Bright Lights, Big City

How are you going to keep them down on the farm after they hear our show on “Bright Lights, Big City”? We start our tour with Jimmy Reed’s 1961 original version (0:55), with the marital harmonies of Jimmy and Mama Mary Reed seeming to drift out of a divey, spit-and-sawdust saloon, punctuated by Earl Phillips’ startling cymbal crashes and Bill Putnam’s pleasing production. After we listen to the Rolling Stones’s 1963 version, Erik makes the hot take scene and says the Stones never sounded better and Weldon wonders why they even bothered even writing originals! (39:30) By the time we get to the Animals (1:06:24), we’re definitely on Broadway (and in Vegas?) and Eric Burdon sure sounds less resigned about his baby being there than JR or MJ did. Their 1965 version cranks up the neon lights and gets really cinematic: ‘sparking’ organ, 12-string spangles, filled with long cadillacs, men with money, and more sinful temptations than even the House of the Rising Sun! We imagine Eric Burdon birdin’ and we like his spoken wordin’. Stay in the city for awhile after the bars close and have a listen to the funky Gordon Gartelles do the song at (1:45:01). Flamingo!