May 13, 2018 - Eric Burdon and the Animals - When I Was Young (1967)

Eric Burdon and the Animals formed in late 1966 following the dissolution of the original lineup, and was an entirely different...animal. Eric Burdon became psychedelicized and the music did as well. When I Was Young opens with a bass and cymbal, then at 0:05 a heavily picked low guitar string shatters the moment and dissolves into the ether, a war plane passing overhead. A violin joins the mix, and then Burdon begins singing at 0:20,

The rooms were so much colder then
My father was a soldier then
And times were very hard
When I was young

Like Neil Young's Sugar Mountain, it is a song about childhood and rites of passage, but in this case there is no sugar, no mother and dad, and no puppy love romance. The first cigarette and romantic experience are seedy and indifferent. The hardships and challenges of World War II on many British families like Eric's forced kids to grow up faster and tougher. Pain was more painful but one was expected to laugh it off, to keep a stiff upper lip, to be a man while still a boy. Childhood was like a Charlie Brown world without parental guidance. As Eric bitterly sings at 2:24,

I was so much older then
When I was young

The music is haunting and dark, a nightmare of confusion and mystery, guitar and violin tumbling downhill into a bombed out crater of despair.