Paraphrasing the legendary Parliament-Funkadelic: ‘who says a funk band can’t be a jam band?’
The new live album by legendary Southern California progressive soul-funk band War is indeed a bit of a revelation, at least for this writer. On War’s new Live In Japan 1974, out now from Rhino Entertainment / Warner Music Group, I am hearing a band riding the fence between numerous grooves — from Latin-tinged booty-shakers to slinky funk and sultry soul — blended with rootsy blues and post-psychedelic improvisational explorations to the cosmos.
In simpler parlance: you can probably place tracks from this fine new live War album in your playlists alongside most any ‘90s “jam band,” from Moe to Blues Traveler. Better still, you could (and probably should) easily segue these tracks with recordings from The Grateful Dead, Little Feat and The Neville Brothers.
Curated from high quality live recordings made as the band toured Japan including Shizuoka, Tokyo, Osaka, and Kobe, War’s Live In Japan 1974 is almost a greatest hits package. It features expansive versions of many of their now-iconic hits such as “The Cisco Kid,” “The World Is A Ghetto,” “Gypsy Man,” “Slipping Into Darkness,” “Me And Baby Brother” and the sunshine groove of “All Day Music.”
At the time, the band was working on its next release which would become 1975’s smash hit Why Can’t We Be Friends? Here, they break out then un-released tunes like “Don’t Let No One Get You Down,” “Lotus Blossom” and “So.” From the liner notes interviews with band members we learn that they actually wrote the album’s title-track-to-be in Japan due to the welcoming reception they received from Japanese audiences.
The vinyl edition of War’s Live In Japan 1974 sounds great spread over two LPs. Perhaps my only disappointment is that the tracklisting is not as complete as the 2CD version which has a few more songs. However, I can understand the label’s decision to not stretch it out to a 3LP set which would have made the package more expensive.
You can get the 2LP vinyl at Amazon for a very reasonable $32.99 (click here or on the title anywhere in this review) while the 2CD set is on sale at the time of this writing for just $22.49 (click here). Any way you listen, War Live In Japan 1974 is a winning release for the fans and band alike.
(Mark Smotroff is a deep music enthusiast / collector who has also worked in entertainment oriented marketing communications for decades supporting the likes of DTS, Sega and many others. He reviews vinyl for Analog Planet and has written for Audiophile Review, Sound+Vision, Mix, EQ, etc. You can learn more about him at LinkedIn.)
