Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

I recall this single being played a lot, like non-stop.

One of my earliest memories of British Invasion music came from the rare visits my parents would make to see friends of theirs that they knew from their military days of the 1940's. This would have been late 1965 or thereabouts, so I would have been about 7 or 8 years old. These folks had a large home near Wilmington, Delaware and had one boy who was my age, but also a couple of other kids in their teens. There was music in the house constantly, mostly due to the teen kids playing their records nearly all day and well into the evenings.

I was already familiar with The Beatles by then, but this was my first exposure to other British bands like The Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, The Dave Clark Five, The Yardbirds, The Hollies and The Animals. There were also records by American groups like The Byrds, Peter Paul & Mary, and others. I don't recall hearing Dylan then, but I'm sure they had at least one of his records. Nonetheless, the electrifying sound of The Beatles was made even more potent when mixed with the other new music that was out then. To my young ears, the blend was nothing short of intoxicating.

I did get yelled at one night when I was discovered sitting on the stairs, well after my bedtime, listening to the records playing while the older kids were hanging out with their friends! They likely thought I was eavesdropping on them, but I was just sitting there, soaking all that music in, because all of it was amazing to me. I didn't care what those teens were doing in the least. I was completely hooked on the music and there was no turning back. Some time later, when my Dad said to me one day, "Can't you listen to anything besides those damn Beatles?", I had some idea of where to turn, thanks to those Delaware teenagers. My music collection has grown ever since that day.

The US edition of "Animal Tracks".

There's a perceptible difference between bands like The Beatles and The Hollies, who had a lighter, more resonant vocal quality, and the likes of The Rolling Stones and The Animals, who were informed by a deeper, more blues-based sound. It was no less powerful, mind you, just different. As we know now, both camps were actively selling our own American music back to us. It was just filtered through youth, caucasian faces, and the novelty of being English. Not that we minded or were even aware of any of that back then.

The Animals in particular, were a favorite of the boys of that house in Delaware, perhaps indirectly due to the girls liking The Beatles and Herman's Hermits so much. I liked The Animals myself, although I found their repeated playings of the "House Of The Rising Sun" single to be a downer. Too much of anything, I suppose. But their other singles like "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place", and today's featured song, "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", were fine by me. The Animals certainly had developed their own identifiable style rather early on, which became an essential element for success, considering that the crowd of new British bands was growing thicker by the month.

This is a bold and personal song of heartfelt emotion with a notedly darker shading; not at all your standard 'I love you love me' tripe. Eric Burdon was sort of the anti-Herman, wasn't he?

What we didn't know was that the song was right in line with The Animals' established habit of recording cover songs. Although most of their album tracks were primarily R&B and traditional Blues, their singles were often Brill Building songs, written to order at the behest of their producer, Mickie Most, who also had Herman's Hermits under his wing. What I didn't know until very recently was that The Animals' version of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was a rearranged cover of a song originally recorded by legendary Jazz/Blues chanteuse, Nina Simone.

"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" first appeared on Nina's 1964 album, "Broadway - Blues - Ballads".  The song was written by Bennie Benjamin and Sol Marcus. Arranger and Conductor Horace Ott co-wrote this song, but had his work credited to his wife's name, Gloria Caldwell, due to his being a BMI songwriter. Benjamin and Marcus were contracted to ASCAP and were not permitted to collaborate with BMI writers, so Ott gave his credit away to get around that rule. (I do hope that Ott and his wife were close.) The song was written specifically for Nina, and her performance carried a subtext that subtly referenced the Civil Rights movement, which was a prominent subject for Simone at the time. The lyric is also a plea that the singer not be judged on who or what they are, which would prove most relevant to another version done some 40 years later. "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was released as a single in 1964, but remarkably, it failed to even make the charts! How The Animals got into Nina Simone's music, I don't know, but I'm glad they did.

