War
Why Can't We Be Friends?

THE REVIEW

Plugging holes is hard work. I usually spend time on it in only one area of life, and with a certain amount of anxiety too, even though I put my whole self into it (…), for the rest, I can say it’s not really my job. When I'm playing the fool, I avoid it. And then a suitable plug for this hole might be within the abilities of P.P. Farina alone. I'll leave it to him, if he’s willing, to be exhaustive.

War reached 'Why Can’t We Be Friends?' in '75 after two albums and some exhausting tours, made behind Eric Burdon, and after another four albums released for United Artists after Burdon had bid goodbye. I’m throwing in some random tidbits I picked up from the web. Along the way, it seems they managed to taste a bit of success and money. By '75, War had taken the form of a nice smoothie of colors, both visually and especially on a sonic level. Seven musicians: bass, guitar, keyboards, horns, and a nice arsenal of percussion. Their recipe: funk-rock base infused with Latin music, reggae, and even a bit of jazz. The moderate pace of the first part of the album is not at all due to a lack of substance, quite the contrary. The melodic developments of voice and horns and the rhythm, slow yes, but resulting from vaguely Spanish-flavored percussion and an eel-like bass line, make the opener 'Don't Let No One Get You Down' very enjoyable. I may be wrong but occasionally when listening to the piece, I sense hints of Love, or rather, upon reflection, I would hazard to relate these impressions to an alternative development of some ideas put forth in 'Alone Again'. The bassist, B. B. Dickerson, seems at ease both with slow rhythms and with quite a bit of movement, always effective and fun. The funk present in the sound is, as it should be, largely his doing. Wiki mentions someone who credits him for his smoking grooves. Now, in my ignorance, I don't know what a smoking groove is, but if lines like the one in 'Low Rider' on this album, or 'Gypsy Man' on the previous album, are defined as smoking grooves, well I’d say a smoking groove is a pretty good thing. 'Low Rider' I believe is one of their most famous tracks, along with the funk-reggae title track, also made famous by those jokers Smash Mouth with their cover. My preference, however, falls on 'Leroy's Latin Lament', a piece divided into four moments. A piano introduction that leads to a slow piano - voice - bass and little else. Then the rhythm accelerates with 'La Fiesta', a sort of mambo (I think it’s a mambo, but I'm not so sure because I know I'm very, very ignorant), nonetheless a Latin rhythm, and then slows down again to make room for a fantastic melody of … clarinet? I think it’s a clarinet, I'm not so sure because I know I'm very, very ignorant, and then I heard a cover where the part was done with a guitar, but on the record it seems to me (IT SEEMS TO ME) to be a clarinet.

This is a bit old stuff but I’m glad I set my ears on it, even if terribly late. Cerea fanciot.