i was just listenin to "the very best of war" and the question was asked in the hispanic community were they the latin version of earth wind & fire? the 1st thing i thought was that that title would be layed to bands like Los Lobos, El Chicano, Santana, Mandrill, or Azteca....what ya'll think?

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Yeah, I'd say Santana, Mandrill or one of the others.....It is fascinating that the War was primarily African American (except, of course, Lee Oskar (harmonica), from Copenhagen, Denmark) but they had such a huge Latin following. They combined their funk, blues, jazz, and R & B with such a healthy dose of the Latin influence, especially in percussion.....


War: Papa Dee Allen (conga, bongos), Howard Brown (drums), B. B. Dickerson (bass), Lonnie Jordan (organ, piano), Charles Miller (sax, some flute), Lee Oskar (harmonica), Howard Scott (guitar). Luther Rabb (bass) and Pat Rizzo (sax) Ronnie Hammon (drums)




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[Edited 8/4/06 10:51am]

diamondpearl1 said:

In what way? What about their music makes you compare them to EWF?

yeah, i'd say that santana or mandrill would be more fitting of the title than war too. stuff like, say, "don't let no one get you down" and "all day music" is kinna-sorta ew & f-esque, but overall a lotta their stuff wasn't in the same "big monster funk band" vein like those guys.

see that whole vibe i would put war in with say "Malo,El Chicano etc etc. but in no way is war even musically related to EWF i love both bands, but with EWF everything after all n all and i am is poopoo pigeon

FunkMistress said:

the fact that both bands had such powerful percussion sections, and that they both crossed cultural barriers and combined them like no other band since sly & the family stone.

There is no way in the world would I say that they are the latin EW&F.

War was in a class by themselves. If fact, unlike EW&F, they have never changed their sound in an attempt to fit into what was going on at the time. War's sound is in a class by it's. You know a war song when u hear it. While this may be true about EW&F's old stuff, they are so busy dueting with Will I. Am and other new artists, that they original EW&F sound has been covered up and sometimes muddied. While other here might wanna through me to the dogs for saying this.....Gimme WAR over EW&F.....

diamondpearl1 said:

Funk that. If you an old skool LA native, you know WAR predates EWF. They're locals and EWF are transplants. Love 'em but gotta luv my homies more.