Eric Burdon has been many things over the course of his career. In the ‘60s, Burdon arrived as part of the British Invasion, with his band The Animals, who recorded classic songs like “House of the Rising Sun” and “We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place,” featuring his trademark muscular vocals. By 1966, Burdon had moved from England to California, where he fully embraced the counterculture of the late ‘60s and recorded hippie anthems like the anti-war “Sky Pilot” and “Monterey,” an ode to the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. By 1969, Burdon had changed musical direction once again, discovering Los Angeles funk group War, and recording the trippy nugget “Spill the Wine.” Since 1971, Burdon has been practially invisible (he made a few albums, including one with blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon). He returned last year as a bluesman with the release of Soul of a Man.

Burdon, who spoke to the Weekly from his home in Southern California, says The Animals developed their unique sound while on tour with Chuck Berry and six or seven other upstart rock bands. “We realized everybody would be doing the same stuff,” he says. “I was in reversal mode. I decided to go into the opposite direction.”

The opposite direction meant recording a searing five-minute version of a slowly unfolding traditional folk song about prostitution titled “House of the Rising Sun.” Burdon says he was inspired by the version of the song that Bob Dylan put on his first album. Though audiences went nuts for the song, Burdon recalls that his management and record company thought the tune was basically crap. They said the song was too long and wanted to chop it into two parts. Despite their disdain for the number, the song was eventually trimmed down and released as a single. Burdon later remembers seeing bands cover the song and even performing the cut in the middle of the organ solo.

Despite the song becoming a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic and other chart toppers like “We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place,” the band fell apart in 1965. A year later, Burdon moved to California and got swept up in the state’s counterculture. Burdon says there was one particular reason why he went from singing gritty R&B numbers to hippie era psychedelia. “I got stoned,” he says.

One of his biggest hits from the second stage of his music career, with a backing band dubbed the New Animals, was a ditty about the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival aptly titled “Monterey.” Burdon is clearly still very excited when recalling the landmark cultural event. “Your hometown was the crux of it all,” he says. “Your hometown had the best festival ever.”

In 1969, Burdon disbanded the New Animals. He says that for almost a year after the band’s demise he was taking acting classes in West Hollywood. At this time, one of his acquaintances convinced Burdon that he should not abandon his true gift: singing. The friend also said that since he always sounded like an African-American singer that he should get himself an African American group. Spurred by this advice, Burdon started searching around Los Angeles for a backing band. “We drove around in a couple cars going from one bar to another particularly on the dark side of town,” he says.

Eventually, he found a huge show band called The Night Shift with female backup singers and trumpet players in a bar in Los Angeles. Though the band did not have any idea who Burdon was, they started working with him and changed their name to War.

Burdon says that despite recording great songs like “Spill the Wine” and playing legendary gigs—like one where the band was joined by Jimi Hendrix just 48 hours before he overdosed—he and his bandmates never really understood each other. “They were virtually a bunch of street kids,” he says. “They were part of a gang.”

After leaving War in 1971, Burdon worked with Los Angeles based bluesman Jimmy Witherspoon and released some solo albums that never made much of a splash. Recently, Burdon had been touring around doing songs from the Animals, but he felt unsatisfied with simply rehashing his past glories. “I was determined not to end my career in that place,” he says.

Now, after releasing an album of classic blues songs called Soul of a Man, Burdon is once again entering a new stage of his career, this time as a bluesman. “That’s where my heart belongs,” he says of doing the blues. “I sold my soul to rock ‘n’ roll, but maybe the blues will take me back.”

For Saturday’s show at Carmel’s Sunset Center, Burdon says he will play everything from pre-Animals songs to his current blues material. Also, while in town, Burdon admits that he will not visit the Monterey Fairgrounds, where the Monterey Pop Festival occurred, but that he will probably take in another local attraction instead. “I might go to the Aquarium,” he says.  

ERIC BURDON and the New Animals play the Sunset Center, San Carlos and Ninth in Carmel, this Saturday, Feb. 4, at 8pm. $57. 620-2048.