| March 13, 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||
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Lyrics: All my friends know the low rider The low rider drives a little slower
Hey Low rider knows every street, yeah Low rider don’t use no gas now Take a little trip, take a little trip Get It: Your copy of War’s Why Can’t We Be Friends is waiting for you at Amazon, and it’s available at a great price. DWB YouTube Channel: Be sure to visit us on YouTube to see all the videos we’ve featured.
War – These are some cool cats, right here. |
From the category of Songs that Are Impossible Not to Like comes this 1975 classic from Long Beach, California funk band War. Seriously, is it even possible to listen to this song in your car without sliding down in your seat, hanging your wrist over the steering wheel, and getting your funk out? If so, then might I suggest that you have your groove thing checked by a professional? ‘Cause it’s broke, man. War’s origins go all the way back to 1962 when the band was known as The Creators. In time, Eric Burdon from The Animals would join the band, and the band name became Eric Burdon and War. In 1970, the band dropped Eric Burdon Declares War, which contained the hit single Spill the Wine, where we learned about long-haired leaping gnomes and such. In 1971, Burdon left the band, but the departure of their marquee frontman didn’t seem to hurt them as the newly renamed War struck it big in 1972 with the release of The World Is a Ghetto, which contained the hit single, The Cisco Kid. The World is a Ghetto soared to number 1 on the Billboard charts and was Billboard magazine’s Album of the Year and 1973’s best-selling album. Then came Cheech & Chong’s Up in Smoke, which featured today’s track, Low Rider, in its entirety at the beginning of the movie (though through the bluish haze of skunk, you might have forgotten about that). The track was the perfect backdrop for Cheech’s extended process for getting his low rider ready for the streets of southern California (see the whole clip below). The single Why Can’t We Be Friends? charted in 1975, too. The track has been used in a number of commercials over the years, including the Pepsi Max commercials in which the Pepsi and Coke delivery truck drivers try to be friends. War went on to have several more minor hits and continued releasing new music through 1994. The band reunited in 2014 with the release of the double-album Evolutionary, which is half greatest hits and half new material. Video: Here is the official 1975 video for War’s Low Rider: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AJ_NdKKFmA
Perhaps more memorable for many of us is Low Rider when it was featured in its entirety in the opening credits of Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke in 1978:
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