War (funk band)
| Was | |
|---|---|
 Was, 1976 |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Funk , rock |
| founding | 1969 |
| Founding members | |
| Eric Burdon (1969–1971, 1976–1977) | |
Guitar , vocals |
Howard E. Scott (until 1994) |
Harmonica , vocals |
Lee Oskar (until 1994) |
Percussion , vocals |
Thomas "Papa Dee" Allen († 1988) |
Saxophone , vocals |
Charles Miller (until 1979; † 1980) |
Bass , vocals |
BB Dickerson (until 1979) |
Keyboard , vocals |
Leroy "Lonnie" Jordan |
Drums , vocals |
Harold Ray Brown (until 1994) |
War [ wɔːɹ ] (German "war") is an American funk band that was particularly successful in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Band history
The origins of the band go back to 1962 when Howard E. Scott and Harold Brown formed a group called "The Creators" in Compton, California . Over the next several years, Charles Miller, BB Dickerson, Lonnie Jordan, Lee Oskar, and Papa Dee Allen joined the group that was renamed Nightshift in 1968. Producer Jerry Goldstein brought the band, which mostly appeared as a live formation, together with singer Eric Burdon , who had just separated from the second incarnation of his Animals .
Burdon changed the group's name to "War". In 1970 the album Eric Burdon Declares “War” was released , which was just as successful as the hit single Spill the Wine (No. 3 in the US Billboard charts ). This was followed by the double album The Black-Man's Burdon . Eric Burdon & WAR were the last musicians to jam with Jimi Hendrix before Hendrix died on September 18, 1970. The performance took place the evening before Jimi Hendrix died - at Ron Scott's Music Club in London. The concert is documented as an audio recording on YouTube.
In 1971 Burdon left the group during a European tour, allegedly due to exhaustion. The first LP War , recorded without Burdon, was only a mediocre success, but the next album, All Day Music , finally put the group on the road to success in 1971. The title track and Slippin 'into Darkness both reached the top 40 in the US.
The album The World Is a Ghetto , released in late 1972, was the most successful album of 1973 in the USA. The first release of the same name was also able to place in the top ten, and The Cisco Kid came up to 2nd place in the US Hot 100.
Deliver the Word (1973) again contains two successful hit singles: Gypsy Man (8th place) and Me and Baby Brother (15th place). The album Why Can't We Be Friends? (1975) also sold well and gave the group two more top 10 hits with the title song of the same name and Low Rider . The latter is one of the best-known titles from War today. This song ran in the movie Just 60 Seconds With Nicolas Cage and in the Cheech and Chong movie Much Smoke About Nothing . Cypress Hill also borrowed the hookline for their hit Lowrider .
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In 1977 War landed a surprise success with Platinum Jazz . From 1978 the group began to break up. The 1982 album Outlaw was only moderately successful. The last War album Peace Sign was released twelve years later, in 1994, but it flopped. In the same year singer Lonnie Jordan were given the rights to the name "War".
Split the band
Lonnie Jordan is touring today with new musicians under the old name WAR. The other former members tour with a new band called the "Lowrider Band". On April 21, 2008, Jordans War played with Eric Burdon for the first time in 37 years. The one-time live performance at the Royal Albert Hall was only released as a bootleg . Jordan confirmed in an interview that another tour with Burdon cannot be ruled out. War released a live CD, Greatest Hits Live , in October 2008 , which is also available on Blu-ray and DVD.
In 2014 Lonnie Jordan released the double album Evolutionary with his version of WAR , half of which consisted of the old formation's greatest hits and the other half with new studio recordings. The album was advertised as "the first studio album in 20 years". Musically, Lonnie Jordan makes use of the group's great hits from bygone times in his new recordings and compositions. Although he consistently implemented this (LA Sunshine was quoted musically in “That LA Sunshine”, for example) the record did not succeed in making a big hit or connecting to old, more successful times. At Mamacita, Tower of Power are part of the game. Although the Lowrider Band continues to send signs of reconciliation and re-union of the band through the old WAR band members via Facebook and other channels, Lonnie Jordan tours with "his" War line-up mainly through the USA, where a die-hard fan base comes to his concerts. With talented, young musicians, Jordan manages to get the old WAR sound almost perfectly on stage.
