This was the theme song we lived by when we got "short" in our time in Vietnam. On my departure plane, when the wheels left the ground, we all started to sing this song and cheer.
The Animals also have a great song called "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood." Eric has the face of a 16 year old, but the voice of a 60 year old heavy drinking/smoking man. All while he was in his early to mid 20s. WONDERFUL voice, wonderful band.
I think you mean: "Don't let me be misunderstood". Written in 1964 for Nina Simone, and The Animals were the first one to cover it in 1965. Other artists followed with their versions.
@@VictorPM1550 Oh my goodness, you are right. I'm gonna edit my reply right now. Thank you for the correction. I shall take this as a hint that I need to listen to the song after fixing my post. Thanks again.
It is the age old desire of a younger person to get out of wherever they are. I was from rural Alabama and I couldn’t wait to go somewhere with more things to do! Now I am 60 and can’t wait do get back to the country life 😂😂 full circle! Great reaction! ❤️🔥✌🏻🫶🏻
Eric was born in 1941 and grew up in the Manchester general area. WWII had almost destroyed the British economy and it took over 2 decades to recover. As a primarily manufacturing city Manchester was particularly hard hit. Few jobs, low pay, poor working conditions, etc. What's now called Health and Safety was largely ignored. Employers knew that there were lots of unemployed workers and often treated their employees as replaceable, expendable assets. Work related health issues were common and on the job maiming or death was not infrequent. Families endured crowded poor housing, dirty conditions, heavy pollution, and an insufficient diet. All leading to an early death. That's what this song is about. The song is from the point of view of a young man, late teens to early 20's, whose father is dying at home in bed. Probably in his 40's or very early 50's at most.
Mississippi here. And I turned 60 on Saturday. I still can’t believe saying those numbers yeah I had to get out of Mississippi and now I just bought a house kinda out in the country.
I am a 75 year old white guy and I am here to give you a life's lesson if you are willing to hear it. People are basically good. Honor, courage and virtue mean everything. Power and abundance mean nothing. Good triumphs over evil. Love - true love never dies, Whether you believe in those things or not you should because they are the only things worth believing in.
Although "the Troubles" in Ireland started in 1966. A lot of young British soldiers were there trying to keep peace in both urban and countryside combat settings. Conflict was low level when compared to Vietnam, but was extremely stressful - lots of bombings and surprise attacks. About 3500 people were killed in the conflict (soldiers and civilians on both sides).
Ok, Pegasus. Most of the groups and singers that came to America during the British Invasion were from poor families that had survived World War II. There were shortages and little money to make ends meet. These groups and singers escaped the crushing poverty by turning music and the dream of a better life here in the states. By historical coincidence, the songs ran parallel to the Vietnam War and the cultural disruption, which further underlined the desperate conditions of life in another part of the world. Those musicians brought music to our shores to better their lives. The question now is where do we go for the dream that is dying before our eyes. Keep going
This song was from 1965 and it still holds up as well as "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" from the same year. The line is "Dead before your time is due" - I always took it to mean either being 'worked to death' or worn down by worry & poverty. It's such a good song - thanks for playing it & your comments.
DURING THE VIET NAM WAR ERA THAT WAS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL SONGS ALONG WITH A SONG BY THE HOLLIES(HE AIN'T HEAVY HE'S MY BROTHER) AND MANY MORE SONGS CALLING OUT THE USELESSNESS OF THE WAR
Yes. That baby faced lead singer has that deep voice! Again. If you read the comments. You’ll learn a lot from those who know the song, meaning and history.
The TV show you most likely heard it on was "Tour Of Duty", about an Army rifle squad in 'Nam. The series ran from 87-90. The entire sound track of the series was late 60s top 40, starting with the music for the opening credits "Paint it Black". Unfortunately, when the DVD box set was created, the producers didn't want to pay for the rights to the songs, so they were replaced by generic music.
I was in the Army when that show came out and really liked that it was so realistic. I learned later that most of the "Extra's" were actual military troops performing training missions and evaluated on their performance. I really loved that show - though the final season turned into a bit of a soap opera. Ans yes, I was highly disappointed when they stripped the original music from the DVDs.
@@vickic5386 I tried watching "China Beach". Didn't much care for it. I think I watched the first couple eps, and the series ender, were they had a reunion in DC, "in the present day", and ended up at the wall. A guy who used to post on another forum I read lived in the Virginia 'burbs of DC. He commented one day that you can go to the wall, around 2-3am, any night, and there will be someone there, crying.
@@taun856 The series was done with the assistance of the Army, but it did get in to a lot of things the Army would rather not have aired, like the erosion of discipline, the drug use, desertion, fragging. I thought Terrance Knox was great as the Sergent. The last two eps of the last season were mashed together and presented as a "movie of the week". I worked evenings then, so set the VCR. I hung on to that tape. So I have that much of the series, with the original soundtrack.
As strange as it sounds (for such a dramatic song), this song also shows up in a beach movie comedy, and that's where that piece of film at the beginning is from.
Eric Burdon had/has one of the great blues voices, especially for a 'white guy'. He went on to be part of the formation of the band 'War'. Alan Price, the keyboard player went on to have his own successful career. The bass player is Chas Chandler, who moved into management. He was Jimi Hendrix's manager, brought him to England, and got him recording contracts, when he was just an unknown guitar slinger. He was also the manager of the UK 'Glam-Rock' band Slade, who were at one point the biggest 'Pop' band around.
"It's My Life", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and their rendition of Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home to Me" were just a few of their big hits, too. You can see many other hits listed by commenters.
