In late 1968, the manager of The Animals was held at gunpoint by Yakuza promoters in Japan and forced to sign a $25,000 IOU, which he quietly voided by writing that he signed under duress in English his captors could not read. The band fled the country, left their equipment behind, and dissolved. This deep dive traces the full life cycle of the group, from its 1962 formation in industrial Newcastle upon Tyne to that chaotic ending and the decades of reunions and lawsuits that followed.

We break down why the transatlantic number one House of the Rising Sun worked as a Trojan horse for dark adult themes, how Alan Price’s electric organ gave it a corrupted church-hymn quality, and why Price quit in 1965 partly because of a paralyzing fear of flying. We follow the fights with producer Mickie Most over Brill Building material, Eric Burdon’s relocation of the brand to California as a psychedelic act, the 1994 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, and the 2008 UK trademark battle between drummer John Steel and Burdon.

• Competing stories behind the band’s name, including a local character called Animal Hog
• The Ed Sullivan Show, a Manhattan motorcade, and a 1964 Hollywood film appearance
• Songs like We Gotta Get Out of This Place and Sky Pilot across two very different eras
• Reunion albums Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted and Ark, and the 1996 death of Chas Chandler
• How Tony Banks of Genesis and Bruce Springsteen each credit The Animals as a foundational influence