Artist

War

US funk/rock band

Long Beach, United States • 1969 – 1994

War is a music group from Long Beach, United States, active 1969–1994. Their discography on Gatefold includes 24 records.

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Albums tracked

193

In collections

1969

Since

Biography

There are at least ten artists with this name: 1. WAR were a popular funk group of the '70s. They mixed soul, jazz, blues, reggae, Latin and rock influences in their music. They had a very recognizable sound, due to their mix of harmonica, horns, guitar, bass, percussion, and vocals. WAR was initially formed in 1969 from a band called Nightshift to jam while Eric Burdon free-associated lyrics. They released two albums under Burdon's name, the first of which contained the hit Spill the Wine.

The Arc of War

The pivots — what forced War to reinvent.

The Eric Burdon Incubation
Burdon pulled the Nightshift out of the Valley clubs and rebranded them as War for 1970's Eric Burdon Declares 'War'. Goldstein produced, aiming to capture raw jam-band energy pinned against Burdon's howling blues vocals. You hear the collision on 'Spill the Wine,' where Oskar's harmonica and Allen's Afro-Cuban percussion carry the entire track. It put them on the charts, but the band was too disciplined to stay in anyone's shadow.
The Imperial Ghetto Run
Burdon walked away mid-tour, forcing the band to step up to the vocal mic collectively. The result was a stunning four-year run on United Artists, hitting its absolute peak on 1972's The World Is a Ghetto and 1975's Why Can't We Be Friends?. They dropped rigid song structures in favor of sprawling, cinematic street funk driven by Miller's sax and Dickerson's walking basslines. It was political, hypnotic, and utterly inescapable on AM and FM radio alike.
The MCA Disco Drift and Fractures
Moving to MCA for 1977's Galaxy saw the band trade organic street-corner grit for synthesizers and four-on-the-floor club tempos. Goldstein pushed for disco polish, diluting the polyrhythmic interplay between Brown and Allen. Key members started departing, and the tragic 1980 murder of saxophonist Charles Miller gutted the band's sonic identity. They still dropped tight grooves on 'Outlaw' in '82, but the golden-era magic was slipping away.

Influences

Sly and the Family Stone — Sly pioneered the multi-ethnic, multi-genre collective model in the late sixties that directly inspired War's formation. You hear the shared vocal trading and tight horn arrangements all over 'Slippin' into Darkness.' Sly proved a street band could dominate pop radio without softening the message.
Santana — Carlos Santana's 1969 debut proved that Latin percussion and blues guitar could crack mainstream American rock. Papa Dee Allen's relentless conga work directly adapted that Afro-Latin rhythmic framework into War's funk foundations. The heavy polyrhythms on tracks like 'Ballero' come right out of that West Coast Latin-rock explosion.
Ray Charles — Lonnie Jordan repeatedly credited Charles's Wurlitzer electric piano and gospel-infused chord phrasing as his primary stylistic foundation. You hear that dirty, soulful keyboard underpinning beneath the grooves of 'All Day Music.' Charles gave them the blueprint for mixing jazz harmony with raw soul.
Sonny Boy Williamson II — Lee Oskar built his harmonica approach directly on Sonny Boy's amplified, vocalized blues harp style before migrating to the US. That dirty, acoustic Chicago tone drives the lead melody on 'Spill the Wine' instead of a traditional lead guitar. Oskar took Williamson's phrasing and dropped it straight into a Latin funk pocket.
Mongo Santamaria — Santamaria's crossover hit 'Watermelon Man' in 1963 laid the exact groundwork for combining hard boop, R&B, and Afro-Cuban percussion. Harold Brown and Papa Dee Allen modeled their locked drum-and-conga syncopation directly after Santamaria's band. That rhythm section dynamic is the entire spine of 'Low Rider.'