1960s Soulmates: The Friendship of Eric Burdon And Jim Morrison
- by Eoghan Lyng
Eric Burdon is one of the most powerful vocalists from the 1960s. Although he didn’t pen ‘The House of The Rising Sun’, his voice wraps around the words like the familiar strains of a writer singing his own work. And that’s exactly what we get on ‘The House of The Rising Sun’, The Animals’ blistering rendition of a blues standard.
Burdon had many fans, including members of The Doors. In a shared interview from 1995, Ray Manzarek and Danny Sugerman discuss the influence that the singer from Newcastle had on Jim Morrison. “Eric Burdon,” Sugerman begins, “As I recall, was the one person in town, when Jim Morrison was out of control at the Whiskey a Go-Go, or The Troubadour, or some topless club, people would call Eric to calm Jim down”.
Chuckling to himself, Manzarek can be seen nodding approvingly. “Eric was a soulmate of Jim’s, that’s for sure,” the keyboardist agrees. “They shared a love of the bottle, Jim succumbed to it, but Eric’s still around.”
