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| ANTHEM FOR TIMES OF
WAR |
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Sunday 04-Nov-2001 - by Paul Stewart, Sun Herald Sun (Melbourne,
AUSTRALIA) |
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| Rocker
Eric Burdon, who will perform in Melbourne this month, tells PAUL STEWART of his mixed
feelings about events in Afghanistan: |
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| SINCE
Vietnam, veteran English rocker Eric Burdon's classic We Gotta Get Out Of This Place has
been an anthem for Western forces overseas. Despite this, he has mixed feelings about the
bombing and ground attacks on Afghanistan as part of the war on terrorism. |
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| Burdon
said this week the Afghan people "hold a special place in my heart. Ten years ago I
performed a number of benefits for the Afghans, who were fighting against the Russians at
the time,'' he said on the eve of an Australian tour. "I helped build a hospital
outside Kabul. Actually, We Gotta Get Out Of This Place became a bit of an anthem for the
Afghans as well -- the same Afghans the West is now bombing. I have a lot of empathy for
those people. When you talk about Afghanistan it is not about the miles it takes to get
you there, it is about the years you go back in time once you arrive. Americans are
saying, `Let's bomb Afghanistan back to the Stone Age', but they are already there. I live
in the US, but have kept quiet on the subject''. |
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| Burdon,
whose singing career started in 1962, said the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US
had "amazed, but not shocked me. If you have been listening to what the hardcore
Islamics have been saying in the past few years you would have realised how intent they
were on attacking the US''. |
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| He
said he had finished a long American tour and the venues had been packed with people
intent on having a good time. |
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| Burdon
said the terrorist attacks on New York had postponed the release of his autobiography,
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood. |
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| "The
publishers are based about a half-mile from what was the World Trade Centre, so you can
understand they have had their world turned upside down'' he said. "They have said it
will be out soon. In my book, there is a long list of bad deals, bad relationships, bad
drugs and bad behaviour. I am not seeking sympathy. God knows I have been the author of my
misfortune as often as not. It has been a hell of a ride, and continues to be. At least I
am alive to write about it -- and alive to sing about it.'' |
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| Burdon,
whose hits include House Of The Rising Sun, See See Rider, San Franciscan Nights and Don't
Let Me Be Misunderstood, was born in 1941 in Newcastle in England's northeast. His first
band, the Animals, was one of the so-called original "British Invasion'' acts that
took the US by storm in the early 1960s. |
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| Rolling
Stone Brian Jones later described Burdon as "England's greatest ever blues singer''. |
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| The
rocker became a hippie in 1967, traded his denims for a Nehru jacket and moved to
California, where he still lives. |
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| In
1969, he formed a new band, War, which in 1970 released Spill The Wine, one of rock 'n'
roll's classics. The song was used in the Boogie Nights movie soundtrack. |
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| Back
embracing his blues roots, Burdon said he was eager to record and release an album of new
material. |
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| The
rocker said it had taken Australian crowds a long time to warm to him. "When I first
came, in the 1960s, we were a bunch of freaky hippies that scared the daylights out of
everyone,'' Burdon said. "Then, when I came in the '80s, punk music had taken hold
and no one really cared about what we were on about. "It was not until the early '90s
that Australians turned out in force to see the band.'' |
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| Eric
Burdon and the New Animals will appear at the Prince of Wales, St Kilda, on Thursday,
November 29, and at Crown on Saturday, December 1. |
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| Caption:
In tune: Eric Burdon (second from right) and the original Animals and, far right, as he is
today. Illus: Photo |
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