As a digression, I find it both interesting and coincidental that Nina Simone had also recorded the most recent version of "House Of The Rising Sun" before The Animals got to it. The song appeared on her 1962 album, "Nina At The Village Gate". But Simone was by no means the first to record that song, as it had been performed numerous times prior by the likes of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Glenn Yarbrough, Josh White, Frankie Laine, Joan Baez, Miriam Makeba, and even Andy Griffith. The psychedelic grunge of Frijid Pink's recording simply expanded on The Animals' version, although it did so in a mighty fashion. And all that's just in the modern era. The origin of "House Of The Rising Sun" is traceable back to 18th century tavern songs! But that's another lengthy conversation.

The 1977 Latin-Disco arrangement of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" by Santa Esmeralda is notable, as it was a #1 hit as a 12" club remix, despite its 16 minute length. A heavily edited version was released as a pop single late in the year, and it did well, reaching #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 by early 1978. NBC Sports would use the song often, especially during their coverage of the World Series. The Santa Esmeralda recording was also featured in Quentin Tarantino's film, "Kill Bill, Vol. 1". It's heard when the instrumental section of the song plays over the duel between The Bride and O-Ren Ishii.

"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" has since been rendered on record by Elvis Costello, Joe Cocker, The Killers, Cyndi Lauper, The Moody Blues, Lou Rawls, John Legend, and many others. But there's one other version of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" that stands out for me, as it has some honest personal depth to it, as the songwriters intended, and that is the more recent recording by Yusuf Islam, whom you know better as Cat Stevens.

Yusuf Islam, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens

The Majikat included the song on his 2006 album, "An Other Cup", which was regarded as something of a comeback, although the album was released under his adopted name of Yusuf. Until then, his last recording was "Back To Earth", which was released back when Santa Esmeralda was climbing the Pop charts in 1978.

Yusuf's rendition of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" carries quite a bit of personal resonance. For some years following the events of September 11, 2001, Yusuf found himself the subject of intense scrutiny by US Homeland Security, despite his numerous verbal and written condemnations of terrorist activities and charitable contributions to funds for victims' families. It was terrific fodder for late-night comedians, as the idea of Cat Stevens being considered any sort of threat was widely ridiculed. In December of 2006, Yusuf was finally admitted into the United States for several radio concert performances and interviews to promote his new record. Yusuf said of the incident at the time, "No reason was ever given, but being asked to repeat the spelling of my name again and again, made me think it was a fairly simple mistake of identity. Rumors which circulated after made me imagine otherwise." Having been put through all that, I'm not a bit surprised that Yusuf would be able to personalize this song, while concurrently returning the arrangement to something more akin to Nina Simone's recording.

Nearly everything ever released by Cat Stevens, either before or after his name change, is available at Amazon, most big box stores, and most likely, your local, musically responsible, indie record shop. If you aren't yet familiar, or haven't heard them in years, I will recommend both of the most recent remasters of his classic albums, "Teaser & The Firecat" and "Tea For The Tillerman". The latter has just been issued as an exquisite 200 gram vinyl edition, cut directly from the master reels, which seems to be a textbook example of just how well records can be made nowadays, as illustrated by this video. As Spock would say, "Fascinating..."

While you're shopping, wherever you happen to doing that, you can also find a ton of releases by Nina Simone, and The Animals as well. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of releases that are available for each of them, so a good anthology is always the best place to begin. I'd go with this one for Nina, but know that she is an artist well worth exploring further, so consider this an introduction.

As for The Animals, just like with Nina, you can go big or go basic, but this one is far and away the best single disc overview of The Animals that you're gonna find. It goes from the very beginning, through the psychedelia, all the way to "Spill The Wine". Every important single is included, and it's affordable. An essential addition for any British Invasion collection.

Oh, and if you're jonesin' for that Santa Esmeralda track, a 10 minute version is on the soundtrack for "Kill Bill", which has lots of other neat stuff on it that makes it worth having. You may as well pick up the double feature movie on Blu-Ray while you're at it. It's crazy violent, but if you dig well-made martial arts revenge flicks, then it's pretty darn cool!