S.O.D. "Spill the Wine" by War

5/27/2016     From their first album, "Eric Burdon Declares War", this 1970 Funk/Latin/Soul tune was the group's first single that charted.  Aside from climbing to #3 in the U.S., it was ranked by Billboard as the 20th best song of 1970.  The inspiration for the tune came from multi instrumentalist and founding member, Leroy "Lonnie" Jordan.  He told the story to Burdon about spilling a glass of wine on a mixing board in a recording studio.  

     War got their start in Long Beach, California in 1969 and are still active.  They lost a few members in the 80s and reformed in the 90s with many of the original musicians.  The result of this was their first non-compilation album in more than a decade, being a two album set.  Burdon was the lead vocalist for the Animals before joining War.  He reunited with War in 2008 after 37 years of separation to perform a concert at the Royal Albert Hall which was a one time thing.  

     Lonnie Jordan has remained the constant member and together with the other six members of the present day War, released the album Evolutionary in 2014.  War was finally nominated to be inducted into the rock 'n' roll Hall of Fame which also happened in 2014.  Looks like somebody dropped the ball on that lateness.