanied with horns and piccolos, repeated several times as it fades. The musical effect is very upbeat, in stark contrast with the "downer" content of the movement's lyrics.

The song is universally interpreted as an anti-war protest song. There are no overt anti-war statements, but no glorification of war either. The (presumed) anti-war message is conveyed simply and obliquely, by lines such as:

But he'll stay behind
And he'll meditate
But it won't stop the bleeding
Or ease the hate
and the final verse:

In the morning they return
With tears in their eyes
The stench of death
Drifts up to the skies
A young soldier so ill
Looks at the Sky Pilot
Remembers the words
'Thou Shall Not Kill'
There is also a sense of futility, or perhaps moral judgement upon the chaplain, conveyed by the chorus:

Sky Pilot
How High Can You Fly
You'll never reach the sky
The war in question is usually assumed to be the Vietnam War, though the bagpipes and apparent sounds of a dive bomber in the interlude, taken with the UK nationality of the artists, may suggest an earlier era.

Differences between the mono and stereo mixes
The mono single version is unique as it features several effects not included in the stereo version, including more echo in the a cappella introduction, heavy reverb effect at the end of the line "How high can you fly?" (Part 1 only), and an extra bagpipe passage at the end of the fadeout on Part 2. Also, the airstrike and battle sounds are both moved forward in the instrumental break.


01. "Monterey" (4:18)
02. "Just the Thought" (3:47)
03. "Closer to the Truth" (4:31)
04. "No Self Pity" (4:50)
05. "Orange and Red Beams" (3:45)
06. "Sky Pilot" (7:27)
07. "We Love You Lil" (6:48)
08. "All Is One" (7:45)
09. "Sky Pilot Part I" [Mono]
10. "Sky Pilot Part II" [Mono]
11. "Monterey" [Mono]

Post by ChrisGoesRock