The Animals were from the less affluent North of England, in a city called Newcastle. It was a heavily industrialised area that had been "the focal point of the Golden Age of Coal, Iron and Steam - coal mining, railway engineering and shipbuilding" in England since the Industrial Revolution. Work and safety conditions would not have been great and in coal mining in particular, your job could literally kill you 'before your time was due'. Air pollution would have been terrible. Gangs roamed the streets and fights would have been common. And there was a lot of poverty, even among the employed - Eric and all or most of the other band members (IIRC) grew up in varying degrees of deprivation - so the 'bluesy cry of the underprivileged' feel to the song is totally authentic. They knew what it meant to want to get out the place and find somewhere/ something better. It just happened that the release of the song coincided with the Vietnam War and so was adopted by the young conscripts from the Woodstock generation who were forced to go to the other side of the world to invade another country in order to defend something that was not at all clear to many, then or now. All they knew was they had to try and get out of that place, as fast as possible, preferably with bodies and minds still more or less intact. It also came at a time of general youthful rebellion against the old ways of doing things with a feeling that we could build a better world, that didn't depend on wars and inequality and cruelty but celebrated love, peace and happiness. We had to get out of that old place, and into the new mindset. I recall the first time I heard the song, squeezed into one of the little listening booths with a friend or two in the record department of a department store in our dull provincial town in England. We'd have been about 13 or 14. We knew the sixties was happening, but mainly somewhere else, like Swinging London. We just knew we had to get out of that place and so we sang along with Eric and friends with passionate abandon... There's an excellent documentary on YT about Eric, tracing his life from childhood to the present day, that you might like to check out some time.
I'm 73 and lived through a lot of turmoil, and seen a lot of things I wish I could unsee. In the 60's we had 3 assassinations, Vietnam, and political leaders that didn't seem to care......things are NOT worse now. We survived then and we'll survive today. BTW great reaction. A lot of great music from this group
When this was recorded in the mid-sixties, millions of working-class folks in the UK still lived in the shittiest conditions... half the people didn't even have indoor toilets, bathrooms, etc. True story.
Many people were on rations in the UK into the 60's, as you said. World War 2 wasn't great for Europe, and yet nobody cares that we're heading right back to that same place on a runaway locomotive. It's great.
The Animals were from Newcastle UK, a coal mining town. I always associated this song with their origins. Could be wrong, but at the time of its release, that’s what I thought. Song was appropriated by military serving in Vietnam, for obvious reasons.
It's so cool as your generation discovers the quality of the music from my generation. I was born in 1955, so I grew up in several decades of the evolution of music.... I really enjoy the reaction videos of the younger generation as they are blown away by the great music we grew up in.... There is so much more for you to discover, and I will enjoy it as you do..... I can sugest so much if you are curious...
In my 1970-71 tour at U-Tapao Air Force Base in Thailand working on B-52 bombers, this was the most played song on base. The line “We gotta get outa this place” was screamed at the top of our lungs by everyone.
This is all about getting away from the smog and grime of the shipyard area. Eric’s family lived close to the “yards” about a half mile from me. Eric is still performing and as good as ever
It was written in a time when we were still rebuilding after the devastation of WW11. It was hard times all round. The chorus was picked up by the Americans in Vietnam.
Black lung. It's a coal town disease. These guys wanted/needed to get out of there before they were affected. It may have been about their specific circumstances - but it spoke to the sign of the times.
A Newcastle band. If you've unfamiliar with the expression "taking coal to Newcastle", it equates that endeavour with redundancy, pointlessness. Knowing what we now do, and have for generations about the health risks, associated lifestyle limitations and general undesirability of such a life path, no wonder they're singing about "daddy in bed and dying", and the need to leave the whole effing mess behind. ✊🏼😔🎶💔✨️🕊
Bruce Springsteen attributes his entire career to hearing this song, and its uncommon, inherent grittiness, in his youth, once saying "That [We Gotta Get Out Of This Place] is every song I've ever written. That's all of them. I'm not kidding, either. That's 'Born to Run', 'Born in the U.S.A...'"
I served in Viet. during the Tet Offensive in 1968. The USO arranged & facilitated bands & entertainment to perform in war zones for the U.S. military. Every band that performed in Viet. played this song, "We Gotta Get Out of This Place". Another Viet. War favorite was "The Green, Green Grass of Home". It was covered by Tom Jones, Johnny Cash, & Elvis Presley. Also, "The Green Leaves of Summer" from the movie The Alamo. Bands performing in Viet. during the war had to play all three of these songs. You don't want to piss off a bunch of drunk soldiers in a war zone.
The song isn't about Vietnam but it was adopted by the troops for obvious reasons, that was a place they wanted to get out of. As such, it pretty much would be in any TV show about the Vietnam War worth its salt.
In the days of the British invasion, most English bands were very pop-oriented with upbeat happy songs like the early Beatles tunes. The Animals were from blue collar Newcastle and were enamored with American R&B artists like John Lee Hooker and Bo Diddley. They were one of the first bands to use their songs to expose the inequeties of the class system the struggles of working class urban folk.
Absolutely. Headphones have great sonics, but you will never get a correct frontal soundstage and literally feel the music by the air and room being excited like you can with a quality audiophile hifi stereo correctly matched and set up. 99% of the people don’t get it because they’ve never experienced it.
The city air was so dirty. Do a comparison picture from the late 60's and 79's before the clean air regulations were put in place. Made the rich dudes clean up their messes.
This was my "class song" in school year 1964-65 when i graduated from 9th grade, and again in school year 1968-69 when I graduated from high school. I'm 73 and I still remember all the lyrics. The boys in my senior class were among the last to get their draft cards during Viet Nam.
