L.A. OGs WAR (the ORIGINAL band): ‘Cinco de Mayo’ (1981 complete)

warcinco
This 1981 single from WAR was the first time many non-Latinos heard of Cinco de Mayo. This photo shows the original guys at the Sunset Grill (7439 Sunset, next to their offices (Far Out Productions) at 7417 Sunset. The Guitar Center swallowed up 7417 a while back.

L-R: Charles Miller (sax, RIP), Lonnie Jordan (keyboards, the only original member in the new  WAR), Howard Scott (guitar, Lowrider Band), Harold Brown (drums, Lowrider Band), B.B. Dickerson (bass, RIP), Lee Oskar (harmonica, Lowrider Band). Not pictured, Papa Dee Allen  (RIP, percussion).

  • DISCLOSURE: I was WAR’s National Director of Album Promotion for a while and ate so often at the Sunset Grill (like in the Eagles song) I could run a tab.

Mas…L.A. OGs WAR (the ORIGINAL band): ‘Cinco de Mayo’ (1981 complete)

L.A. OGs WAR (the ORIGINAL band): ‘Cinco de Mayo’ (1981 complete)

warcinco
This 1981 single from WAR was the first time many non-Latinos heard of Cinco de Mayo. This photo shows the original guys at the Sunset Grill (7439 Sunset, next to their offices (Far Out Productions) at 7417 Sunset. The Guitar Center swallowed up 7417 a while back.

L-R: Charles Miller (sax, RIP), Lonnie Jordan (keyboards, the only original member in the new so-called WAR), Howard Scott (guitar, Lowrider Band), Harold Brown (drums, Lowrider Band), BB Dickerson (bass, Lowrider Band), Lee Oskar (harmonica, Lowrider Band). Not pictured, Papa Dee (RIP, percussion).

[DISCLOSURE: I was WAR’s National Director of Album Promotion for a while and ate so often at the Sunset Grill (like in the Eagles song) I could run a tab.]

Mas…L.A. OGs WAR (the ORIGINAL band): ‘Cinco de Mayo’ (1981 complete)

WAR (the OG band): ‘Cinco de Mayo’ (1981 complete)

warcincoThis 1981 single from WAR was the first time many non-Latinos heard of Cinco de Mayo. This photo shows the original guys at the Sunset Grill (7439 Sunset, next to their offices (Far Out Productions) at 7417 Sunset. The Guitar Center swallowed up 7417 a while back.

L-R: Charles Miller (sax, RIP), Lonnie Jordan (keyboards, the only original member in the new so-called WAR), Howard Scott (guitar, Lowrider Band), Harold Brown (drums, Lowrider Band), BB Dickerson (bass, Lowrider Band), Lee Oskar (harmonica, Lowrider Band). Not pictured, Papa Dee (RIP, percussion).

[DISCLOSURE: I was WAR’s National Director of Album Promotion for a while and ate so often at the Sunset Grill (like in the Eagles song) I could run a tab.]

Mas…WAR (the OG band): ‘Cinco de Mayo’ (1981 complete)

WAR (the original band): ‘Cinco de Mayo’ (1981 complete)

warcincoThis 1981 single from WAR was the first time many non-Latinos heard of Cinco de Mayo. This photo shows the original guys at the Sunset Grill (7439 Sunset, next to their offices (Far Out Productions) at 7417 Sunset. The Guitar Center swallowed up 7417 a while back.

L-R: Charles Miller (sax, RIP), Lonnie Jordan (keyboards, the only original member in the new so-called WAR), Howard Scott (guitar, Lowrider Band), Harold Brown (drums, Lowrider Band), BB Dickerson (bass, Lowrider Band), Lee Oskar (harmonica, Lowrider Band). Not pictured, Papa Dee (RIP, percussion).

[DISCLOSURE: I was WAR’s National Director of Album Promotion for a while and ate so often at the Sunset Grill (like in the Eagles song) I had credit.]

Mas…WAR (the original band): ‘Cinco de Mayo’ (1981 complete)

‘Tokyo: Living La Vida Lowrider’ by Luis J. Rodríguez

luisnewA row of bald-headed, broad-shouldered young men stand together in the middle of a small smoky dance club called Sound Base. They wear well pressed Dickies pants, Locs (wrap-around shades), extra-long flannel shirts or long cotton athletic shirts in black and gray. A few had T-shirts with images of lowrider cars as well as cholas and cholos. In the club’s parking lot, adjacent to a lumberyard, several lowered 1950s and 1960s Detroit-built cars display airbrushed murals and shiny chrome, the one exception being a caramel brown 1941 Chevy truck.

Click here for POCHO’s review of Lowriting, from which this special sneak preview is excerpted.

On the stage are two members of Quetzal, one of East Los Angeles’ most popular bands: Quetzal Flores and his long-time companion, Martha Gonzalez. Flores strums a jarana, a traditional stringed instrument from the Mexican Gulf port state of Veracruz. Gonzalez is seated astride a cajon, also used extensively in the Son Jarocho tradition of that state, and thumps with her hands and fingers a driving cadenced beat as she sings in Spanish and English, words heavily tinged with Mexican/Xicano cultural and political significance.

Mas…‘Tokyo: Living La Vida Lowrider’ by Luis J. Rodríguez

WAR ‘(All My Friends Know the) Low Rider’ plus ‘Cisco Kid’


TGIF Music Video Double Play: Groove on out the office with WAR’s Low Rider and Cisco Kid. How a band made up of six African-Americans and a Jew from Denmark turned into one of Latinos’ favorite groups is a long story, but the songs WAR wrote at 7417 Sunset Blvd. were definitely happenin’ in the hood. All but one of WAR’s surviving original members now perform as the Lowrider Band.

Mas…WAR ‘(All My Friends Know the) Low Rider’ plus ‘Cisco Kid’