1/15/11: Featuring Alan Price

January 21, 2011

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Alan Price was born in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, an industrial city in the northeast of England in 1942. He began playing the piano when he was seven, and was proficient on keyboards, guitar, and bass by the time he entered double-digits. Like many British teens, he was swept up into the skiffle craze in the 1950s, and had his own band called the Black Diamonds. Then he made the shift to rock ‘n roll, particularly inspired by the piano-pounding Jerry Lee Lewis.

In 1961 when he was nineteen, he formed the Alan Price Rhythm and Blues Combo, which also included guitarist Hilton Valentine, bassist Chas Chandler, and drummer John Steel. They became a popular attraction in Newcastle clubs, and vocalist Eric Burdon was brought on board in ’62. Burdon had been hanging out with a rebellious gang led by an army vet calling himself Animal Hog, and suggested that the band change its name to “The Animals” when word came back from London that the whole idea of a “combo” had become quite stale. Everyone except Alan approved of the idea, and a serious power struggle between Price and Burdon began.

Burdon was the front man on stage and in the press, but it was Alan’s arrangements and organ-playing that was setting the band apart from its contemporaries. In a Melody Maker interview, Alan explained his style: “I use a lot more chords than most organists and I’m careful to phrase them with the guitar. I tend to think of the organ as part of the rhythm section, rather than a frontline voice. The only time it dominates is during a solo, or when we play a low blues and I put figures in behind Eric’s vocals.”

The Animals became quite popular locally, and record producer Mickie Most facilitated a move to London. He also got them a spot as the opening act for Chuck Berry’s UK tour. Most of Berry’s material was light and perky, and the group decided to provide a counterpoint with the slow, almost hypnotic arrangement that Alan Price devised for the traditional blues song “House of the Rising Sun”. It went over well, and when Most got the band a contract with EMI Records, “House” was the first song that they recorded.

The song, with Alan’s now-classic organ break, ran over four minutes, and EMI was hesitant to release it as a single. The label instead chose “Baby, Let Me Take You Home”. It made the UK Top 30 and gave the band enough clout to insist that “House of the Rising Sun” be the next release. They prevailed, and the record was a smash in the summer of 1964, hitting number one in both Britain and the US and making the Animals the first British group after the Beatles to top the US hit parade.

Within a year, the Animals had four Top 40 hits, released three albums, and were in demand for live performances around the world. Alan Price was by nature moody and introspective, and all the activity and demands on his time became quite stressful for him. He grew apart from his band mates, often choosing to remain in the tour bus reading while they partied. An intense fear of flying didn’t help matters, and on the morning before the group was scheduled to leave for a tour of Sweden, Alan Price quit the band and boarded a train back home to Newcastle. When he arrived at his mother’s house, he went straight to bed and slept for 36 hours.

In a statement to the local press, Alan said “…There was no bad feeling between me and the others. My doctor had diagnosed exhaustion. He’d warned me I’d have a breakdown if I didn’t slacken the pace. I simply can’t stand the pressures of the pop world anymore.”

For a while, Alan entertained the idea of giving up music altogether and just getting a real-world job. Soon, however, he had hooked up with some fellow Newcastle musicians and formed the Alan Price Combo. They kept it low-key, playing only local gigs.

The pull of “the business” began to grow, and Alan was booked to play keyboards on other artists’ recording sessions, such as Dusty Springfield’s “In the Middle of Nowhere”. In the studio, he made the acquaintance of some like-minded players, and the new “Alan Price Set” began gigging and recording like they meant it in 1966. The group released a very strong cover of “Any Day Now”, with many listeners hearing Alan sing for the first time. Oddly enough, his voice had many similarities to Eric Burdon’s.

The next single that the Alan Price Set released, “I Put a Spell on You” seem to be cut from the same cloth as “House of the Rising Sun”- a blues number with a haunting arrangement. It was a huge hit in Europe and also got well inside the American Top 100. The decision to record “Spell” didn’t seem to be calculated to capitalize on past glories, though: “…We’d been doing it on stage for some time and it had been going down well” is how Alan explained the choice to interviewer Richard Greene of Record Mirror.

In 1967, Alan turned toward lighter, more playful material and recorded an album largely filled with songs written by a then-unknown Randy Newman. “Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear” was a big hit, and “The House That Jack Built” (written by Price but obviously influenced by Newman) followed. Perhaps in an effort to clearly distinguish his new work from previous recordings, Alan abandoned the organ altogether in favor of piano.

After a few more successful singles, Alan Price feared he was slipping into the same industry grind that had so depleted him before, and he left his band. In the early 1970s he resurfaced, teaming up with his friend Georgie Fame for a very successful album. Soon they also had their own TV show, The Price of Fame.

After that partnership had run its course, Alan composed the music for O Lucky Man, a film in which he also appeared, musically commenting on the proceedings. His work earned him an Oscar nomination and his first charted solo album in the US. He went on to host his own TV show, then began to write commercial jingles and television theme music.

Since the ’70s, Alan Price has continued to write, perform, and record quality music for a variety of projects. He has also participated in several reunions of the Animals.

In 1994, the Animals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. To attend the ceremony in New York City, Alan Price boarded a plane for the first time in nearly thirty years.