[Today: Eric Burdon and War re-enact the 1960's...]
Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a powerfully hallucinogenic drug that was known in the 60′s as “the businessman’s trip” because it compressed the psychedelic breadth of an LSD trip into a half-hour joyride. Black Man’s Burdon clocks in at an hour and a half, but it’s basically the musical equivalent of a DMT trip – the entire sloppy, soulful, self-indulgent, psychedelic 1960′s packed into one double-LP package.
Lead singer and ex-Animal Eric Burdon is an over-the-top wildman who was perhaps most accurately described as an “abusive boozed-up Geordie.” On this 1973 collaboration with the funk band War, he sounds like the kind of crazy uncle I almost regret never having – raving his way through a mad-capped, eight-part, album side-length cover of ‘Paint It Black’ before descending into the absurdity of two separate, and equally unfortunate, covers of ‘Nights In White Satin’ (zero would have sufficed).
But Burdon’s lunacy isn’t limited to any one or two cover songs. Every nook and cranny of this album is full of groovy, disjointed rhythms, wayward horns, and some of the craziest raps ever laid down on wax. “He committed me to PC3/to the downtown infirmary/for a routine walloping” Burdon free-forms during the ‘PC3′ portion of the ‘Paint It Black’ medley. “I will swallow the sun/and digest the moon” he shouts with glee, and it’s hard not to cheer him along on his quest.
On the flip side is ‘They Can’t Take Away Our Music’ – a song about how dead musicians live on through their music, and the kind of faux-populist hippie crap that sounds like warmed-over freshman philosophy on first listen. But like so much of this album, Burdon’s conviction to the material is impressive, and every subsequent listen finds his pitch a bit more appealing. And War was one of the best funk bands of the 70′s, so the musical base for all of Burdon’s babbling is first rate, and the scattered grooves sink over time. Black Man’s Burdon is a preposterous, fabulous album, and a real trip.
Listen: Bare Back Ride
Listen: Home Cookin’
Listen: They Can’t Take Away Our Music
Tags: DMT, Eric Burdon, The Animals, The Black Man's Burdon, War
21 October 2008 at 9:35 am |
is it still possible to obtain this DMT you are referring to? it sounds intriguing, not to mention rather convenient for today’s time-restricted experience seeker.
21 October 2008 at 7:37 pm |
Everything you need to know here.
Fun fact: “If DMT is smoked… the taste and smell of the smoke is reminiscent of burning plastic.”
Yummy!
*****
UPDATE: Man/elf Terrence McKenna describes a DMT trip here.
21 October 2008 at 10:52 pm |
Hmm. That could have saved me many hours of seemingly endless trips in college. Now you tell me.
22 October 2008 at 12:00 am |
I’m sure you meant to say “…endless trips to the library in college.”
That’s what Eric Burdon and I are here for…
22 October 2008 at 7:11 am |
Ah…that just reminds me of all the times Jeffé used to regale me with tales of DMT’s potency.
3 January 2011 at 11:10 pm |
[...] statement that the past is still great. I’ve previously referred to Burdon as “the kind of crazy uncle I almost regret never having” and he lives up to that billing here, wailing away about Billie Holiday and the power of [...]
27 April 2012 at 10:05 pm |
One of the great double albums of all time…..
It’s crazy enough to be brilliant. Enjoying it to this day.