Animals, We Gotta Get Out of this Place

My apologies. I never meant to have a theme this week, but sometimes it just happens. When I posted “Surprised by Meadowlarks,” I knew I had to follow up with music by “Trampled by Turtles.” From there we went off the rails to Arctic Monkeys in knee socks. Obviously, it’s animals. The theme is animals. Could be birds, could be bears. Might be in the title of the song or the name of the band. It’s utter, beastly chaos here on Song of the Day this week.

Image by keyouest from Pixabay

So, how about some music from the band called The Animals? This song goes back to 1965, but I remember hearing it as a kid, either on the radio or on one of my older brothers’ 45 records and thinking, gee, this is kinda spooky at the beginning. But then it gets more positive and . . . I don’t know . . . uplifting (?) in the chorus. I suppose this is just my way of saying that even when my age was in the single digits, I was experiencing the results of some excellent songwriting and performance skills.

Not that I’m trying to give a review or anything, but when I hear this song it takes me back to a bedroom window in my parent’s old house where I imagine listening to this and just feeling stuff, even if I didn’t know what it was or how to explain it.

Interesting that they chose the umbrella term animals, and not a specific animal. Did they mean to imply a menagerie, like a zoo or a circus? Is it a commentary on the fact that men are just animals? Is it a metaphor for humanity? Do I think too much? Yes, I do, but for our purposes on Jeff’s Song of the Day, I like to think of this band as a group of friendly capybaras or better yet, mischievous racoons.

It’s almost Friday and I still have so much to do at work. This song feels appropriate. From the blockbuster movie hit (?) The Bikini Girls, here are The Animals with “We Gotta Get Out of this Place.