♫ Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood ♫

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Who doesn’t remember Eric Burdon and The Animals?  My favourite is actually House of the Rising Sun, but for the last two days, this one has been stuck in my head, and I’m hoping that by sharing it, it will leave my head and jump into yours!  Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood was initially written for jazz singer and pianist, Nina Simone.  The Animals recorded the song in 1964.  The Animals lead singer, Eric Burdon, would later say of the song, “It was never considered pop material, but it somehow got passed on to us and we fell in love with it immediately.”

In case you’re interested, this is Eric Burdon today …eric-burdon

Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood

The Animals

Baby, do you understand me now?

Sometimes I feel a little mad

But don’t you know that no one alive can always be an angel

When things go wrong I feel real bad.

I’m just a soul whose intentions are good

Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood

Baby, sometimes I’m so carefree

With a joy that’s hard to hide

And sometimes it seems that, all I have to do is worry

And then you’re bound to see my other side

I’m just a soul whose intentions are good

Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood

If I seem edgy, I want you to know,

That I never mean to take it out on you

Life has its problems, and I get my share,

And that’s one thing I never mean to do

Cause I love you,

Oh,

Oh, oh, oh, baby – don’t you know I’m human

I have thoughts like any other one

Sometimes I find myself, Lord, regretting

Some foolish thing, some little simple thing I’ve done

I’m just a soul whose intentions are good

Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood

Yes, I’m just a soul whose intentions are good

Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood

Yes, I’m just a soul whose intentions are good

Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood

Yes, I’m just a soul whose intentions are good

Songwriters: Bennie Benjamin / Gloria Caldwell / Sol Marcus

Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood lyrics © Warner Chappell Music France

32 thoughts on “♫ Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood ♫”

  1. Pingback: ♫ We Gotta Get Out Of This Place ♫ | Filosofa's Word

  5. I woke up this morning with “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas in my brain and it has remained there all day. I’ve been humming and singing and annoying Benjamin. I just tried to listen to this Animals song, but the “Dust” in my brain will not settle and allow it! Maybe tomorrow, but Thank-you today, anyway!

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    • Ha ha … Dust in the Wind is an appropriate song for the times we are living in. The one that keeps sticking in my head is also appropriate: Fool on the Hill! 😀

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  6. Thank for plugging The Animals, Jill, the Beatles were the #1 innovative band in the 60s, they changed music forever. But for sheer entertainment value, nobody touched the Animals, not even The Who, or The Jimi Hendrix Experience. The Doors had a cult following, as did the Grateful Dead, but Eric appealed to everyone. The Animals were the first white band ever to play The Apollo in New York, though management was a bit amazed when they apeared to play. They thought the group was black.
    Meanwhile, I cannot believe in all the 60s music I have been discussing with you, I never once mentioned the greatest female voice in rock history, Janis Joplin. She was a true blues belter in the tradition of Ma Rainey. My favourite song by her is CRY BABY but there are so many greats that I love them all.

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    • I learned something new from you … I didn’t know about the Animals playing at the Apollo! Ahhhh … such memories these old songs bring. Somehow I just can’t warm up to the music of today. I was never a huge fan of Janis Joplin, but did like some of her music, notably … well, I’ll let you find out my favourite tomorrow 😉

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      • Sounds good.
        Yes, The Animals were invited to play the Apollo, based on their rendition if House of the Rising Sun. When they arrived they caused a bit of a commotion, but seeing as they had already been paid, the decision was made to allow them on stage. I have never actually heard what the audience thought of having white boys on a black dtage, but neither have I hesrd they were given the hook. I would actually love to hear how it all went. Any old Apollo-goers in your audience?

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  8. I like this message better than the House of The Rising Sun and the sexworker theme.

    Recently I looked in the mirror for the first time in some while, and I look worse than he does now, which is maybe not what people mean when they say they want to look like a rock star….!

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    • I hear you on that mirror thing. When I catch a passing glimpse into mine, I wonder, “Who IS that old hag and what is she doing here???” A friend recently told me I had a ‘lived in’ sort of face. Sigh.

