A few days ago, our friend rawgod mentioned that he was in the mood for some of the Animals earlier music, and I kept getting sidetracked, so I hadn’t as yet played one for him.  Of course, the first to come to mind was their iconic House of the Rising Sun, but I had already played that one.  Then I thought of Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, which perfectly suits rawgod, but alas, I had already played that one, too!  Both are worthy of a redux, but I wanted to do something new, so my next favourite is this one, We Gotta Get Outta This Place.

This was written by the husband and wife songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.  Mann and Weil wrote and recorded the song as a demo, with Mann singing and playing piano. It was intended for The Righteous Brothers, for whom they had written the number one hit You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ but then Mann gained a recording contract for himself, and his label Red Bird Records wanted him to release it instead. Meanwhile, record executive Allen Klein had heard it and gave the demo to Mickie Most, the Animals’ producer. Most already had a call out to Brill Building songwriters for material for the group’s next recording session and the Animals recorded it before Mann could.

The arrangement featured a distinctive bass lead by group member Chas Chandler. This was the first single not to be recorded by the original line-up, following as it did the departure of keyboard player Alan Price and his replacement by Dave Rowberry. It featured one of singer Eric Burdon’s typically raw, fierce vocals. Rolling Stone described the overall effect as a “harsh white-blues treatment from The Animals. As Burdon put it, ‘Whatever suited our attitude, we just bent to our own shape.'”

The song reached #2 on the UK pop singles chart on August 14, 1965 (held out of the top slot by the Beatles’ Help!). The following month, it reached #13 on the U.S. pop singles chart, its highest placement there. In Canada, the song also reached #2, on September 20, 1965.

At the time, the song was understandably very popular with United States Armed Forces members stationed in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

We Gotta Get out of This Place
The Animals

In this dirty old part of the city
Where the sun refused to shine
People tell me there ain’t no use in tryin’

Now my girl you’re so young and pretty
And one thing I know is true
You’ll be dead before your time is due, I know

Watch my daddy in bed a-dyin’
Watched his hair been turnin’ grey
He’s been workin’ and slavin’ his life away
Oh yes I know it

(Yeah!) He’s been workin’ so hard
(Yeah!) I’ve been workin’ too, baby
(Yeah!) Every night and day
(Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!)

We gotta get out of this place
If it’s the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
’cause girl, there’s a better life for me and you

Now my girl you’re so young and pretty
And one thing I know is true, yeah
You’ll be dead before your time is due, I know it

Watch my daddy in bed a-dyin’
Watched his hair been turnin’ grey, yeah
He’s been workin’ and slavin’ his life away
I know he’s been workin’ so hard

(Yeah!) I’ve been workin’ too, baby
(Yeah!) Every day baby
(Yeah!) Whoa!
(Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!)

We gotta get out of this place
If it’s the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
Girl, there’s a better life for me and you
Somewhere baby, somehow I know it

We gotta get out of this place
If it’s the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
Girl, there’s a better life for me and you
Believe me baby
I know it baby
You know it too

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Barry Mann / Cynthia Weil
We Gotta Get out of This Place lyrics © EMI Music Publishing