Eric Burton and War – Spill The Wine
Eric Burdon was one of many that arrived in the United States during the British invasion of 1964. He was the lead singer of the Animals, later called Eric Burton and the Animals and later with a new band of musicians as Eric Burton and the New Animals.
By the end of the decade he was living in San Francisco and it was their that he met a quartet of funk musicians (Lonnie Jordan; keyboards, Howard Scott; guitar, Charles Miller; flute/saxophone, Morris ‘B.B.’ Dickerson; bass and Harold Brown; drums) and they became his new backing band. Shortly later they were joined Lee Oskar; harmonica) and ‘Papa’ Dee Allen; percussion.
Together the group would record two albums with Spill the Wine coming from their first album Eric Burdon Declares “War”.
Spill the Wine was the most successful single as well as the first release by the Eric Burton and War and was a hit beginning in the Spring of 1970 reaching the top 5 peaking at number 3.
In some ways this song could be called an early rap record since Burton tells the story more than sings the story of a dream of being “The star of a Hollywood movie” while a Latin-funk beat played in the background.
Their other album release together was the four record set The Black-Man’s Burdon and they had a number of low charting singles from both of these albums including the songs Tobacco Road and Paint It Black originally recorded by others.
Within 18 months Burton would leave the group during the middle of an European tour due to exhaustion, War would continue the tour and then record and release two albums in 1971.
Their two releases the self titled War and All Day Music would bring them to forefront of funk.