Yes another Geordie British band my grandad bless his soul was actually at a party when they were at the house party. He sat and drank with them and they played some songs at the party. He didn’t know them as in friends with them but he always liked to tell that story ❤ RIP grandad ❤
This one is their Vietnam protest song. It is in *Every* movie/show about Vietnam. This is some info on it and who wrote it: written by American songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and recorded as a 1965 hit single by English band the Animals. It has become an iconic song of its type and was immensely popular with United States Armed Forces G.I.s during the Vietnam War. Country Joe and The Fish does The Vietnam Song that was done at Woodstock
I disagree. HS grad of 1966. This song is about the rat race faced by working class kids, watching parents hammered down by subsistence living. Think of where the band grew up, northern England! Just because the tune was used on TV shows about war, or favored by Nam vets, doesn't mean it has a thing to do with protesting the war. Now Country Joe is a whole other thing!
@@radtechedu I read the history behind it, we're both right. BP said it was in a war movie/tv show, that's why I said it is in every show/movie, because it is. We could name one movie and the song would be in it, we could name another and same.
The band was from Newcastle England and it is or was a very industrial town and that is the message put out here of being trapped in a place you cannot to get away from ..
Yeah. You're right, I'm 71, female and I remember that there were 2 Vietnam based tv shows when I was fairly young. I watched because both shows had lots of handsome guys in uniform. LOL One was called Tour Of Duty. The song that wa used as the intro was Paint it Black by the Rolling Stones, but they also used We Gotta get out of this Place. The other show was called China Beach. They used lots of popular songs,as well. You were curious about what the Animals were talking about on We Gotta Get out Of this Place. IMHO I think being recorded by British people from the north of England I think they were talking about how tough life was up there for folks working in the coal mines and the factories and mills. Plus, this was not that long after the end of WW2. People were poor and in dire straights. Do any older folks like me agree? Other great Animals songs from that wonderful Greatest hits album are Bring it on Home to Me and Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood.
Another goodun. This looks like any number of music shows that was all over tv in the 60s. Being a small town southern boy I always took this song as leaving the hustle and bustle of the city for a slower paced life in the country
They were talking about their parents doing nothing but working instead of enjoying life and living. Men and women stuck in the traditional roles. There's several songs about this like Billy Joel My Life and Moving Out. Beatles Shes Leaving Home.
my father went to school with members of this band. They were the ones who discovered Jimi Hendrix and brought him on tour with them. I had a friend who opened for them both at Shieldfield social club.
The Animals are from Newcastle in England, until 1963 a coal-mining town, which always means a filth , polluted place. The city still has a reputations as a tough, gritty, industrial town (I've never been there, so I have no opinion). The song, like Johnny's Rivers's "The Poor Side of Town" or the "Nashville Teens' "Tobacco Road," is about escaping poverty. It was written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, American professional songwriters, but Burdon, who was raised in poverty and ill-health, really threw himself into it. I'm sure the Vietnam soldiers sang the chorus for a different reason. Great song.
Flower Power and the Hippy movement, not long out of Korean and now we were in Vietnam, the feeling that slaving away with your dad in the same factory/mill/mine wasn't the "the end all be all" of an existence, seeing the rest of the country via movies, TV shows, and docu-series let us see more than the end of our neighborhoods. I grew up with "that" war on the nightly news from my infancy. And it FINALLY ended a pair of years before I became draft age.
9:40 People died because life was hard. Tuberculosis, farm and industry accidents, cancer, coal mine disasters, you name it. I was in high school reading Steinbeck and this song always reminds me of the things he wrote about. "Hard scrabble" times.
The show you're probably remembering might have been a show called China Beach. It was a series about the Vietnam war, and would play tons of songs that were associated with that time. It was a fairly popular series.
You might like "it's my life" A song that's a good change of pace is "I'm Crying" ( Rhythm and blues, rock) You can hear a Stones sound in this one. Don't know who influenced who. Both Bands came out in 62.
By March of 1965, President Johnson launched Operation Rolling Thunder, a three-year campaign bombing of targets in North Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. That same month the first American troops entered Vietnam when U.S. Marines landed on beaches near Da Nang, South Vietnam. As America was at war, and involvement would continue on through 1973, the songs of protest continually grew around a war no one ever wanted, including one of the first anthems of the time released by The Animals.
Springsteen did the dedication when The Animals were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, and said that every song that he's ever written is basically 'We Gotta Get Out Of This Place'.
A HUGE Vietnam song! "In this dirty old part of the city When the sun refused to shine People tell me there ain't no use in tryin' Now, my girl you're so young and pretty And one thing I know is true You'll be dead before your time is due, I know Watch my daddy in bed a-dyin' Watch his hair been turnin' grey He's been workin' and slavin' his life away Oh yes, I know it He's been workin' so hard (yeah) I've been workin' too, baby Every night and day We gotta get out of this place If it's the last thing we ever do We gotta get out of this place Girl, there's a better life for me and you Now, my girl you're so young and pretty And one thing I know is true, yeah You'll be dead before your time is due, I know it Watch my daddy in bed a-dyin' Watch his hair been turnin' grey, yeah He's been workin' and slavin' his life away I know he's been workin' so hard I've been workin' too, baby (yeah) Every day baby Whoa! We gotta get out of this place If it's the last thing we ever do We gotta get out of this place Girl, there's a better life for me and you Somewhere baby, somehow I know it, baby We gotta get out of this place If it's the last thing we ever do We gotta get out of this place Girl, there's a better life for me and you Believe me, baby I know it, baby You know it too"
Another "war song" written by Pete Seger is "Where Have All the Flowers Gone". It's sad and beautiful at the same time. Several people have recorded it but the one best known is by Peter, Paul and Mary.
The Animals, the Kinks, the Beatles, the Stones, so many bands in the UK came out at the same time, early to late sixties. I left the UK in 1965 aged just 22yrs old to start a new life in Australia, sadly at that time, these amazing bands were slow to come to the radio in Australia back then. I was lucky enough to have someone back in the UK to send me copies of the "New Musical Express" (equivalent would be "Rolling Stones mag today) which was the Bible for followers of the latest and greatest bands coming through in Britain at that time. More amazing to me is that so many of those bands are now being "rediscovered" via channels such as yours my friend. Well done.
