Eric Burdon - The Black Plague Lyrics

I love a good a Plague

Whenever gated communities are discussed, I always come to think of this song.

DONA EIS REQUIEM

Unclean

BROKEAHAUNTUS TRUMPFUCK’S NICKNAME—THE BLACK PLAGUE !!!

Sometimes I need to get lost in this dark vivid descriptive historic imagery.

Does anyone hear "The Yardbirds - Still I'm Sad" in this? Maybe it's just me.

Use to have this on a mixed tape called happy music, sons like Sniper, Road to Moscow, Czechoslovakia, Mama, etc.

I am afraid of this song. 
But love it too.

En 70 quand j'étais en Prépa à Arcueil, j'avais fait écouter l'album à ma prof d’Anglais. Elle avait adoré...
Do coup, tous mes copains avaient dû écouter cette chanson pendant le cours. Il s'agissait d'un exercice de compréhension.
C'était ludique et sympa. La musique et le texte sont géniaux, très sinistres et psychédéliques à la fois. Les New Animals furent l'un des meilleurs groupe de Burdon, celui que je préférais.
Ma jeunesse...

And that tinging bell that tolls on................

I listened to this in college at night in the dorm. So dark. So long ago.

Yeah, those darn rich folks caused the Bubonic Plague! All they had to do was let them po' folks in and dey wooda lived! Goddam it! Hahahahah! What horse crap! Rats! Rats caused the plague you dipshits!!

THE BEST OF THE BEST

beautiful, divine. it gave me chills, I love Eric's voice, thank you for the sharing !

I bought the album 50 years ago and still think it is great.

Moi aussi... et c'est génial !

Damn I am old, I though it was on the Winds of Change Album

Ken MIller
Yes, It was an amazing piece of music, and a portentous indicator of society’s gated communities today, separating rich from poor, but still must be open in order to survive.

Candice

Glenn danzigs wet dream😁😂😃

Howay mon, bring oot yer deed

Good British Poet

unclean

tears for the dead and soon dead, GUNS.

this song gave me chills...never heard it before i like this obscure ( if thats a right term ) oldies

winds of change is the album

What album was this off? I cannot find it anywhere. Was it San Francisco?
I owned it and used to play it back in the 69/70.

+Philip Janssen "Winds of Change", like it says at the top.

Winds of change. 1967.

I´m fear ....

Gibt es hier auch deutsche Eric Burdon Fans? :D

+Tobi Sch. ja

+saddam jorx
Top! Hörst du nur so experimentelles wie bei Winds of Change oder alles von ihm, also auch z.B. die ganzen Animals Songs?

+Tobi Sch. im Grunde hör ich alles. hab bis jetzt wenig von ihm gehört, das mir nicht gefallen hat. Ich kannte Burdon bis vor kurzem nur von einer best of CD (Eric Burdon & Animals)

+saddam jorx Die CD mit "Sky Pilot" und "When I was young"? Die habe ich mir auch schon zugelegt. Das Album "Winds of Change" ist jedoch mMn die beste CD (auch wenn ich meine Mitmenschen damit nur erschrecke-.-)

Yes! Ein lebenslanger hardcore Fan!

this could be mah new fav! :D

bring out your dead

I'm not quite dead yet.

un clean

One of Burdon's best songs.

netwitch56 but scared me to death as a kid

netwitch56 indie man

netwitch56 Absolutely

@ralphyboy25 not obscure at all if you like their music.

@bill curtis Agreed. Let me restate that. Obscure only in the sense that it didn't receive as much radio airplay as their other 'hits' back in the day.

Very Informative 

Thanks for posting this.  I heard this when I was a young teenager in the sixties and have never forgotten it.  A Vancouver radio station played it a number of times.   I haven't found it easy to find, since then, as I was uncertain of the name of the song.  Yes, a sad song, but a testament to the creativity of the Animals.