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      • There used to be this saying about ‘after age 30, you get the face you deserve’. I was really okay-looking then, and rather smug to look okay. I fooled myself somehow that I would always look okay. I have to say that a big part of me not looking okay now in my own view is that I had too much trauma, which resulted in much more of a feeling of pulling out of the body. These days i have decided to try to be around and get along with my body, so i do a bunch more exercise, even if it’s only rocking and moving while reading, and listening to drum circle music while I stand in from of the computer. It helps give me back some muslce tone, and that makes me feel better. I also love these mineral salts/tissue salts that I mentioned recently online. The combination of all of them is supposed to address things like sagging skin, wrinkles, skin issues, nerves, whathaveyou–which are properties of the individual salts–and the combination is easy and cheap, so I have been taking it and feel significantly better somehow. If it’s power of suggestion, I am thrilled to finally be able to be fooled in a health direction!

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        • I try to walk 4 miles daily, and lift small weights each morning, but only because I view the body as a “use it or lose it” sort of proposition. My take on the whole looks thing is that while sure, I’d like to be rid of the wrinkles, the bags under the eyes and the grey hair, it isn’t what’s on the outside that matters. I try to be a good person, to use my brain and keep an open heart, and I like to think that matters a million times more than what my face looks like.

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          • I completely agree with that, and yet since I have become rather dissociated through ptsd and some brain damage, I have trouble finding my body sometimes, for real, and it helps me to see that I look something like I used to. I also agree with use it or lose it, and it bums me out that good intentions are not enough in my case!

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            • Awwww … I cannot even imagine what that would be like. You’ve been through a lot, haven’t you? I’m so sorry. No, good intentions are rarely enough! If they were, my house would be spotless! 😉

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              • I think everyonehas things in their lives that are hard, and even if it seems easy or good to others, there is always some degree of suffering or dissatisfaction. We all do our best. It has been interesting to me to find out that, under some conditons, my best stinks, whereas I used to be much better and stringer when I was younger. It’s rather humbling to be very low on the personal food chain–helps with compassion.

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                • You are quite right … it’s like that old expression that admonishes not to judge a person until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes. We never know what somebody else is going through.

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  10. The main part of the Animals was played by Alan Price, on the organ/electric piano. Good band yet preferred Eric Burdon when playing with War, the band. Mr. Burdon may be found in more than a few Tube plays.
    But hey … for a band that was a Beatle’s contemporary they were “dynamite” at the time. The Animals, that is. That is how they started. “The Animals”. Later Mr. Burdon wanted his name in lights? So they became Eric Burdon and the Animals. That must have stuck in Mr. Price’s craw? For they were his band. Cheers Jamie

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    • Dear Jamie,
      I think you need to check your true history books. Alan Price was not the leader of the band at any time, except on paper. He made a deal with the Animals manager. Michael Jeffrey, where he would take the major proportion of the band’s earnings and the rest of the members would get next-to-nothing. He and Jeffrey became rich on The House of the Rising Sun, at first unknown to the others. But when they found out, they booted Price out of the band, and changed managers. The only band Price ever led was The Alan Price Set, and they did not last long.
      Meanwhile, The Animals kept on playing as the same band with a new keyboardist. But when they began top have personality differences and such. Eric took over the leadership of the band and made personnel changes that led to the band becoming first Eric Burdon and the Animals, then Eric Burdon and the New Animals. They broke up for good, at the time, after some distasteful events at the BC/Oregon border where some of the bandmembers were not allowed into Canada, and Eric had to play in Vancouver with some pick-up artists.
      From there Eric moved to LA, where he met the band that would become War, and the rest is history. After War became hit artists Eric left the band to form a number of other bands, including The Eric Burdon Band and many more.
      The Original Animals got back together, including Alan Price, a few times in the 70s and 80s, during which time their best ever album was produced, BEFORE WE WERE SO RUDELY INTERRUPTED. It was a critical hit, but not so popular in the sales department. A follow-up album, Animal’s Ark, was mediocre, and to the best of my knowledge they never recorded again.
      But as for my favourite song of any Animals incarnation, it can only be New York 1963, America 1968, from Eric Burdon and the New Animals album, Every One of Us.
      I’ve seen Eric play at least ten times in my life, and he only gets better with age. Unfortunately his diabetes is allowing him to tour very little anymore, and he doesn’t come to Canada often enough. In my opinion, though, he still has the best voice in rock n roll history.

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