This is post WWII there are still parts of Britain that have bomb damage. It's been basically 10ish years since rationing has ended and the poorest people are seriously struggling even with all of the help they're getting from their government. He's talking about basically trying to leave the projects to get a life in suburbia.
Abundance is not money brother. I checked out got a little storage building on a piece of land that’s mine. Soon I’ll have chickens and rabbits. I gave it all up for simple things you don’t have to spend to be happy. I didn’t just recently give it all up recently before this I was living in a bus.
I remember my mom playing animals albums regularly when I was growing up in the early 70's. They were a local band who had huge success and she loved their music so this was a soundtrack from my youth and it sounds even better when I listen to it now. Not only did my mom play it but you heard it from various neighbours listening to their music and also on local stations in the North East of England as they were the local boys who conquered the world with their music. It was similar when sting and the police had huge success as Sting was the local boy who conquered the world.
I was in high school when this came out and it came to be our "anthem." We lived in a small, southern town and couldn't wait to grow up and get out of there .... though a lot of us chose to stay!
Yes, a truly great song from the Animals. A common theme for all the living people. But House alone is immortal. It speaks to the living, bur also speaks to the living FROM the dead, about repeating the same vices. Even willingly. Haunting.
‘Nam was going on. That was back when the draft was in full effect. If guys couldn’t get a college deferral, that’s where they were headed. When I graduated from high school in 1966, there were recruiters at the bottom of the steps off the stage. Shook the boy’s hand, gave him the Greetings letter, and took him away then and there (if he was already 18).
I worked with a guy who was much older than me…he had this as his ring tone. I asked him what that was all about. He said this song was his anthem in Vietnam. Kept him alive. I appreciated the song a whole lot more after that.
Get out of Colorado. I lived in California and would hear this song on my playlist while walking. My husband and I finally made it out My daughter and her husband followed. We still have family there and hoping they will escape There is a better life for you and me
My pop did 3 tours in Viet Nam, after he returned home from one of those this song came on the radio. He had to turn it off and he told me that he would often go to the officers club in Saigon and he said that they played this song so often that he was just sick of it.
using this song as a moment of clarity, it (and virtually ANY song) means what it 'means' to you as it relates to YOUR life, past and present ...... that is what makes the medium so powerful and why all generations can listen to (and appreciate) 50s, 60s, 70s and all music because it negates, for the most part, age, gender, race, and economic differences for the length of that particular song .... you appear to have the ability to find nuggets of truth in all genres and are open minded enough to embrace each of your selections with enthusiasm .... 👍👌👍 .... thanks
This was the theme song we lived by when we got "short" in our time in Vietnam. On my departure plane, when the wheels left the ground, we all started to sing this song and cheer.
Thank you for your service
Yup. There is a sequence in an ep of "Tour of Duty" where one guy is finishing his tour and all the guys in the Huey start singing that song.
Welcome Home. (Class of '69, Central Highlands.)
@757optim so glad you made it home. Thank you.
Thank you and yours, for your service and sacrifice
I loved their song "Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"
Oh yeah
Yes!!!!
"Inside Looking Out", on the Sullivan show was also good.
"Please Don't Let My Be Misunderstood" ~ definitely another iconic song of that time!
This song and band was played HUGELY by the troops in the Vietnam war
it was the most popular song in Vietnam, We gotta get out of this place if its the last thing we ever do!
I was in Aden for two years and this track was played a lot there to.
not bad for an English band
The Animals also have a great song called "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood." Eric has the face of a 16 year old, but the voice of a 60 year old heavy drinking/smoking man. All while he was in his early to mid 20s. WONDERFUL voice, wonderful band.
I think you mean: "Don't let me be misunderstood". Written in 1964 for Nina Simone, and The Animals were the first one to cover it in 1965. Other artists followed with their versions.
@@VictorPM1550 Oh my goodness, you are right. I'm gonna edit my reply right now. Thank you for the correction. I shall take this as a hint that I need to listen to the song after fixing my post. Thanks again.
It is the age old desire of a younger person to get out of wherever they are. I was from rural Alabama and I couldn’t wait to go somewhere with more things to do! Now I am 60 and can’t wait do get back to the country life 😂😂 full circle! Great reaction! ❤️🔥✌🏻🫶🏻
Eric was born in 1941 and grew up in the Manchester general area. WWII had almost destroyed the British economy and it took over 2 decades to recover. As a primarily manufacturing city Manchester was particularly hard hit. Few jobs, low pay, poor working conditions, etc. What's now called Health and Safety was largely ignored. Employers knew that there were lots of unemployed workers and often treated their employees as replaceable, expendable assets. Work related health issues were common and on the job maiming or death was not infrequent. Families endured crowded poor housing, dirty conditions, heavy pollution, and an insufficient diet. All leading to an early death. That's what this song is about. The song is from the point of view of a young man, late teens to early 20's, whose father is dying at home in bed. Probably in his 40's or very early 50's at most.
Mississippi here. And I turned 60 on Saturday. I still can’t believe saying those numbers yeah I had to get out of Mississippi and now I just bought a house kinda out in the country.
HAH same here. I grew up in a small town in Louisiana, now I want to go back and retire in the country.
I am a 75 year old white guy and I am here to give you a life's lesson if you are willing to hear it. People are basically good. Honor, courage and virtue mean everything. Power and abundance mean nothing. Good triumphs over evil. Love - true love never dies, Whether you believe in those things or not you should because they are the only things worth believing in.
I completely agree. Well said. 68 yr. Old woman here.
Another Animals hit that is regarded as a Vietnam protest song is "Sky Pilot." Ironic since they were a British band.
Although "the Troubles" in Ireland started in 1966. A lot of young British soldiers were there trying to keep peace in both urban and countryside combat settings. Conflict was low level when compared to Vietnam, but was extremely stressful - lots of bombings and surprise attacks. About 3500 people were killed in the conflict (soldiers and civilians on both sides).
they are from newcastle uk..i always presumed they wanted to get out of that place lol
But there were quite a few British serving in Vietnam, after all there were rubber plantations there supplying Europe and America.
But Eric lived in America since 1966
@@jvsmith7888 The Brits fought in Vietnam
Ok, Pegasus.
Most of the groups and singers that came to America during the British Invasion were from poor families that had survived World War II.
There were shortages and little money to make ends meet. These groups and singers escaped the crushing poverty by turning music and the dream of a better life here in the states.
By historical coincidence, the songs ran parallel to the Vietnam War and the cultural disruption, which further underlined the desperate conditions of life in another part of the world.
Those musicians brought music to our shores to better their lives. The question now is where do we go for the dream that is dying before our eyes.
Keep going
You got it.
Straight up.
This song was from 1965 and it still holds up as well as "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" from the same year. The line is "Dead before your time is due" - I always took it to mean either being 'worked to death' or worn down by worry & poverty. It's such a good song - thanks for playing it & your comments.
"When I was Young" is great song that often gets overlooked
Definitely one of their best!
DURING THE VIET NAM WAR ERA THAT WAS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL SONGS ALONG WITH A SONG BY THE HOLLIES(HE AIN'T HEAVY HE'S MY BROTHER) AND MANY MORE SONGS CALLING OUT THE USELESSNESS OF THE WAR
This band is so underrated in my opinion.
100% They were so far ahead of their time!
Yes. That baby faced lead singer has that deep voice! Again. If you read the comments. You’ll learn a lot from those who know the song, meaning and history.
The TV show you most likely heard it on was "Tour Of Duty", about an Army rifle squad in 'Nam. The series ran from 87-90. The entire sound track of the series was late 60s top 40, starting with the music for the opening credits "Paint it Black". Unfortunately, when the DVD box set was created, the producers didn't want to pay for the rights to the songs, so they were replaced by generic music.
I was in the Army when that show came out and really liked that it was so realistic. I learned later that most of the "Extra's" were actual military troops performing training missions and evaluated on their performance. I really loved that show - though the final season turned into a bit of a soap opera. Ans yes, I was highly disappointed when they stripped the original music from the DVDs.
The TV series China Beach ran in that same timeframe. Also the movie Good Morning Vietnam came out in late 1987.
@@vickic5386 I tried watching "China Beach". Didn't much care for it. I think I watched the first couple eps, and the series ender, were they had a reunion in DC, "in the present day", and ended up at the wall. A guy who used to post on another forum I read lived in the Virginia 'burbs of DC. He commented one day that you can go to the wall, around 2-3am, any night, and there will be someone there, crying.
@@taun856 The series was done with the assistance of the Army, but it did get in to a lot of things the Army would rather not have aired, like the erosion of discipline, the drug use, desertion, fragging. I thought Terrance Knox was great as the Sergent.
The last two eps of the last season were mashed together and presented as a "movie of the week". I worked evenings then, so set the VCR. I hung on to that tape. So I have that much of the series, with the original soundtrack.
As strange as it sounds (for such a dramatic song), this song also shows up in a beach movie comedy, and that's where that piece of film at the beginning is from.
Eric Burdon had/has one of the great blues voices, especially for a 'white guy'. He went on to be part of the formation of the band 'War'. Alan Price, the keyboard player went on to have his own successful career.
The bass player is Chas Chandler, who moved into management. He was Jimi Hendrix's manager, brought him to England, and got him recording contracts, when he was just an unknown guitar slinger. He was also the manager of the UK 'Glam-Rock' band Slade, who were at one point the biggest 'Pop' band around.
Andy Sommers of the Police also played with them for a while!
"It's My Life", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and their rendition of Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home to Me" were just a few of their big hits, too. You can see many other hits listed by commenters.
The Animals were from the less affluent North of England, in a city called Newcastle. It was a heavily industrialised area that had been "the focal point of the Golden Age of Coal, Iron and Steam - coal mining, railway engineering and shipbuilding" in England since the Industrial Revolution.
Work and safety conditions would not have been great and in coal mining in particular, your job could literally kill you 'before your time was due'. Air pollution would have been terrible. Gangs roamed the streets and fights would have been common.
And there was a lot of poverty, even among the employed - Eric and all or most of the other band members (IIRC) grew up in varying degrees of deprivation - so the 'bluesy cry of the underprivileged' feel to the song is totally authentic. They knew what it meant to want to get out the place and find somewhere/ something better.
It just happened that the release of the song coincided with the Vietnam War and so was adopted by the young conscripts from the Woodstock generation who were forced to go to the other side of the world to invade another country in order to defend something that was not at all clear to many, then or now. All they knew was they had to try and get out of that place, as fast as possible, preferably with bodies and minds still more or less intact.
It also came at a time of general youthful rebellion against the old ways of doing things with a feeling that we could build a better world, that didn't depend on wars and inequality and cruelty but celebrated love, peace and happiness. We had to get out of that old place, and into the new mindset.
I recall the first time I heard the song, squeezed into one of the little listening booths with a friend or two in the record department of a department store in our dull provincial town in England. We'd have been about 13 or 14. We knew the sixties was happening, but mainly somewhere else, like Swinging London. We just knew we had to get out of that place and so we sang along with Eric and friends with passionate abandon...
There's an excellent documentary on YT about Eric, tracing his life from childhood to the present day, that you might like to check out some time.
House of the Rising Sun is the most well known Animals song, but this song and It's My Life are peak Animals.
Here's a good one of many! - Eric Burdon & The Animals "Sky Pilot".
I remember the song being in China Beach, which was set in Vietnam.
I used to go to China Beach when I stationed in cam rahn bay and we used to listen to this song a lot. This song and what's going on.
