War (song)
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- This article is about the Edwin Starr song. For the System of a Down song, see War (System of a Down single). For the Bob Marley song, see War (Bob Marley song).
Song information
Temptations version and release debate
The Temptations' version of "War", featuring Paul Williams and Dennis Edwards on lead vocals, was much less intense than the hit version more familiar today. Williams and Edwards deliver the song's anti-war, pro-peace message over a stripped-down instrumental track, with bass singer Melvin Franklin chanting a repeated boot camp-like "hup, two, three, four" in the background during the verses.The song was included as a track on the March 1970 Psychedelic Shack album, which featured the title track as its only single. The track's direct message, summarized by its chorus ("War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothin'!"), struck a nerve with the American public, many of whom protested the war in Vietnam. Fans from across the nation, many of them college students and other young people, sent letters to Motown requesting the release of "War" as a single. The label didn't want to risk the image of its most popular male group, and the Temptations themselves were also apprehensive about releasing such a potentially controversial song as a single. The label decided to withhold "War's" release as a single, a decision that Whitfield fought until the label came up with a compromise: "War" would be released, but it would have to be re-recorded with a different act.
Edwin Starr version
Edwin Starr, who had become a Motown artist in 1968 after his former label, Ric-Tic, was purchased by Motown founder Berry Gordy, Jr., became "War's" new vocalist. Considered among Motown's "second-string" acts, Starr had only one major hit, 1968's number-six hit "Twenty-Five Miles", to his name by this time.He heard about the conflict surrounding the debate of whether or not to release "War," and volunteered to re-record it. Whitfield re-created the song to match Starr's James Brown-influenced soul shout: the single version of "War" was dramatic and intense, depicting the general anger and distaste the antiwar movement felt towards the war in Vietnam. Unlike the Temptations' original, Starr's "War" was a full-scale Whitfield production, with prominent electric guitar lines, clavinets, a heavily syncopated rhythm accented by a horn section, and with Whitfield's new act The Undisputed Truth on backing vocals.
Upon its release in June 1970, Starr's "War" became a runaway hit, and held the number-one position on the Billboard Pop Singles chart for three weeks, in August and September 1970. It replaced "Make It With You" by Bread, and was replaced by another Motown single, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Diana Ross.
Notable as the most successful protest song to become a pop hit, "War" became Edwin Starr's signature song. Rather than hinder his career (as it might have done for the Temptations), "War" buoyed Starr's career, and he adopted the image of an outspoken liberal orator for many of his other early-1970s releases, including the similarly-themed "Stop the War Now" from 1971. It and another 1971 single, "Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On," continued Starr's string of Whitfield-produced psychedelic soul hits. After 1971, Starr's career began to falter, and, citing Motown's reliance on formulas, he departed the label in the mid-1970s.
The Edwin Starr version has been heavily sampled in hip hop music, and is used as a running gag in the 1998 Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker comedy film Rush Hour. It is also refrenced in a subtle joke in a episode, when, after a customer says a particular conflict is ruining their buisiness, Quark (Armin Shimmerman) deadpans "War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing, you ask me." In 1999, Edwin Starr's "War" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The song was also mentioned in the 1994 episode of the sitcom Seinfeld entitled "The Marine Biologist"; in the episode, Jerry jokingly tells Elaine that Leo Tolstoy originally wanted the name of his novel War and Peace to be War (What Is It Good For).
Although the song was written more than thirty years ago, its lyrics remains relevant because of criticisms of the recent Gulf and Iraq Wars among sectors of the American public.
Cover versions
- Later in his career, after moving to the United Kingdom, Starr re-recorded several of his hits with British band Utah Saints. Starr's new version of "War" in 2003 was his final recording; he died on April 2 of the same year of a heart attack.
- "War" was covered in concert by Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s on his tour supporting Born in the U.S.A. Springsteen then released it as a part of the box set, Live/1975-85, and it was again a hit single. He would also perform this song before and during the start of the Iraq War.
- "War" was covered by Frankie Goes To Hollywood on the 12-inch of their 1984 hit single "Two Tribes", and was included on the album Welcome To The Pleasuredome.
- An episode of the television series , "Lyre Lyre Hearts on Fire", includes a cover of "War".
- "War" was remixed by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, along with Henry Rollins, Tom Morello, and Flea, for the soundtrack to the film Small Soldiers. The song features new raps by BTnH, and a spoken word section by Rollins, while the chorus features the original song by Starr.
Sample
- ["War" - Edwin Starr version] ([file info])
- *
- * Problems listening to the file? See [Media helpmedia help].
Credits
Edwin Starr version
- Lead vocals by Edwin Starr
- Background vocals by The Undisputed Truth: Joe Harris, Billie Rae Calvin, and Brenda Joyce
- Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers
Temptations version
- Lead vocals by Paul Williams and Dennis Edwards
- Background vocals by Dennis Edwards, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks, and Otis Williams
- Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers
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External links
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