Love Is All Around

by War / Eric Burdon

Product Description:

Personnel: Eric Burdon (vocals); Howard Scott (vocals, guitar); Lee Oskar (vocals, harmonica); Lonnie Jordan (vocals, keyboards); B.B. Dickerson (vocals, bass); Papa Dee Allen (vocals, percussion); Charles Miller (flute, saxophone); Harold Brown (drums).

Includes liner notes by Barry Alfonso.

An odd collection of live tracks and what sound like cuts from the two Eric Burdon and War albums released at the turn of the '70s, 1976's LOVE IS ALL AROUND was probably a contractual obligation album. That said, it's a pretty terrific collection of long, loose War jams, which sound marvelous.

Limber rhythms and dead-on horn and harmonica accents made this L.A. band one of the premier funk outfits of the '70s. Unfortunately, as was usually the case with Eric Burdon and War, their free-flowing funkiness and his more constricted, blues-based singing style don't always mesh as well as they might, as on the slightly awkward verses of the title track. But when War opens up and lets loose, it's hard to imagine a better band.