I'm 73 and lived through a lot of turmoil, and seen a lot of things I wish I could unsee. In the 60's we had 3 assassinations, Vietnam, and political leaders that didn't seem to care......things are NOT worse now. We survived then and we'll survive today. BTW great reaction. A lot of great music from this group
You already have abundance mate. be careful of chasing fools gold.
Your girls are priceless and will provide you endless pride and joy.
When this was recorded in the mid-sixties, millions of working-class folks in the UK still lived in the shittiest conditions... half the people didn't even have indoor toilets, bathrooms, etc. True story.
Many people were on rations in the UK into the 60's, as you said. World War 2 wasn't great for Europe, and yet nobody cares that we're heading right back to that same place on a runaway locomotive. It's great.
Spill the Wine while with War
Yes!
The live version is 🔥🔥🔥
Yes!!
He grew up in mining town and saw the physical life threatened and mental also. His voice was affected by it.
Problem about getting out of this place - make sure where you're going isn't just as f#$*ed up as where you're leaving.
Yep..wherever you go, there you are!
It takes a while to understand that
The Animals were from Newcastle UK, a coal mining town. I always associated this song with their origins. Could be wrong, but at the time of its release, that’s what I thought. Song was appropriated by military serving in Vietnam, for obvious reasons.
Newcastle is a city, my city and coal mines not in the city but surrounding areas near coast. My dad was a miner!
This was every high schools mantra in the mid 60's.
Thank you for reacting honestly. It’s refreshing and touching.
The animals were a top of the charts group in the 60s, their music was what we grew up and lived by… It’s still as good as it was back then😊😊😊👏👏👏
Written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil who also wrote "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" 🤩
Come up here to Wyoming! Moved up here from Parker,co
Cheaper and much nicer all the way round!
I think it may have been in good morning Vietnam
It's so cool as your generation discovers the quality of the music from my generation. I was born in 1955, so I grew up in several decades of the evolution of music.... I really enjoy the reaction videos of the younger generation as they are blown away by the great music we grew up in.... There is so much more for you to discover, and I will enjoy it as you do..... I can sugest so much if you are curious...
In my 1970-71 tour at U-Tapao Air Force Base in Thailand working on B-52 bombers, this was the most played song on base. The line “We gotta get outa this place” was screamed at the top of our lungs by everyone.
What was going was working-class, industrial, northern English towns where your body might as well be coal shoveled into a mill's furnace.
A great analogy!!! Profits, profits, PROFITS!!! June USA ( even in a cleaning business ) June USA Maine
This is all about getting away from the smog and grime of the shipyard area. Eric’s family lived close to the “yards” about a half mile from me. Eric is still performing and as good as ever
Yay, I'm so glad you did this. They are from my city. ✌️ ❤️ 🇬🇧
The show was ""China Beach" with Dana Delany, Merg Helgenberger, Brian Wimmer, Michael Boatman, Jeff Kober, and others
@@lisamcnaughton7119 I loved China Beach. I wonder if it's streaming anywhere.
This song has been on so so so many soundtracks, movies and TV
It was written in a time when we were still rebuilding after the devastation of WW11. It was hard times all round. The chorus was picked up by the Americans in Vietnam.
Black lung. It's a coal town disease. These guys wanted/needed to get out of there before they were affected. It may have been about their specific circumstances - but it spoke to the sign of the times.
A Newcastle band. If you've unfamiliar with the expression "taking coal to Newcastle", it equates that endeavour with redundancy, pointlessness. Knowing what we now do, and have for generations about the health risks, associated lifestyle limitations and general undesirability of such a life path, no wonder they're singing about "daddy in bed and dying", and the need to leave the whole effing mess behind.
✊🏼😔🎶💔✨️🕊
Bruce Springsteen attributes his entire career to hearing this song, and its uncommon, inherent grittiness, in his youth, once saying "That [We Gotta Get Out Of This Place] is every song I've ever written. That's all of them. I'm not kidding, either. That's 'Born to Run', 'Born in the U.S.A...'"
Yea but Bruce Springsteen sucks, and the Animals are great.😉
I served in Viet. during the Tet Offensive in 1968. The USO arranged & facilitated bands & entertainment to perform in war zones for the U.S. military. Every band that performed in Viet. played this song, "We Gotta Get Out of This Place". Another Viet. War favorite was "The Green, Green Grass of Home". It was covered by Tom Jones, Johnny Cash, & Elvis Presley. Also, "The Green Leaves of Summer" from the movie The Alamo. Bands performing in Viet. during the war had to play all three of these songs. You don't want to piss off a bunch of drunk soldiers in a war zone.
The song isn't about Vietnam but it was adopted by the troops for obvious reasons, that was a place they wanted to get out of. As such, it pretty much would be in any TV show about the Vietnam War worth its salt.
I think we hear several versions of this theme throughout our life. Fast Car by Tracy Chapman has the same feeling of immediacy and desperation.
Than you for your service. My father had to be routed from Vietnam to Germany. Came home a double amputee and lived a full life. Love!
“It’s my Life” by the Animals is the follow up to this song.
This band is arguably the best and most important band from the sixties that seemingly have been forgotten where other bands haven't.
In the days of the British invasion, most English bands were very pop-oriented with upbeat happy songs like the early Beatles tunes. The Animals were from blue collar Newcastle and were enamored with American R&B artists like John Lee Hooker and Bo Diddley. They were one of the first bands to use their songs to expose the inequeties of the class system the struggles of working class urban folk.
i have all of their albums and all of his solos. listening with speakers like you do is so much better then headphones.
Absolutely. Headphones have great sonics, but you will never get a correct frontal soundstage and literally feel the music by the air and room being excited like you can with a quality audiophile hifi stereo correctly matched and set up. 99% of the people don’t get it because they’ve never experienced it.
