WAR: EDWIN STARR

"It ain't nothin' but a heartbreaker.
Friend only of the undertaker."

The seismic horn arrangements of Edwin's made this a childhood fav of mine, even though I couldn't remember his name. I didn't put two and two together until after grooving to his brilliant disco hits CONTACT and HAPPY RADIO in the late 70's. I recently bought his greatest hits because I wanted to sneak in a little anti-war message while spinning at some corporate events and was shocked to find an even better cut in a similar vein called STOP THE WAR, with equally powerful orchestration--I'm guessing it was a follow-up sound-alike hit. The legendary producer Norman Whitfield (producer of CAR WASH and the drag classic IT SHOULD'VE BEEN ME) picked Edwin's gospel growl to record WAR for Motown.

Anyhoo, here's the video for WAR. It's fascinating to me that a video used to be a good song and a good performer--no editing, special effects or sets needed! Well, Edwin does have a flashy top on!

WATCH IT HERE: VIRTUALMATTER

Edwin passed away, but not before performing at Liza and David's wedding in 2002! You can visit Edwin's official site for more tidbits at EDWINSTARR