1960s: Beginnings In 1962,
Howard E. Scott and
Harold Brown formed a group called the Creators in
Long Beach, California. Within a few years, they had added
Charles Miller, Morris "B. B." Dickerson, and
Lonnie Jordan to the lineup.
Lee Oskar and
Papa Dee Allen later joined as well. They all shared a love of diverse styles of music, which they had absorbed living in the racially mixed Los Angeles ghettos. The Creators recorded several singles on
Dore Records while working with Tjay Contrelli, a saxophonist from the band
Love. In 1968, the Creators became Nightshift (named because Brown worked nights at a steel yard) and started performing with Melvyn "Deacon" Jones from Richmond, Indiana, a rhythm and blues artist. Deacon Jones, as he was referred to, is often confused with Deacon Jones, the American football player who was from the same era. The band then changed their name from Nightshift to War. Nightshift was conceived by record producer
Jerry Goldstein ("
My Boyfriend's Back", "
Hang on Sloopy", "
I Want Candy") and singer
Eric Burdon (ex-lead singer of the British band
the Animals). In 1969, Goldstein saw musicians who would eventually become War playing at the Rag Doll in
North Hollywood, backing Deacon Jones, the blues artist, and he was attracted to the band's sound. Jordan claimed that the band's goal was to spread a message of brotherhood and harmony, using instruments and voices to speak out against racism, hunger, gangs, crimes, and turf wars, and promote hope and the spirit of brotherhood. Eric Burdon and War began playing live shows to audiences throughout
Southern California before entering into the studio to record their debut album
Eric Burdon Declares "War". The album's best known track, "
Spill the Wine", was a hit and launched the band's career.
1970s: Height of popularity performing with War, c. 1971. Eric Burdon and War toured extensively across Europe and the United States. The subtitle of a 1970 review in the
New Musical Express of their first UK gig in London's
Hyde Park read: "Burdon and War: Best Live Band We've Ever Seen". Their show at
Ronnie Scott's Club in London on September 16, 1970, is historically notable for being the last public performance for
Jimi Hendrix, who joined them onstage for the last 35 minutes of Burdon and War's second set; a day later he was dead. A second Eric Burdon and War album, a two-disc set titled ''
The Black-Man's Burdon'' was released in 1970. During the subsequent tour, Burdon collapsed on the stage during a concert, caused by an asthma attack, and the band continued the tour without him before Burdon left the band in the middle of its European tour. They finished the tour without him and returned to record their first album as War.
War (1971) met with only modest success, but later that year, the band released
All Day Music which included the singles "All Day Music" and "
Slippin' into Darkness". The latter single sold over one million copies, and was awarded a
gold disc by the
R.I.A.A. in June 1972. In 1972, they released
The World Is a Ghetto which was even more successful. Its second single, "The Cisco Kid", shipped gold, and the album attained the number one spot on
Billboard 200, and was
Billboard magazine's Album of the Year as the best-selling album of 1973.
Deliver the Word (1973), the next album, contained the hits "
Gypsy Man" and a studio version of "
Me and Baby Brother" (previously issued as a live recording), which peaked at No. 8 and No. 15 on the Billboard chart. The album went on to sell nearly two million copies. The album ''
Why Can't We Be Friends?'' was released in 1975. It included "
Low Rider" and the title track, which were among the band's bigger hits. In response, Brown, Oskar, Scott, and a returning B. B. Dickerson (who had not worked with War since 1979) adopted a name which referenced one of War's biggest hits:
Lowrider Band. They have yet to record a studio album. Lonnie Jordan opted to remain with Goldstein and create a new version of War with himself as the only original member. Some other musicians who had joined between 1983 and 1993 were also part of the new lineup. Both the "new" War and the Lowrider Band are currently active as live performance acts. 1996 also saw the release of a double CD compilation,
Anthology (1970–1994), later updated in 2003 with a few track substitutions, as
The Very Best of War. Another CD compilation from 1999,
Grooves and Messages, included a second disc of remixes done by various producers.
21st century On April 21, 2008, Eric Burdon performed "Spill the Wine" with War in concert at the London Royal Albert Hall, released as
Greatest Hits Live on Avenue/
Rhino Records, who also reissued much of War's back catalog that year.War were unsuccessfully nominated for induction into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009 and 2014. In 2014, War released a new studio album,
Evolutionary, as a double CD, the second disc being a reissue of their
Greatest Hits album from 1976. On June 5, 2025, War received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame with all surviving original core members present including Jerry Goldstein, Charles Miller's children, and B.B Dickerson's son. ==Musical style==