Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
What better way to celebrate Memorial day than with a little War?
Of course, we're talking about the band, War, the legendary funk outfit known for hits like "Spill the Wine," "Why Can't We Be Friends" and "Low Rider."
This weekend, War takes to the stage at the Greek Theater where they'll be performing tracks from "Evolutionary," their first new studio album in 20 years. It's being released along with a newly re-mastered version of "War's Greatest Hits."
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Lonnie Jordan is one of the founding members of the band, and he recently sat down with host Alex Cohen to talk about the history of the band:
We started as The Creators and we played dives and the disturbing part of those clubs were the fights and that pretty much put a lot of inspiration in our hits for writing for the future. And we just kept together and stayed together and became one big family...
And Jordan details how they got their name:
We realized at the time that the Vietnam war was going on and there was wars on the streets and in our own neighborhood, and we decided to go ahead and take on the name War and declare war against wars.
Check out the attached audio to hear Jordan discuss the history songs like "Why Can't We Be Friends?", and what it's like being back in the studio after being away for 20 years.