Customer Reviews

Best of War & More

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first owned "The Best of War...And More" on LP some twenty years ago, and unfortunately the CD version is not an improvement. Middleweight contestants in the arena of 1970s funk rock bands, War was far better at producing singles that albums, and as such needs to be represented by a decent anthology album. Instead, you get short edits of several songs, including "Spill the Wine" their debut compilation single with former Animal Eric Burdon. There's also a pointless remix of the single "Low Rider," that is redunant and unnecessary. The CD package contains no booklet, only a single sheet with very little information about the band. And at only 13 tracks total, it is a very skimpy collection.

Overall, a shoddy anthology from a decent band that deserves better treatment.

The music of War sounds invariably recalls a sticky summer day in LA for me. Their sound was fairly progressive for the 1970's: combining latin sounds, jazz, funk, and rock. They racked up an array of great hits in the 1970's, first as the backup band for Animal's lead singer Eric Burdon and then on their own. The majority of their hits are here, including the Top 10 songs "Spill the Wine" (#3 in 1970), "The Cisco Kid" (#2 in 1973), ""Why Can't We Be Friends?" (#6 in 1975), "Low Rider" (#7 in 1975), and "Summer" (#7 in 1976). These songs are venerable enough to be "oldies," but they sound astonishingly current. Unsurprisingly, these songs have been sampled by numerous acts and used in numerous movies, perhaps most recently "21 Grams."

Unfortunately, this collection omits two of their biggest and best songs: "The World is a Ghetto" (#7 in 1973) and "Gypsy Man" (#8 in 1973). If a band has seven Top 10 singles, all of those songs should be on their greatest hits collection! The CD also culminates on a low-note - a 1987 remix by Arthur Baker of "Low Rider." You might not recognize that name, but you'll recognize Baker's sound; he scored such 80's movie as "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," and he injects the remix with an unhealthy dose of 80's cheese.

Ultimately, this anthology is arguably the best single-disk compilation of War's music although with some serious flaws. Casual fans will probably be satisfied, but others should seek out one of their double-disk collections.

Any War compilation that doesn't include "The World Is A Ghetto" really shouldn't be called a "best-of". I just don't understand why Rhino/Avenue chose to omit this song, yet included two versions (the original and a remix) of "Low Rider". I realize that "The World Is A Ghetto" appears on "The Best Of War And More, Volume 2," but we shouldn't HAVE to buy Volume 2 to get this song. Then again, maybe this is why it was omitted from Volume 1.

Also, "Spill The Wine," "The Cisco Kid," "All Day Music" and "Slippin' Into Darkness" are edited versions that were supplied to radio stations, not the longer versions that appeared on the regular 45s (The edited version of "Spill The Wine" keeps turning up on War compilations. You need to pick up "Eric Burdon Declares 'War'" to get the unedited version.)

War was a joyful band of rhythmic funksters with clever vocals and gorgeous harmonies. This collection includes most of their best songs from the 70s, but is missing some real gems (notably "Gypsy Man" and "The World is a Ghetto"). Another reviewer pointed out that some of the tracks are shortened radio edits. There may be more cases of this than I can recognize, but either way there are some songs here, like "Slipping into Darkness" and "All Day Music", that are just too good to be this short.. "City Country City" is whittled down to just the "country" section, and lacks the journey from and back to the city that made the original so evocative. But the music is superb (except for "Living in the Red"), and even the songs that have never disappeared from radio play still stand up well ("Low Rider" and the charmingly weird "Spill the Wine"). But like a delicious meal with too-small portions, this CD leaves me hungering for more. A great band needs a strong "best of" collection, and this CD just isn't it. So why 5 stars? Because setting aside all the coulda-woulda-shouldas about this as a compilation, 4 stars just doesn't quite describe the superior quality of the music it contains.

This is a bad compilation of a great band. If you notice, there are two Best Of's. That is because this album is missing some great songs. The much better, 1976 Greatest Hits was only released as a Gold CD, is now out of stock, and is sorely missed.

How can you have a compilation of WAR and NOT have "The World Is A Ghetto" and "Don't Let No One Get You Down" on it? This isn't a bad com,pilation, but alof the songs are short versions of the originals and is quite lacking all the way around. Get the "WAR The Very Best Of War. You'll find ALL of the biggest hits and more.

War is one of the great bands to emerge from the late 1960's and early 1970's. Beginning with their work with eric Burdon, then continuing on through even greater music, the band was a multi-cultural conglomerate of musicians representing the best of white, black and latino musics. Over a twenty year period they produce a slew of really terrific albums.

Included on this CD are twelve of their better known songs and a remix of "Low Rider". There isn't a weak song in the bunch, but the packaging was weak, at best. First, using the term "best of" is walking into dangerous territory. "Biggest Hits" or "Top Sellers" might have been more appropriate. Best Of is a subjective term and people will usually feel cheat out of at least one or more songs when the title "Best Of" is used.

Also lacking in the packaging is anything resembling liner notes. The listener is left to guess the year, the personnel, what albums the songs came from, anything. Song titles and that's it. Rhino Records, which has had a remarkable history of producing historically significant compilations, has totally dropped the ball on this album. Next time they should shell out a few dollars to have someone do some kind of liner notes.

Overall it's a decent collection and I'd definitely recommend if all you're looking for is a decent sampling of War's music. But I'd rather have a group of the albums or a boxed set.

This album is not the sampling you will want from this band. Where is "The World Is A Ghetto?" If it's a sampler you are looking for, pick up the 2 CD set that is out there and leave this one alone. Better yet, get the individual albums. They are better than any best of collection you can pick up by this band.

Love that Latin group from Long Beach! All Day Music is my favorite song on this wonderful CD. That cut is so relaxing. Low Rider and Summer were big hits from my high school senior year. I like having this CD in my library for a reminder of my happy high school years. Hey, Spill the Wine, which is cut 9, has to be one of the most unusual songs in pop music history. That song, of course, was done when Eric was with the group. Two totally different kinds of songs are Spill and All Day Music, a good example of War's diversity. I still cannot believe I got this at such a low price (-:

I agree with many reviewers: this is a disappointing collection. There is no "The World Is A Ghetto", "Gypsy Man", nor "Ballero" for starters. I had the original "Greatest Hits" from 1976, but is only available on vinyl records. Your best bet is to get the "War: Anthology (1970-1994)". It's 2 CDs but has all the essentials.