Oh, war, has shattered many a young man's dreams (War) It's got one friend that's The Undertaker
(War) It ain't nothing but a heart-breaker War means tears to thousands of mother's eyes tour, who should join him on stage but Edwin? The song they performed together is not hard to guess.'Cause it means destruction of innocent lives When Bruce Springsteen played the city of Birmingham during his 1999 U.K. Radio.” Starr was hugely popular on the “Northern Soul” circuit, and always able to draw crowds, so it was no surprise when in 1983, he relocated to England – and worked harder than ever. Top 10 singles with two post-Motown tracks, “Contact” and “H.A.P.P.Y. A reissue of his pre-Motown hit, “Stop Her On Sight (SOS)” had come close to the British Top 10 in 1968 eleven years later, he scored back-to-back U.K. Until the human activity the song describes becomes history, someone will always make “War.”įOOTNOTE: Like his Motown labelmate Jimmy Ruffin, Edwin Starr found greater popularity in the U.K. Most recently, the brassy Brussels Jazz Orchestra turned in an interpretation which was mostly instrumental, with just the occasional blast of the lyrical hook. In 2002, Joan Osborne rendered the song as a powerful ballad for her album, How Sweet It Is. Other foreigners have turned to “War,” too, including Sweden’s Hexenhaus and Slovenia’s Laibach. The best-known? Almost certainly the in-concert version heard on Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band’s Live 1975-1985 album, but others who have remade the song include two British bands, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and the Jam, and, in 2016, American rockers Black Stone Cherry. REMAKES: The universal message of “War” was a guarantee that it would be performed by many other artists, long after the Vietnam conflict was over. Unlike the conflict it described, this particular recording was good for something, after all. Later, it was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. One of Motown’s seven Number Ones on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970, “War” also became Starr’s signature song. I mean, there was very few places where you could go and sing, ‘War – what is it good for’ in the political atmosphere of the United States.”Īnd yet the message resonated at home and abroad, including the U.K., where Edwin scored a major hit two months after the record was victorious at home. While the song was number one, I never did any work at all. So…‘Good God y’all’ and all those ‘Absolutely nothings’ are my ad-libs.” Later, Starr acknowledged the criticism he received. “I said, ‘I can do this but I have to sing the vocals my way,’” he recalled in liner notes for The Complete Motown Singles Volume 10: 1970. After producer Norman Whitfield was told of the Temptations’ career risk, he focused on cutting the song first with Rare Earth – they refused – and then Starr.Įdwin was determined to stamp “War” with his own personality. According to author Gerri Hirshey in her book Nowhere To Run, more than 4,000 students then wrote to Motown asking for “War” to be released as a single, or re-recorded by another artist. The group had recorded the song just a few months earlier, for their Psychedelic Shack album. (Read more about the singer here.)īy contrast, the Temptations did, and the record company was concerned about how such a provocative lyric would affect their career and play in the media. The artists of Motown were hardly known at that time for social commentary and controversial material, but Starr had no superstar reputation to put at risk when he cut the song in May 1970. SONGWRITERS: Barrett Strong, Norman Whitfield.īACKSTORY: On the day that Edwin Starr’s “War” was released in June 1970, two Detroiters in their twenties were jailed for five years for ransacking a Chicago draft board office and burning its records – yet another example of the anger and rebellion which America’s prosecution of the Vietnam war was continuing to stir among the country’s young. charts for the week ending Saturday, November 14, 1970.
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