BILL MESNIK OF THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENTS: THE SUNNY SIDE OF MY STREET - SONGS TO MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD - EPISODE #73 - SHE’LL RETURN IT by The Animals (MGM, 1966)

DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS

She’ll Return it is an obscure, minor league number from the Animals catalogue, a B-Side to their Ma Rainy cover of See See Rider. I first heard it on the album Animalization, which, along with Animalism are my two favorite collections by that band. It’s just a simple, 12 bar, blues progression, with basic lyrics insistently repeating one central phrase - “Love her -, she’ll return it.”

Over the years that mantra has burrowed deep within me, engraving itself into my consciousness as a prescription for all relationships - friends, lovers, children, students, even chance encounters. It’s a clarion call for kindness and empathy: (What the world needs now is love, sweet love; Cast your bread upon the waters; what goes around comes around) - delivered with funky syncopation, and good humor, never failing to bring me around when I’m sinking in the quicksands of alienation.

Eric Burdon is one of the all time great rhythm and blues therapists of any color or nationality. Take a seaton his rock n roll couch and get some perspective.