Randy Fullerton had been in California while they were recording THIS ! He met Eric Burdon and the boyz and said they were "cool." He seemed incredulous that I had this album and really LOVED it! lol

17 LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear: 18 To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

12 Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble. 13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require [it]. 14 Thou hast seen [it]; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite [it] with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless. 15 Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil [man]: seek out his wickedness [till] thou find none.

8 He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor. 9 He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net. 10 He croucheth, [and] humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones. 11 He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see [it].

14 For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, 15 To call passengers who go right on their ways: 16 Whoso [is] simple, let him turn in hither: and [as for] him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, 17 Stolen waters are sweet, and bread [eaten] in secret is pleasant. 18 But he knoweth not that the dead [are] there; [and that] her guests [are] in the depths of hell.

the main point of the song isn't that some people got a virus, but that the wealthy hid, yet in the end died.

That makes it relevant to these times as the gap between rich and poor widens, some areas are draped in luxury, whilst some are shrouded by misery, depression and hopelessness.

Ultimately such a divide is unrealistic and those that seek to be above all others, on the sweat of all others, shall fail.

Even if it was as simple a song as you think survival rates are effected by $

wyrda222 thanks you made a very good explenation of this song i agree,absolutly true words you give, all the facts fit in very truely and time have change so much since this records came,and i whis i could turné back time or someone build a timemachine and i go on board,couse this decade we now live in is so twisted and sick and will go back to a normal with this timemachine and never come back to those crazy decades -the 80s 90s and this 2000s millenium.

I love winds of change lp, and erics psych era

stan edwards. this record means so much to me it's also very talent and special performance,no one today can create this kind of music anymore, to bad.

I agree.

"not all will die, just the poor. for the rich are inside the castle walls."

then as people recover, as the human race often does

"not a sound from beyond the castle wall."

"then they perished and died due to fear of what was outside."

It's reminiscent of Edger allen poe's, mask of the red death.

People need to wake up.

If you spend enough time with ur head in the sand, and arse in the air, someone will eventually f*ck you. Can you totally blame those within the castle walls?

If you're gonna be so rude, at least be right. It is very relevant about the divide of rich and poor throughout all of time. so stick that up yer bum

Gee ya think?

not that eric burdon had a dark side........

This reminds me of "The Mask of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe.

Eric's bio charts his Californiahood around this time. After seeing the Animals at the Armory in Tampa in 65, a difference as wide as Grand canyon is as obvious as Dracula gettin' Communion.
Max Brooks adds fuel to the horror.
We run around ON MINIMIZE to the DIZNEYGODS..
Occupy that, T shitys.

Thanks SixtiesMusicLover for posting this -- it reminds me of another great grim Gregorian chant influenced 60s song, "Still I'm Sad" by the Yardbirds.

This is deep. I love anything and everything by Eric Burdon. Thank you for this. I just finished listening to "Winds of Change".

for a second i thought this was about modern life in 2010

just epic! 5*****

This song sounds like it may of been written during the Plague. Even the audio portion, in particular, sounds like it was performed inside a graveyard as the buriels continue...sorry for such a comment but I Won't Be Back, to listen to this one again but instead will tune in "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" or "We Got To Get Out of This Place". ,,,do I make myself clear? Eric Burton is known for alot of good stuff, like "The House of the Rising Sun" & "Its My Life",so lets boogie! & Thx4postin

What a great song! Uncleannnnnn

love Eric's voice!!! gives me chills.

One of my all time favorites! I cannot remember the last time I heard it..Thanks; and the bell tolls on!

Once upon a time radio played this song on friday at 3 o' clock when Jesus died. They told it was satanic.

wow this is a great song and history lesson. it is just so sad to know what was happening in those times. its so scary to think that something like that would happen again someday...

is this based on the black death that killed millions of people in europe?

AND THE BELLS

love this....used to play it in a dark room ...pretty scary

Jim

Unique! Thanks!