@@36karpatoruski i just bought a pair of Yamaha NS-800As for 1500 each and waiting for the arrival on wednesday. soundstage and the magic should begin
The city air was so dirty. Do a comparison picture from the late 60's and 79's before the clean air regulations were put in place. Made the rich dudes clean up their messes.
The Animals are one of the most underrated bands from the 60's. So much soul and feeling. I love them.
They were British. Post WWII city life in England was bleak
This was my "class song" in school year 1964-65 when i graduated from 9th grade, and again in school year 1968-69 when I graduated from high school. I'm 73 and I still remember all the lyrics. The boys in my senior class were among the last to get their draft cards during Viet Nam.
Member of Class of '69. Our class motto: 69 all night long. Peace out.
Member of '69. Our class motto: 69 all night long.
..."Class of 76"...75-98 US Army...This was a huge song that became a Vietnam Era song...Eric later switched to the band "War".
Watch “ Full Metal Jacket”.. Tour Of Duty.. the music is frickin telling of the time. And War
Yes another Geordie British band my grandad bless his soul was actually at a party when they were at the house party. He sat and drank with them and they played some songs at the party. He didn’t know them as in friends with them but he always liked to tell that story ❤ RIP grandad ❤
This one is their Vietnam protest song. It is in *Every* movie/show about Vietnam. This is some info on it and who wrote it: written by American songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and recorded as a 1965 hit single by English band the Animals. It has become an iconic song of its type and was immensely popular with United States Armed Forces G.I.s during the Vietnam War.
Country Joe and The Fish does The Vietnam Song that was done at Woodstock
I disagree. HS grad of 1966. This song is about the rat race faced by working class kids, watching parents hammered down by subsistence living. Think of where the band grew up, northern England! Just because the tune was used on TV shows about war, or favored by Nam vets, doesn't mean it has a thing to do with protesting the war. Now Country Joe is a whole other thing!
@@radtechedu I read the history behind it, we're both right. BP said it was in a war movie/tv show, that's why I said it is in every show/movie, because it is. We could name one movie and the song would be in it, we could name another and same.
The band was from Newcastle England and it is or was a very industrial town and that is the message put out here of being trapped in a place you cannot to get away from ..
Yeah. You're right, I'm 71, female and I remember that there were 2 Vietnam based tv shows when I was fairly young. I watched because both shows had lots of handsome guys in uniform. LOL One was called Tour Of Duty. The song that wa used as the intro was Paint it Black by the Rolling Stones, but they also used We Gotta get out of this Place. The other show was called China Beach. They used lots of popular songs,as well.
You were curious about what the Animals were talking about on We Gotta Get out Of this Place. IMHO I think being recorded by British people from the north of England
I think they were talking about how tough life was up there for folks working in the coal mines and the factories and mills. Plus, this was not that long after the end of
WW2. People were poor and in dire straights.
Do any older folks like me agree?
Other great Animals songs from that wonderful Greatest hits album are Bring it on Home to Me and Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood.
This was definitely written about my home town of Stoke on Trent 😂
they are from newcastle..could be any northern town lol
@@saintdon4461 yeah true haha
All of us who survived f’n South East Asia had this as our theme song prior to, or during our rotation home. You’re always so confused, RESPECT! 🇺🇸
Another goodun. This looks like any number of music shows that was all over tv in the 60s. Being a small town southern boy I always took this song as leaving the hustle and bustle of the city for a slower paced life in the country
They were talking about their parents doing nothing but working instead of enjoying life and living. Men and women stuck in the traditional roles. There's several songs about this like Billy Joel My Life and Moving Out.
Beatles Shes Leaving Home.
my father went to school with members of this band. They were the ones who discovered Jimi Hendrix and brought him on tour with them. I had a friend who opened for them both at Shieldfield social club.
In the '60's, in middle school, my parents got me a clock radio for Christmas.. Every school day I would wake up to these gems. Fond memories
The Animals are from Newcastle in England, until 1963 a coal-mining town, which always means a filth , polluted place. The city still has a reputations as a tough, gritty, industrial town (I've never been there, so I have no opinion). The song, like Johnny's Rivers's "The Poor Side of Town" or the "Nashville Teens' "Tobacco Road," is about escaping poverty. It was written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, American professional songwriters, but Burdon, who was raised in poverty and ill-health, really threw himself into it. I'm sure the Vietnam soldiers sang the chorus for a different reason. Great song.
Flower Power and the Hippy movement, not long out of Korean and now we were in Vietnam, the feeling that slaving away with your dad in the same factory/mill/mine wasn't the "the end all be all" of an existence, seeing the rest of the country via movies, TV shows, and docu-series let us see more than the end of our neighborhoods.
I grew up with "that" war on the nightly news from my infancy. And it FINALLY ended a pair of years before I became draft age.
9:40 People died because life was hard. Tuberculosis, farm and industry accidents, cancer, coal mine disasters, you name it. I was in high school reading Steinbeck and this song always reminds me of the things he wrote about. "Hard scrabble" times.
there was no out for working class young people in england in the 1950s and early 60s. then rock and roll happened...
The Animals are awesome. Love this song. Love your reaction!
The show you're probably remembering might have been a show called China Beach. It was a series about the Vietnam war, and would play tons of songs that were associated with that time. It was a fairly popular series.
You might like "it's my life" A song that's a good change of pace is "I'm Crying" ( Rhythm and blues, rock) You can hear a Stones sound in this one. Don't know who influenced who. Both Bands came out in 62.
By March of 1965, President Johnson launched Operation Rolling Thunder, a three-year campaign bombing of targets in North Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. That same month the first American troops entered Vietnam when U.S. Marines landed on beaches near Da Nang, South Vietnam. As America was at war, and involvement would continue on through 1973, the songs of protest continually grew around a war no one ever wanted, including one of the first anthems of the time released by The Animals.
This song screams Vietnam to this 68 year old!
