ERIC BURDON – ‘Til Your River Runs Dry

ERIC BURDON
‘Til Your River Runs Dry
Abkco 2013

It’s been a long, long time since Eric Burdon released a record that was required listening. He had his moments, both with The Animals and War, but to call his solo career patchy would be to over praise it. Sadly, it took a Bruce Springsteen endorsement at SXSW, and the arrival of his seventies to propel him into the recording studio for the first time in a decade, but it certainly has been worth the wait. For this might be the best solo album he’s ever recorded.

Now, don’t get me wrong. It goes horribly wrong in a couple of places, no more so than on the political slow blues of ‘Invitation to the White House’, a song that is utterly rank, with only ‘Water’ running it close in the shite stakes. But they’re minor blemishes on what is otherwise a remarkably good album. He might be turning 72 this year, but like all good bluesmen, he’s still got the raw power that brought him to public note in the first place. Add in the fact that he also wrote ten of the twelve tunes on offer, and this is up there with the most surprising late bloomers.

It all works best when he sticks to the tried and tested blues sounds of yore. Which is what makes the likes of his Bo Diddley tribite, ‘Bo Diddley Special’ so, um, special. He even has a remarkably good go at Diddley’s ‘Before You Accuse Me’. He goes all gospel on ‘The Devil And Jesus’, and remembers his own wild life on ‘Old Habits Die Hard’. And when he slows things down on ‘Medicine Man’, he delivers one of the best vocals on the album. It sounds great and with a forthcoming memoir and a new recording commemorating 50 years of The Animals, this is shaping up to be a vintage year for the Walker born Geordie.

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