1617 - The Animals Inside Looking Out 1966

"Inside-Looking Out", often written "Inside Looking Out", is a 1966 single by The Animals. It was a substantial hit in their native land, reaching number 12 on the UK Singles Chart. British albums by the 1964-66 R&B incarnation of the band were cut up by MGM in America into slapdash packages like Animalization, a mess of '66 singles and tracks from the British Animalisms. But an import CD reissue of Animalisms combines the two, and the result is essential British Invasion fire, a visceral portrait of a beleaguered band (founding organist Alan Price was gone; drummer John Steel was about to split) in its fighting prime. Burdon's voice is as hard and dark as Jack Johnson's fist The Animals' reading of the prison lament "Inside Looking Out" is vividly brutal. Burdon wails like he's being horsewhipped; Steel, Rowberry and bassist Chas Chandler throb underneath him with war-dance brawn; Valentine's guitar is tense with neurotic treble. For those four minutes, the Animals never sounded more like real animals - vicious, hungry, desperate.