The Animals, “We Gotta Get out of This Place” (1965)
Bruce Springsteen in his SXSW Keynote address:
That’s every song I’ve ever written. That’s all of them. I’m not kidding, either. That’s “Born To Run,” ”Born in the USA,” everything I’ve done for the past 40 years.
Later that night Springsteen introduced Eric Burdon on stage, as “the man that I stole every song I ever wrote from his hit.”
Funny thing is, the song wasn’t written by Burdon or any of the other Animals, but by husband and wife songwriting duo, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil…for the Righteous Brothers. (They wrote “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.”) Listen to the demo.
None of which is to say that the Animals’ rendition isn’t 100% better than the demo and totally fucking amazing and one of my favorite songs of all-time.
betzistar