Discography
Studio albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 UK
|
 US
|
R&B
|
|||
| 1970 | Eric Burdon Declares "War" |
DE14 (16 weeks) DE |
UK50 (2 weeks) UK |
US18 (27 weeks) US |
R&B47 (5 weeks) R&B |
|
| The Black-Man's Burdon |
DE20 (16 weeks) DE |
UK21 (4 weeks) UK |
US82 (9 weeks) US |
R&B39 (5 weeks) R&B |
First published: December 22, 1970
Eric Burdon & War Producer: Jerry Goldstein |
|
| 1971 | Was | - | - |
US190 (6 weeks) US |
R&B42 (5 weeks) R&B |
First published: March 1971
Producer: Jerry Goldstein |
| All day music | - | - |
US16  (49 weeks)US |
R&B6 (39 weeks) R&B |
First published: November 1971
Producers: Chris Houston, Jerry Goldstein, War |
|
| 1972 | The World Is a Ghetto | - | - |
US1 (68 weeks)US |
R&B1 (48 weeks) R&B |
First published: November 1972
Producer: Jerry Goldstein |
| 1973 | Deliver the Word | - | - |
US6th (36 weeks)US |
R&B1 (27 weeks) R&B |
First published: August 1973
Producer: Jerry Goldstein |
| 1975 | Why Can't We Be Friends? | - | - |
US8th (31 weeks)US |
R&B1 (23 weeks) R&B |
First published: June 1975
Producer: Jerry Goldstein |
| 1976 | Love is all around | - | - |
US140 (5 weeks) US |
- |
First release: November 1976
War feat. Eric Burdon Producer: Jerry Goldstein |
| 1977 | Galaxy | - | - |
US15th (23 weeks)US |
R&B6 (21 weeks) R&B |
First published: November 1977
Producer: Jerry Goldstein |
| 1978 | Youngblood (soundtrack) | - | - |
US69 (6 weeks) US |
R&B40 (6 weeks) R&B |
First release: July 1978
Soundtrack for the Paul Carter Harrison film of the same name. Producer: Jerry Goldstein |
| 1979 | The Music Band | - | - |
US41 (16 weeks)US |
R&B11 (19 weeks) R&B |
First published: April 1979
Producer: Jerry Goldstein |
| The Music Band 2 | - | - |
US111 (13 weeks) US |
R&B34 (16 weeks) R&B |
First published: November 1979
Producer: Jerry Goldstein |
|
| 1982 | Outlaw | - | - |
US48 (27 weeks) US |
R&B15 (33 weeks) R&B |
First published: March 1982
Producers: Jerry Goldstein, Lonnie Gordon |
| 1983 | Life (Is so Strange) | - | - |
US164 (4 weeks) US |
R&B36 (10 weeks) R&B |
First published: July 1983
Producers: Jerry Goldstein, Lonnie Gordon |
| 1994 | Peace sign | - | - |
US200 (1 week) US |
R&B52 (9 weeks) R&B |
First published: June 1994
Producers: Jerry Goldstein, Lonnie Gordon |
More studio albums
- 1983: The Music Band Jazz
- 1985: Where There's Smoke
- 1987: On Fire
swell
- ↑ Eric Burdon & WAR feat. Jimi Hendrix (accessed December 6, 2016)
- ^ Billboard.com ( Memento of October 20, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) - The Billboard 200 1973, annual evaluation
- ↑ Chart sources: Singles Albums UK US
- ^ Joel Whitburn : Top R&B Albums 1965–1998, ISBN 0-89820-134-9 .
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Official website of the Lowrider Band (Ex-War )
- Was at Allmusic (English)
- War (Funk-Band) in the Internet Movie Database (English)