Springsteen did the dedication when The Animals were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, and said that every song that he's ever written is basically 'We Gotta Get Out Of This Place'.
A HUGE Vietnam song! "In this dirty old part of the city
When the sun refused to shine
People tell me there ain't no use in tryin'
Now, my girl you're so young and pretty
And one thing I know is true
You'll be dead before your time is due, I know
Watch my daddy in bed a-dyin'
Watch his hair been turnin' grey
He's been workin' and slavin' his life away
Oh yes, I know it
He's been workin' so hard (yeah)
I've been workin' too, baby
Every night and day
We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
Girl, there's a better life for me and you
Now, my girl you're so young and pretty
And one thing I know is true, yeah
You'll be dead before your time is due, I know it
Watch my daddy in bed a-dyin'
Watch his hair been turnin' grey, yeah
He's been workin' and slavin' his life away
I know he's been workin' so hard
I've been workin' too, baby (yeah)
Every day baby
Whoa!
We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
Girl, there's a better life for me and you
Somewhere baby, somehow I know it, baby
We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
Girl, there's a better life for me and you
Believe me, baby
I know it, baby
You know it too"
Top, top music in Portugal!!! We have this lyrics in our vains.... Your face is the best listening to this... Keep pressing, friend!!!❤
Another "war song" written by Pete Seger is "Where Have All the Flowers Gone". It's sad and beautiful at the same time. Several people have recorded it but the one best known is by Peter, Paul and Mary.
I saw PP&M 4 times and they performed it everytime.
The Animals, the Kinks, the Beatles, the Stones, so many bands in the UK came out at the same time, early to late sixties. I left the UK in 1965 aged just 22yrs old to start a new life in Australia, sadly at that time, these amazing bands were slow to come to the radio in Australia back then. I was lucky enough to have someone back in the UK to send me copies of the "New Musical Express" (equivalent would be "Rolling Stones mag today) which was the Bible for followers of the latest and greatest bands coming through in Britain at that time. More amazing to me is that so many of those bands are now being "rediscovered" via channels such as yours my friend. Well done.
This is post WWII there are still parts of Britain that have bomb damage. It's been basically 10ish years since rationing has ended and the poorest people are seriously struggling even with all of the help they're getting from their government. He's talking about basically trying to leave the projects to get a life in suburbia.
Young Man, I left Arvada, CO in '78, visited in '86 and didn't recognize my old neighborhood at all. Can imagine what it's like today.
The bass player is Chaz Chandler who became a major record producer. He discovered and signed Jimi Hendrix.
Abundance is not money brother. I checked out got a little storage building on a piece of land that’s mine. Soon I’ll have chickens and rabbits. I gave it all up for simple things you don’t have to spend to be happy. I didn’t just recently give it all up recently before this I was living in a bus.
I remember my mom playing animals albums regularly when I was growing up in the early 70's. They were a local band who had huge success and she loved their music so this was a soundtrack from my youth and it sounds even better when I listen to it now.
Not only did my mom play it but you heard it from various neighbours listening to their music and also on local stations in the North East of England as they were the local boys who conquered the world with their music. It was similar when sting and the police had huge success as Sting was the local boy who conquered the world.
Although it wasn't specifically about Vietnam, it came out at that time. It became a hit with the troops there, who just wanted to get back home.
I was in high school when this came out and it came to be our "anthem." We lived in a small, southern town and couldn't wait to grow up and get out of there .... though a lot of us chose to stay!
Yes, a truly great song from the Animals. A common theme for all the living people. But House alone is immortal. It speaks to the living, bur also speaks to the living FROM the dead, about repeating the same vices. Even willingly. Haunting.
‘Nam was going on. That was back when the draft was in full effect. If guys couldn’t get a college deferral, that’s where they were headed. When I graduated from high school in 1966, there were recruiters at the bottom of the steps off the stage. Shook the boy’s hand, gave him the Greetings letter, and took him away then and there (if he was already 18).
I worked with a guy who was much older than me…he had this as his ring tone. I asked him what that was all about. He said this song was his anthem in Vietnam. Kept him alive. I appreciated the song a whole lot more after that.
I remember this song being played so much on the radio when I was 10 years old. I love this song, it’s been on my playlist for quite sometime.❤️✌🏻🎶
Get out of Colorado. I lived in California and would hear this song on my playlist while walking. My husband and I finally made it out My daughter and her husband followed. We still have family there and hoping they will escape There is a better life for you and me
Eric Burdon wrote this song. He is from Newcastle, a very industrial town. People worked in mines and factories.
Actually, it was written by two American songwriters, with only minor lyrical tweaks by The Animals.
Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil wrote this song - Eric sings it.
BP
You are so real in your reaction.
A song that never dies.a message for the times
My pop did 3 tours in Viet Nam, after he returned home from one of those this song came on the radio. He had to turn it off and he told me that he would often go to the officers club in Saigon and he said that they played this song so often that he was just sick of it.
Such a popular song, especially with Vietnam vets, that Eric Burdon has had it in his contract to sing for every performance ever since...
This song was a huge hit at my military college 68-71.😁
Thanks for reviewing this. My favorite is "Don't bring me Down". Give it a listen.
I have seen Eric 4 times, all in Colorado. Once in Denver, then Woodland Park, Cripple Creek and finally, in Colorado Springs. He is amazing.
Great song, great group. Keep going with them, they have a few more good songs
using this song as a moment of clarity, it (and virtually ANY song) means what it 'means' to you as it relates to YOUR life, past and present ...... that is what makes the medium so powerful and why all generations can listen to (and appreciate) 50s, 60s, 70s and all music because it negates, for the most part, age, gender, race, and economic differences for the length of that particular song .... you appear to have the ability to find nuggets of truth in all genres and are open minded enough to embrace each of your selections with enthusiasm .... 👍👌👍 .... thanks