War

War ranked among the leading funk ensembles of the 1970s yet stood out for their unusually broad range, as they wove soul, Latin, jazz, blues, reggae, and rock threads into a seamless and naturally groovy fabric. While their songwriting sometimes addressed political subjects in line with the group’s racially mixed roster, the prevailing atmosphere remained bright and relaxed, mirroring the band’s Southern California origins. They favored an open rhythmic feel and frequently stretched into lengthy improvisations, many of which were later trimmed and assembled into the studio recordings they released. Even when these explorations occasionally wandered, they highlighted War’s collective spirit: no single instrumentalist or singer claimed the spotlight, despite the clear ability each member possessed, and the interlocking grooves positioned them at the forefront of funk aggregations.

The group’s foundation rested in an R&B cover act known as the Creators. Guitarist Howard Scott and drummer Harold Brown formed the unit in 1962 while still in high school in the Compton area; three years afterward the roster also included keyboardist Leroy “Lonnie” Jordan, bassist Morris “B.B.” Dickerson, and saxophonist/flutist Charles Miller, all of whom contributed vocals. From the outset the musicians pursued an eclectic palette that encompassed R&B, blues, and the Latin styles they encountered while growing up in Los Angeles’s racially mixed neighborhoods. After a two-year pause prompted by Scott’s military service, they issued several local singles on Dore Records—the earliest, “Burn Baby Burn,” featured vocalist Johnny Hamilton—and supported jazz saxophonist Tjay Contrelli, once a member of the psychedelic outfit Love; during this span they also performed under the names the Romeos and Señor Soul.

In 1968 the band was reshaped and renamed Nightshift, with Peter Rosen entering on bass and percussionist Thomas Sylvester “Papa Dee” Allen, previously a sideman with Dizzy Gillespie, joining alongside two additional horn players. B.B. Dickerson eventually rejoined following Rosen’s death from a drug overdose. The following year Nightshift began accompanying football star Deacon Jones, a defensive end for the L.A. Rams, during his club singing engagements; there they were spotted by producer Jerry Goldstein. Goldstein recommended the musicians to former Animals frontman Eric Burdon, who, together with Danish-born harmonica player Lee Oskar (born Oskar Levetin Hansen), had been scouting Los Angeles venues for a fresh project.

Impressed by a Nightshift performance, Burdon assumed leadership and supplied the provocative name War while bringing Oskar aboard in place of the extra horn players. To generate material the musicians launched marathon concert jams over which Burdon improvised lyrics on the spot. In August 1969 Burdon and War entered the studio for the first time; after further touring they completed their debut LP, 1970’s Eric Burdon Declares War. The dreamy, floating single “Spill the Wine” rose to number three and placed the group before a wide audience. Before the year closed they issued a second album, The Black Man’s Burdon, whose two discs captured the lengthening improvisations along with Burdon’s expanding spoken passages; the set also marked War’s first recorded vocal on “They Can’t Take Away Our Music.” Burdon’s contract permitted the band to sign independently, and they soon reached an agreement with United Artists while continuing their alliance with Burdon. Midway through a 1971 European tour, however, Burdon abruptly departed citing exhaustion, signaling the close of their partnership; he returned briefly for a final U.S. run before leaving permanently.

War had already placed their self-titled, Burdon-free debut in stores early in 1971, yet it failed to connect. Before the year ended they completed All Day Music, which yielded their initial Top 40 singles “All Day Music” and “Slippin’ Into Darkness” and itself became a million-selling Top 20 album. The band reached full stride with the follow-up, 1972’s The World Is a Ghetto; infused with multicultural optimism, the record climbed to number one and moved more than three million copies, ranking as the year’s best-selling album. It also generated two Top Ten hits in “The Cisco Kid,” which drew a devoted Latino following, and the title track. Another million-selling effort, 1973’s Deliver the Word, reached the Top Ten and featured the Top Ten single “Gypsy Man” plus the hit “Me and Baby Brother,” though it lacked some of the street-level edge the group prized. While pausing to develop fresh material and reassess their approach, War documented their live strength on the double concert set War Live, captured across four nights in Chicago in 1974.

The 1975 release Why Can’t We Be Friends? recaptured the spirit of The World Is a Ghetto and achieved comparable success. Its bright, anthemic title song reached the Top Ten, as did “Low Rider,” a sleek Latin-funk groove that became the band’s sole R&B chart-topper and remains their signature track. A 1976 greatest-hits collection introduced the new song “Summer,” which proved to be War’s final Top Ten pop single. That same year Lee Oskar issued his debut solo album, supported by members of Santana. A double-LP anthology of extended jams and instrumentals surfaced on Blue Note in 1977 under the title Platinum Jazz; it quickly became one of the label’s strongest sellers and produced an R&B smash with the edited version of “L.A. Sunshine.”

Although the group continued to prosper, the rise of disco began to challenge the gritty, socially conscious funk they had cultivated. Late in 1977 War moved to MCA for Galaxy; the album sold steadily and its disco-inflected title track scored on the R&B charts, yet it faded on the pop side and marked the last occasion the band cracked the Top 40. After finishing the 1978 soundtrack Youngblood, the original lineup started to fracture. Dickerson departed during the sessions for 1979’s The Music Band, which introduced new female vocalist Alice Tweed Smith, and shortly afterward Charles Miller was killed in a robbery. Following the album’s release the remaining members attempted to update their image for the era’s flashy aesthetic, adding bassist Luther Rabb, percussionist Ronnie Hammond, and saxophonist Pat Rizzo, formerly of Sly & the Family Stone. The Music Band 2 underperformed, plunging the group into turmoil; Smith departed, and the next project required an unusual three years to complete. Outlaw, issued in 1982, achieved modest success: the title track became a Top 20 R&B hit and “Cinco de Mayo” emerged as a Latino holiday staple, yet the record did not restore their broader commercial footing. Rizzo exited later that year; Harold Brown left in 1983 after Life Is So Strange failed; and Rabb was replaced by Ricky Green in 1984. Thereafter War functioned primarily as a touring unit. Papa Dee Allen suffered a fatal brain aneurysm onstage in 1988, leaving Jordan, Hammond, Oskar, and Scott as the central members. Oskar departed in 1992.

Interest in the band’s classic catalog persisted, fueled by frequent sampling of their grooves by hip-hop artists. The 1992 project Rap Declares War united War with several rappers and cleared the path for the 1994 comeback attempt Peace Sign. For that album Brown returned on drums while Jordan, now on bass, Scott, and Hammond were joined by saxophonists Kerry Campbell and Charles Green, percussionist Sal Rodriguez, harmonica player Tetsuya “Tex” Nakamura, and Brown’s son, programmer Rae Valentine, along with guests Lee Oskar and José Feliciano. The record failed to chart, and the musicians resumed the touring circuit. Brown and Scott stepped away in 1997.

Jordan continued leading a reconstituted version of the band in which he remained the sole original performer. In 2008 War reunited for a one-off concert with Eric Burdon at London’s Royal Albert Hall, coinciding with Rhino’s reissues of their joint albums and two compilation releases. Later that year Jordan’s War issued the audio/video package Greatest Hits Live, spotlighting material from the group’s most celebrated period, 1969 to 1975. In 2009 the band received a nomination for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame yet did not receive sufficient votes for induction.

From 2009 onward War maintained a consistent concert presence, appearing on nostalgia tours and at international festivals. In 2014 the group released Evolutionary on Universal, their first studio album in a decade. The collection was packaged with a bonus disc drawn from the classic Greatest Hits set to entice buyers. Original bassist Morris “B.B.” Dickerson died in Long Beach, California, on April 2, 2021, at age 71.