It’s amazing how many Family First picks are (a) musical in nature and (b) influenced by what I happen to be listening to at the time.

Today, driving home from work, I was blasting a best-of by The Animals. As I listened to the music, it struck me as amazing that the incredible bluesy rock and roll they produced during the 1960s was recorded on the spot in one take.

While the Beatles, the Stones, and the Kinks were dubbing and redubbing in order to achieve the perfect sound that they sought, Eric Burdon and company were clearly frequently cutting their songs in one take. Even the magnificent walls of sound that comprise The House of the Rising Sun could easily be duplicated with a guitar, a bass, an organ, and a set of drums.

The Animals were perennial residents of the top forty in the mid ’60s. Yet, they remain underappreciated and underrated by critics.

That’s a shame. I know that they infused solid blues into rock and roll, paying tribute to the great musicians who barely survived the earlier years of the 20th century while selling paltry amounts of priceless blues records to a distinctly non-white audience.

Jake and Elwood, step aside. Today’s Family First site pays homage to a genius who brought the blues to white America long before a certain movie released in 1978.

Here’s to you, Eric Burdon. This Family First pick is for you.

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[tags]beatles,rolling stones,the animals,eric burdon,house of the rising sun,blues brothers,kinks[/tags]