Best of

Eric Burdon, Eric Burdon & War, War | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 28, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Avenue Records
• ASIN: B0000033J7
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,944 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Magic Mountain

2. Spill the Wine

3. Tobacco Road

4. Mother Earth

5. Love Is All Around

6. Home Dream

7. Bare Back Ride

8. Nights in White Satin

9. Beautiful New Born Child

10. Paint It Black

11. They Can't Take Away Our Music

12. Gun

13. Home Cookin'

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Newcastle Cat's Funky Night Shift, May 13, 2002

By 

"donnelly117" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best of (Audio CD)

Following the collapse of the New Animals after the fetid LOVE IS double set, Eric regrouped in L.A., ostensibly to break into the film industry. His new managers Steve Gold and Jerry Goldstein had other ideas and paired the Newcastle Cat with Night Shift, a local Latin-funk bar band. The combo not only clicked, but cooked, 'specially when E.B. brought in a Danish harmonica ace named Lee Oskar to fill out the Shift's simmering, joyous soul/R&B gumbo. (Renaming the band War was Eric's way of turning a word associated with tragedy into a positive.) This collection gathers several high-points from their fertile fusion, most notably the loopy, infectious "Spill the Wine" and the moving "They Can't Take Away Our Music," easily the best song Burdon ever had a hand in writing. Note how E.B. graciously shares the mic with his bandmates before bringing down the house on the chorus---absolute magic. At their best, the Burdon/War partnership artfully fuses impressionistic lyricism with fluid funk ("Magic Mountain"; "Home Dream"; "Gun"; the anthemic "Home Cookin'"; the stirring chorus of the gospel-like "Beautiful Newborn Child" sounds like something from the O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU soundtrack). Even the oft-covered "Paint It Black" (Burdon already recorded it with the New Animals) is revived with a trippy salsa-funk arrangement. The only lemon here is the ridiculous cover of "Nights In White Satin," but Burdon never could let go of the sixties. And yet, War's so committed, they nearly make this dopey epic work. Even so, "Vision of Rahsaan" would have worked better here. Although War scored a string of great hits like "Slipping Into Darkness" and "Why Can't We Be Friends" after Burdon left the group (a long story), the band seemed somewhat faceless without their "overfed, long-haired leaping gnome" of a frontman.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Jerry Goldstein's Far Out, errr Far Off production., March 28, 2006

By 

olofpalme63 (auf der flucht!) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best of (Audio CD)

...although it was nice to see Magic Mountain make the cut (the flip side to the smash hit Spill the Wine, which also made an appearance in the film called "The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart" with the tagline; "Stanley Sweetheart needs a new head. He's growing one in his magic garden". starring Don "Miami Vice" Johnson). This by no means is the best of Eric Burdon & War. Not even close.

Sure, the essentials are here like Gun, Tobacco Road, Spill The Wine and Beautiful New Born Child. But it's what's left off that I find somewhat disturbing. Almost insulting to anyone who liked this version of War (Eric Burdon) more than the latter (Jerry's version). It can be argued that the latter were more relevent based on the amount of hits manufactured by the post-Burdon War. And they had alot of them in the 70's like The Cisco Kid, Gypsy Man and Slippin Into Darkness to name a few. I mean, who could forget Cheech prepping his Chevy to Low Rider in "Up In Smoke"? But when you think of "The Best Of;" you're thinking of something definitive. And that's not here on this compilation. Even though Burdon wasn't with War for very long, much more ground could have been covered.

The omissions are plentiful here. And why Out Of Nowhere, Sun/Moon and Pretty Colors are left off is any War-philes guess. No Roll On Kirk? Are you kidding? CD's hold approximately 70 minutes of recorded material and the gems The Bird And The Squirrel and (Charles Miller, famous for his sax solo in The World Is A Ghetto, played the flute every bit as good) Nuts, Seeds & Life are nowhere to be heard. Avenue records and whomever compiled this collection of songs for release proves yet again...to be out of touch with the War effort and their fans. oh and..."I am not wrong! They say they understand me, But I cannot stand to be understood!".

"The Best Of;"? ...Hardly.

olofpalme63

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I'd buy it,but..., February 18, 2009

By 

David A. Elliott Jr. "Record & CD collector" (Pinellas Park,Fl) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best of (Audio CD)

I see that the timings of the songs are listed here, and according to it,this CD contains the 4 minute "edited album version" of "Spill The Wine" instead of the full 5 minute version. I counted the total timings & saw this CD is about 56 minutes long. Why on earth put the single edit here when there's plenty of room for the full version? I'd gladly buy this album if only it had the full "Spill The Wine". I already have the short version on my "Best Of War & More" CD.