The Animals – The Animals (10″ EP)

This one’s really just a novelty. As a 10” 45 RPM EP, it was apparently released in the UK, New Zealand and Australia in 1964, but never in the US until this Record Store Day release from 2015. I bought it some time after that at our little new and used record store here in Phoenixville, Deep Groove Records. Like most things in our little town, it is within walking distance, which is sometimes dangerous, so I’m glad that his selection is somewhat small. Keeps me from running too amok.

It’s a great little four-song record, featuring Eric Burdon’s “I’m In Love,” which doesn’t seem to have shown up elsewhere on an album or as a single until a later CD compilation. Then, John Lee Hooker’s “I’m Mad Again” and “Bury My Body,” and the raver “She Said Yeah.” This is the original band at the top of their powers, and it’s quite excellent.

The liner notes on the back give us the awesome, and possibly true, information that Eric Burdon started out on washboard and trombone. It does not appear that he ever contributed either to an Animals record.