Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood: A Memoir | 
 enlarge | Authors: Eric Burdon, Jeff Craig
Creator: Jeff Marshall Craig
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy Used: $5.75
You Save: $19.20 (77%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 481016
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2
ISBN: 1560253304
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.42166092
EAN: 9781560253303
ASIN: 1560253304
Publication Date: October 10, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Hardcover, front cover corner has chew marks, former library book with the usual stamps and markings. Your order ships promptly.
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Product Description
While Eric Burdon may be best remembered for his unforgettable vocals on the Animals' platinum hit, "House of the Rising Sun," this Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member has never stopped having adventures. Burdon was ripped off by unscrupulous agents, accountants, and record labels, hounded by the police, and framed for a crime he didn't commit. Yet through it all, he never became bitter. He was the first rocker to play behind the Iron Curtain. He sang with Jimi Hendrix, chased Jim Morrison out of his house with a .44, and introduced John Lee Hooker to the toughest venue Hooker ever played. Eric Burdon explains how he became the "Egg Man" in the Beatles' "I am the Walrus." With the enthusiasm and good humor of his live shows, Burdon recalls the tense reunion between John Lennon and Lennon's long-estranged father; racing motorcycles across the California desert with Steve McQueen; picketing the offices of MGM Records for nonpayment of royalties; performing in wartime Sarajevo with a symphony orchestra; getting run out of Meridian, Mississippi for promoting black music, and singing his heart out year after year. A complete discography and fifty photographs, many never before published, are included in this unforgettable memoir. "Burdon has lived like a real rocker." —The New York Times Book Review "Riveting and informative."—Los Angeles Times "These reminiscences will delight Burdon's fans ... in general."—Library Journal
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Eric The Screenplay June 30, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I found this book recently at a sale, and it came with a CD of three exclusive tracks for the Australia/ New Zealand market. The CD tracks were reworkings of House Of The Rising Son and Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood plus Lionize. I tend to baulk at most rerecordings, mostly finding the original to be the better version, which is the case here, however these two new versions are well arranged and performed, slightly over the top in the Burdon style, but he's still in good voice.
That left the book. For me, tales of rock `n roll excess eg. Stones, Jim Morrison bios I've found to be distasteful so I was hoping this not would be too explicit. I'd passed up another Eric autobiography which was going second hand (for a song...) called "I Used To Be an Animal" for that reason. Well, the bump and grind of rock `n roll familiarity is here and fortunately it does not resonate too loudly with lurid excess.
Tales of rip off in this industry are almost mandatory - if they didn't rip you off you weren't there - and it's here as expected, those corporate thieves and slimy opportunists who would suck the marrow from the bones of a songwriter. Eric now appears philosophic; the years have dissipated his anger - unlike Van Morrison who continues to musically regurgitate his grievances (yawn). Dodgy manager Mike Jeffrey, who leeched Jimi Hendrix as well as Eric (who believes Jeffrey may have faked his death), still holds a special place in his thoughts......
He recounts how former band member Alan Price was bequeathed the royalties to mega hit House of The Rising Sun due to the insistence of Jeffrey and the inexperience of the other young members, and that must have rankled over the years. Yet the band worked together later, and again I guess the years deaden the anger.
The narrative is an easy read, though at times disjointed and patchy, and sometimes with sketches where you hoped for the full blooded scene. He was neighbour to the great poet and author Robert Graves and some Graves' anecdotes would have been fascinating. Graves moves in and out of a couple of scenes but with no dialogue. Elvis drops into Eric's view in one scene, flying in like a super hero to give a cheque to charity, as you might expect. He also recounts Lennon's acerbic reunion with his father, and a young, ignorant Jerry Lee Lewis goading Chuck Berry on a tour bus in the UK. Another scene has Eric himself threatening to blast an obnoxious Jim Morrison out of his house. He was good friends with Jimi Hendrix and offers insight to his death.
Eric has lived the full hoopla and now recalls events in his way. It certainly is not literature as another reviewer suggested - try Dylan's Chronicles for splashes of that. Dylan also recalls events as he saw them. Incidentally I read Dylan's book alongside Howard Sounes' biography of The Bobmeister - an interesting and amusing comparison of what others recalled compared with Bob's historical recollection. Well of course he'd recounted the screenplay as he rememberd it. And possibly Eric has done the same and doubtless he's not one to let a fact, or the lack of such a thing, get in the way of a good yarn. In the words of Clive James "Autobiography is a lying art". Well it might be but in Eric's hands it is certainly entertaining. However if you're a musicologist, don't expect detail. This book is more about Eric's life and loves, not the appreciation or creation of his music.
Eric is an enigma. A guy blessed with an almighty soulful voice who wrote and adapted some damned good songs but in this book he recalls few of them in the making. I get the impression he's a tradesman who goes in, wires the house and departs. He mentions some bluesmen, yet the passion for their music isn't displayed, but it must have been there. I suspect that the authors geared this book to their perception of the modern market. I think they missed an opportunity, or maybe they provided for another with a sequel. Anyway, the bottom line is that it is an enjoyable albeit bumpy ride through Eric's landscape of the last 60 odd years.
A Good Read August 13, 2003
Informative and well written. Thoroughly enjoyable.
 Very enjoyable read August 4, 2002
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Absolute must-have for any Eric Burdon fan. He is a wonderful story teller and keeps you amused and interested all the way through. He's and gives a lot of personal info. as well as sharing some great anecdotes about life on the road etc. After reading his book and learning about all he's been through,(and that's only what he's shared with us) and after seeing him play some 40 years after his start - you can only admire the man !!
Anti-Gravity March 28, 2002
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Anti-Establishment is a gross misrepresentation of Mr. Burden. Anti-gravity is far more accurate. God forbid this fella ever has an LSD flashback; he'd boomerang so far back he'd be skipping rope with his own DNA chain. Eric took drugs like the rest of us brush our teeth, daily at least once and some times more. The book is a terrific read.Great view from the inside from one of the front stage guys of the times. I picked up this book on Saturday, and put it down finished Sunday! Very, very entertaining. If you want to get away from the real world, without the use of intoxicants, grab on to Eric's shirt tail, its a real trip.
Many of Eric's best friends are dead March 9, 2002
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, John Lennon, John Lee Hooker....These are the people that Eric Burdon thinks most highly of, and they are all dead. He is much less kind to the living throughout much of this book. I feel a big reason for this is that the dead cannot refute the statements you make about them. The topper was his claim that he was the "eggman" that Lennon sang about in "I Am the Walrus." It kind of cast a shadow on many of his other claims. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy most of Eric's (original) work and I strongly regret the unavailability of his late 1960's work outside of the numerous compilations. The stories presented in this book took me by surprise and sometimes made me laugh out loud. I shared more than a few of these anecdotes with my co-workers. What the book is missing is more focus on the music. I would have loved to read more about his days with the original Animals and the stormy reunions. I also would have liked to read his thoughts on the period between "Winds of Change" and "Love Is" - how the music changed and his thoughts on the later Animals players and how he discovered them. All in all, this is fun reading. The personal anecdotes are priceless, but it left me wanting to hear more about the music itself and the people that he worked with (not just the one off jams, but the albums).
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