The Animals are one of those bands that I usually associate with a harder sound. Eric Burdon had one of the strongest voices to come out of the British Invasion. Listen to “House of the Rising Sun, We Gotta Get Out of This Place, or Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood. He could push a song right through the speakers.
Monterey is a different animal. Burdon still has that voice, but he doesn’t try to overpower the song with it. He sings for the song. That may be what I like most about this one. There is almost a relaxed quality to his singing while everything around him keeps changing.
By 1967, this wasn’t really the same Animals that had recorded those earlier hits. The original group had broken apart and Burdon assembled a new version with Vic Briggs, John Weider, Danny McCulloch, and Barry Jenkins. The blues and R&B roots were still there, but psychedelia had entered the picture in a big way. Their album Winds of Change made that change pretty obvious.
Then they played the Monterey International Pop Festival in June 1967.That festival became one of the defining events of the sixties. The Who played there. So did Jefferson Airplane, The Byrds, The Grateful Dead, Ravi Shankar, Hugh Masekela, and, of course, Jimi Hendrix. Burdon apparently came away from the festival completely taken by what he had seen and heard. This became his musical postcard (for lack of a better word) from the event.
The song was written by Burdon along with Briggs, Weider, McCulloch, and Jenkins and produced by Tom Wilson. It was released in late 1967 and later appeared on The Twain Shall Meet. The song peaked at #15 on the Billboard 100 and #3 in Canada.
I think it captures something that couldn’t last. The Monterey Pop Festival happened just before the sixties became darker and more complicated. There is an optimism running through this song. He bought into it completely. For those few minutes, music really does sound like it could change everything.
Monterey doesn’t sound much like the Animals who recorded We Gotta Get Out of This Place. But then again, 1967 didn’t sound much like 1965 either.
Monterey
The people came and listened
Some of them came and played
Others gave flowers away, yes they did
Down in Monterey
Down in Monterey
Young Gods smiled upon the crowd
Their music being born of love
Children danced night and day
Religion was being born
Down in Monterey
The birds and the airplane did fly
Oh, Ravi Shankars music made me cry
The Who exploded into fire and light
Hugh Masakela’s music was black as night
The Grateful Dead blew everybodies mind
Jimi Hendrix baby, believe me, set the world on fire, yeah
His Majesty, Prince Jones, smiled as he moved among the crowd
Ten thousand electric guitars were grooving real loud, yeah
You want to find the truth in life
Don’t pass music by
and you know I would not lie, no I would not lie,
No, I would not lie
Down in Monterey
Three days of understanding of moving with one another
Even the cops grooved with us
Do you believe me, yeah?
Down in Monterey
I think that maybe I’m dreaming
Monterey
Down in monterey
Did you hear what I said?
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Been a minute since I listened to this one. He was such a great storyteller. Quite the amount of deference paid to His Majesty, Prince Jones. As you say all this before the 60s got darker.
Yes it did…this was where the dream caught a hold on people…but it wouldn’t last.
Certain sounds make it easy to place a song in time…drum machine, synth, Auto-Tune, or, in this case, electric sitar.
While everyone romanticizes Woodstock, Monterey is where I wish I had been. The best I can do was seeing the Grateful Dead, Los Lobos, and David Lindley down the road at Laguna Seca Raceway.
I can only imagine…but I agree with you. I would rather be here than Woodstock…much closer to the start of it and selfishly…much better conditions plus to see The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Otis, Janis, and others at this stage would be a dream.
Man, I love Eric Burdon (what a great voice!) and also have always liked this song. Apparently, Burdon who turned 85 in May and still has a website that appears to be maintained, performed during a rock legends cruise in February this year.
I can’t believe he is still at it at 85 years old! It’s a wonder a lot of them survived the 60s!
I know, it’s pretty remarkable. He was struggling with serious alcoholism and likely other form of addiction in the ’70s.
And then still a kicking! Not only kicking but performing.
Don’t forget Otis Redding too, that was what made him famous beyond the R&B stations, wasn’t it?
A great song. I don’t know a lot of Animals songs but I agree, this is a little atypical. But it’s neck and neck with ‘House of the Rising Sun’s as my favorite of theirs…and bonus points for it being an original
Oh I do like it…it captured a time perfectly. You probably know more Animals than you think. They had more hits than I thought.
It reminds me later of what he did with WAR….not the style but the storytelling.
it doesn’t sound too far removed from ‘Spill the Wine’ does it?
No…thats what I was talking about…I just noticed that.
I loved the Animals. This was the first of a number of songs that turned me off Eric Burdon. I know my reaction is personal and not a reflection of any mass opinion.
Just my feeling,
Hey…to each his own Arthur! Did you like the psychedelic era? It was different than their R&B era for sure.
No. Burdon’s strength, in my opinion, is his rough delivery of great rock and roll songs. That is what you mean by their R&B era. Burdon is a strong singer of rock songs, and learned a lot from the great R&B he heard. But I don’t consider “We Gotta Get Outta This Place” or even R&B tunes like “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” or “Bring It On Home To Me” to be anything but rock tunes when Burdon does them. He does them great, mind you.
“Monterey,” “Sky Pilot” and “When I Was Young” are just three songs of many where I felt Burdon was too full of himself. It turned me off.
Like I said, just my opinion.
Yea I see…it was a different path for sure.
This song has a little bit of everything — story song, horns, shout outs, sitar. I like the bass into especially. Good observation about Burdon’s vocal — understated for him.
I can see how he got to Spill The Wine…this is not the same style but has a storytelling quality about it.,.is.
Yeah, ‘Spill The Wine’ has that fun trippy feel without too much of the ‘high dive into Hippydom’ vibe. ’67 was a fleeting moment in time, and, no, it just couldn’t last. But for a few months it did feel like a change was just around the corner. But there ain’t such things as everlasting rainbows and flying unicorns.
Nope! The world is not engineered that way. It must have been really cool while it lasted. This was before the rot set in.
The Animals lost me here but I picked up Eric with War later. ‘Tobacco Road’ is fantastic.
Yea…he veered off the hippie path for a while.
Eric Burdon and The Animals shared a personal connection with the band earlier that year, having attended and played a short set on the Grateful Dead’s equipment at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco in March 1967 before both groups appeared at Monterey.
Oh that is cool. What a bill that was.
An epic band
*Daily Juice*
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Max, I wrote about the festival back in January here: https://tao-talk.com/2026/01/10/sls-monterey-by-eric-burdon-the-animals-re-the-monterey-international-pop-festival-on-june-16-18-1967/
Yes! I blogged something after that post to do with Monterey because of you bringing it back to me. That seems like last month…not January!
Don’t you know the time-space continuum is warped in Cyberia? Maybe that’s why it is so much fun to interact in it.
Ive never heard this before, but it’s super interesting. I like Burdon with that gentler, psychedelic sound.
I can connect this with Spill The Wine a little bit…the storytelling involved.