War

Funk band War were formed in 1969 when the disillusioned singer of rock band The Animals, Eric Burdon, met a band called Nightshift in Los Angeles and suggested a united project. The debut album Eric Burdon Declares "War" contained "Spill The Wine", an international hit that made their name. But Burdon left the band shortly after second album The Black Man's Burdon (1970), due to exhaustion from touring. The rest of the band carried on without him. A self-titled album didn't succeed, but All Day Music (1971) did - it included two minor hits and sold over a million copies. The World Is A Ghetto (1972) did even better, topping the album chart and selling three million copies. Deliver The World (1973) sold another two million, but wasn't so well received by critics. War got back into the critics' good books with Why Can't We Be Friends? (1975), which included another hit in the title track, and "Low Rider". The group's popularity began to decline afterwards as their output slowed and the disco craze sidelined gritty funk. In the 80s and 90s, hip-hop artists such as Beastie Boys, De La Soul and Gangstarr sampled many of their songs, introducing War to a new generation of fans. A version of War continues to tour today.