680 – Eric Burdon and The Animals – When I was young (1967)

Escrita por Eric Burdon, Vic Riggs, John Weider, Bary Jenkins e Danny McCulloch, foi lançada em 8 de abril de 1967, num compacto que tinha A girl named Sandoz como Lado B.

Chegou ao número 2 na Austrália, número 10 no Canadá, número 15 nos Estados Unidos e número 7 na Holanda. O solo é estilo indiano, tocado por guitarra elétrica e violino. Tem também um forte tremolo de guitarra distorcido.

É autobiográfica de Eric Burdon. O pai dele era de fato um soldado, ele fumou seu primeiro cigarro com dez anos de idade encontrou seu primeiro amor aos 13 anos de idade.

O verso final fala da desilusão dele com a sociedade da época. Ele diz: “Minha fé era maior, eu acreditava nos homens e eu muito mais velho, quando eu era jovem”.

Foi regravada por Tina Turner e Ramones, entre outros artistas.

A letra:

The rooms were so much colder then
My father was a soldier then
And times were very hard
When I was young, when I was young
I smoked my first cigarette at ten
And for girls I had a bad yen
And I had quite a gall
When I was young

When I was young it was more important
They'd more pain but they laughed much louder yeah
When I was young, when I was young

I met my first love at thirteen
She was brown and I was pretty green
And I learned quite a lot
When I was young, when I was young

When I was young it was more important
They'd more pain but they laughed much louder yeah
When I was young, when I was young

My faith was so much stronger then
I believed in fellow man
And I was so much older then
When I was young, when I was young
When I was young, when I was young
When I was young, when I was young

A versão de Eric Burdon and The Animals:

A versão de Tina Turner:

A versão dos Ramones: