Saturday matinee - WAR

There were only a few bands that I really wanted to see back in my youth, that I didn't get to see. WAR was one of them. I first heard of them when they recorded with Eric Burdon (from The Animals) and had a small hit with "Spill the Wine"> I thought they were a great blend of jazz, blues, latin, and funk.

They were one of my favorite bands from the 70's, with such hits as "All Day Music", "Slipping Into Darkness", "The World Is A Ghetto", "Gypsy Man", "Low Rider", "Me and Baby Brother", and others. Sadly, two of the founding members (sax player Charles Miller and percussionist Pappa Dee Allen) have passed away, and the band broke into two factions. One faction (led by keyboard player Lonnie Jordan) kept the name War and still records and tours occasionally. The other faction (the other four surviving original core group members: Howard E. Scott, B.B. Dickerson, the amazing harmonica player Lee Oskar, and Harold Brown) formed a separate band called The Lowrider Band.

But for a few brief years, they brought a lot of great music to a whole lot of people.

Here's a video of the original lineup performing "The Cisco Kid" live:


And here's a version of the new lineup doing "All Day Music" on BET. What a great song for a summer afternoon.