Song of the Day #49: “Monterey,” by The Animals

Yesterday I spent the day walking around the Bronx Zoo and checking out their wide collection of incredible species of animals. No joke there, it was actually a pretty awesome visit. One would think that the visit to the zoo obviously sparks the choice of artist for the song of the day but this hasty assumption is only partly right. You see, you underestimate the immensity of the pointless comments I can make. No, the zoo did not specifically spark the Animals, but, a highly convoluted reason sparks both the song and the artist.

Let me take you back to a land before my birth. An incredibly smelly place filled with fish guts and fishing huts. A coastal town that gained its worth and income from their fisheries, and their main catch, sardines. Pretty gross right. Well, after the fisheries eventually went out of business, the town fell into disrepair and became an unfortunate relic of its former self. Yet, after many years of fading away in the California sun it was revived when an idea for a concert hatched and decided it wanted Monterey. Flash forward to a small building in the heart of the Bronx zoo. A building that greeted each visitor with a smell of…well…dung. While all the rest of the animals were outside chilling on the beautiful day, two anteaters remained indoors with the unbearable farm-like smell. The anteaters were involved in digging holes in their exhibit to rest and in their own funny way they were actually graceful. That’s right, in the smelly, forgotten about location a small gem could be found. A needle in a haystack, an oyster’s pearl on the enormous sea bed. Do you see where I am going with this? Both situations are somewhat similar and stuck in the middle of this all is the conveniently named band The Animals, or Eric Burdon (the lead singer) and The Animals, or simply Eric Burdon. Yeah, the guy became a little full of himself.

The Monterey Pop Festival happened over three days, like the more famous Woodstock festival, in 1967, two years prior to the event’s big brother. Planned in seven weeks by Lou Adler, John Phillips (of the Mamas and the Papas), Alan Parisir and Derek Taylor, the Monterey Pop Festival was heavily promoted and ended up drawing close to 200,000 people. Funny how that number still pales in comparison to Woodstock. The festival was truly the first “Rock” festival and famous performers lined the days events. One of which, The Animals, performed in between Johnny Rivers and Simon & Garfunkel on day 1 friday, June 16th of the festival. Eric Burdon summed up the group’s experience in Monterey with his song of the same name. In his prophetic hit he mentions some of the artists who performed at the festival. While the festival did enjoy over thirty performers, Eric Burdon specifically mentions The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, The incredibly young Who, The Grateful Dead, a man who went by the name of Jimi Hendrix. It is almost as if Burdon knew in 1967 who would become famous and who would not. He called the musicians “young gods,” and in many ways Monterey did not only come to fruition, but also many of these musicians reached god status.