The Eric Burdon Band
| Eric Burdon | |
|---|---|
Burdon at the Audimax in Hamburg, July 1973
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Eric Victor Burdon |
| Born |
11 May 1941 Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) |
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| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1960–present |
| Labels | |
| Associated acts | |
| Website | www |
Eric Victor Burdon (born 11 May 1941) is an English singer-songwriter and rocker best known as a member and vocalist of the R&B/rock band The Animals and the funk band War. He is regarded as one of the British Invasion's most distinct singers with his deep, searingly powerful blues-rock voice. He is also known for his aggressive stage performances.
He was ranked 57th in Rolling Stone's list The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
Eric Burdon was born in 1941 in Newcastle, England. His father, Matt, was originally from Tyneside and his mother, Rene, Ireland; who moved down to Scotland, then to Newcastle in the thirties. He also had a younger sister, Irene. Burdon states he often had a divided loyalty in his sense of place and identity. He was born to a lower working-class family; his father did electrical work in some of the clubs Burdon would later play. Because of his dad's line of work in electrical repair, the Burdon family had a TV by the time Eric was 10; in his autobiography, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, he recalls the electrifying moment of first seeing Louis Armstrong on TV only beginning his love for the blues. This led him to take up the trombone, however realizing that he wasn't all that good a player, so he took up singing and went to Newcastle Art College. Eric matured very quickly due to his lack of normal childhood. In his song he wrote, "When I Was Young" he states he met his first love at 13, who was very experienced while he was not. He also sings he smoked his first cigarette at ten years old and would skip school with his friends to go drink Brown Ale.
Burdon describes his early school years as a "dark nightmare"; and "should've been penned by Charles Dickens". Due to the river pollution and humidity in Newcastle he suffered asthma attacks daily. During primary school, he was "Stuck at the rear of the classroom of around 40 to 50 kids and received constant harassment from kids and teachers alike. He goes on to say his primary school was "Jammed between a slaughterhouse and a shipyard on the banks of the Tyne. Some teachers were sadistic-- others pretended not to notice-- and sexual molestation and regular corporal punishment with a leather strap was the order of the day".
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Wikipedia