Artist: War
Album: The World Is A Ghetto (40th Anniversary Expanded Edition)
Genre: R&B, Funk, Soul
Label: Universal / Far Out Productions
Released: 2012
Quality: FLAC (tracks)
Tracklist:
- The Cisco Kid 4:35
- Where Was You At 3:25
- City, Country, City 13:18
- Four Cornered Room 8:30
- The World Is a Ghetto 10:10
- Beetles in the Bog 3:51
Bonus Tracks - Freight Train Jam 5:41
- 58 Blues 5:29
- War Is Coming (Blues Version) 6:15
- The World Is A Ghetto (Rehearsal Take) 8:06
DOWNLOAD FROM FILECAT.NET >>>
- Personnel:
- Alto Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Charles Miller
- Bass, Percussion, Vocals – B.B. Dickerson
- Bongos, Congas, Percussion, Vocals – Papa Dee Allen
- Clarinet, Percussion, Vocals – Charles Miller
- Drums, Percussion, Vocals – Harold Brown
- Guitar, Percussion, Vocals – Howard Scott
- Harmonica, Percussion, Vocals – Lee Oskar
- Organ, Percussion, Piano, Timbales, Vocals – Lonnie Jordan
War's third album as an act separate from Eric Burdon was also far and away their most popular, the group's only long-player to top the pop charts. The culmination of everything they'd been shooting for creatively on their two prior albums, it featured work in both succinct pop-accessible idioms ("The Cisco Kid") and challenging extended pieces (the 13-minute "City, Country, City" -- which offered featured spots to all seven members without ever seeming disjointed -- and the title track), and encompassed not only soul and funk but elements of blues and psychedelia on works such as the exquisite "Four Cornered Room." "The Cisco Kid" and "The World Is a Ghetto" understandably dominated the album's exposure, but there's much more to enjoy here, even decades on. Beyond the quality of the musicianship, the classy, forward-looking production has held up remarkably well, and not just on the most famous cuts here; indeed, The World Is a Ghetto is of a piece with Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and Curtis Mayfield's Curtis, utilizing the most sophisticated studio techniques of the era. Not only does it sound great, but there are important touches such as the phasing in "Four Cornered Room," not only on the percussion but also on the vocals, guitars, and other instruments, and the overall effect is a seemingly contradictory (yet eminently workable) shimmering blues, even working in a mournful and unadorned harmonica amid the more complex sounds. [The 2012 Expanded Edition adds new liner notes and four previously unreleased tracks: two bluesy jams and alternate takes of "War Is Coming" and "The World Is a Ghetto."]
Review by Bruce Eder