Hilton Valentine, original guitarist and founding member of The Animals, has died at the age of 77.
The news was confirmed by record label ABKCO, which said: “We, along with the entire music world, mourn the loss of Hilton Valentine, a founding member of The Animals, today. Valentine was a groundbreaking guitarist who played the sound of rock and “Roll has been affected for decades. His death was revealed by his wife, Germaine Valentine.”
Valentine was born in 1943 in North Shields, Northumberland and, like many musicians of his generation, was influenced by the flourishing craze for skiffle music.
‘What drew me to the guitar was seeing Lonnie Donegan do Rock Island Line on television, in a program called the The six five special, “The Valentine Tells Modern guitars in 2006. “I wanted to play guitar after seeing it, and of course after hearing Chuck Berry and seeing him walk the duck.”
In 1963 he was recruited to join The Animals with Chas Chandler, Alan Price and John Steel. He’s going to play on classics like Baby let me take you home, Do not let me be misunderstood, We have to get out of this Farm, It’s my life and Do not bring me down, and on the band’s trans-Atlantic number one cover of the traditional national anthem The House of the Rising Sun.
Although the song helped start the band, it was also the chaos that led behind the scenes that would lead to a divergent break.
‘I invented my arpeggio bit [the famous Am-C-D-F chord sequence] and Alan Price told me, ‘Can you play something else because it’s so corny,’ “Valentine said Guitar International in 2010. ‘Then I said to him,’ You play your damn keyboard and I’m playing my guitar! ‘Then, after a few rehearsals, he started playing my riff and we picked it up.
“Our manager, Mike Jeffrey, came down and said that since the song is in the public domain, we should recognize an arranger. He said we could not put all our names on the record because it would not fit. , so he just put Alan’s name on it and said he understood that the royalties would be shared among all.
“We were all so gullible that we just believed we would get our share. But we never put anything in writing and to this day, only Pricey has gotten royalties on it.”
According to Chandler, by 1966 the band’s business affairs were a total blow, and they were disintegrating. Valentine moves to the US, where he records a solo album, Everything in your head, in 1969.
He would not release an album again until he had returned to his original love, skiffle, in recent years. In 2004 came This is Folk ‘N’ Skiffle, mate! with drummer Chip Damiani of Remains, and Skiffledog On Coburg ST followed in 2011. He released a Christmas album the following year, Happy Skifflemas! recorded with Peter Miller, also known as Big Boy Pete, a former member of the British Invasion Act Peter Jay & the Jaywalkers.
“It was really Hilton who made the early Animals a rock band, because I don’t think the element of rock was in the band until we found him,” Eric Burdon said. Guitar International. ‘Hilton not only played rock’n’roll, he looked rock’n’roll. Here was a guy with the smeared mop hair combed back, cheap leather jacket, winkle plucker shoes, black jeans and a smile on his face playing through an echoplex, which was a secret weapon at the time. ‘
One future star who attracted attention was Bruce Springsteen, who attributed the band as a decisive influence on his own career in his keynote address at the SXSW conference of the music industry in 2012. ‘They were not nice, you know? ‘ Springsteen said. ‘They did not have the favor, you know? They were like aggression personified. This is my life. I will do what I want. They were cruel. They were cruel, who were so liberated. It was so liberating. ‘
“We were one of those responsible for offending white America for the blues music that was already in their own backyard,” Valentine said. “They just did not know it.”
A cause of death has not yet been announced.