New remastered videos and a vinyl box set coming this summer.

War has been declared – the music of Long Beach funk/soul band War, that is!

The group recently announced plans to celebrate their 50th anniversary throughout the rest of 2021. Five decades ago, after a successful collaboration with British singer Eric Burdon, the group – singer/keyboardist Lonnie Jordan (the group’s longest-tenured member), guitarist Howard E. Scott, harmonica player Lee Oskar, drummer Harold Ray Brown and late members Charles Miller (saxophone), Thomas “Papa Dee” Allen (percussion) and B.B. Dickerson (bass) – struck out on their own. Over the next decade, the group issued nearly a dozen gold or platinum-selling albums and spun off six Top 10 pop hits, including “The Cisco Kid,” “The World is a Ghetto,” “Low Rider, “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” and “Summer.”

READ MORE: In 1971, It Was Eric Burdon and War No More

{“preview_thumbnail”:”/sites/classicsoul.rock.tools/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/BsrqKE1iqqo.jpg?itok=FmK0iMdx”,”video_url”:”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsrqKE1iqqo”,”settings”:{“responsive”:1,”width”:”854″,”height”:”480″,”autoplay”:0},”settings_summary”:[“Embedded Video (Responsive).”]}

The festivities kick off with newly-remastered versions of videos to “Low Rider” and “Why Can’t We Be Friends,” transferred in 4K from the original footage. On July 17, Avenue and Rhino Records will release War – The Vinyl 1971-1975, a limited box set available at participating independent shops for 2021’s second RSD Drop. The set will include color vinyl versions of the studio albums War, All Day Music, The World is a Ghetto (the best-selling album of 1973, according to Billboard), Deliver the Word and Why Can’t We Be Friends? Additional vinyl releases are planned for later in the year, as well.

{“preview_thumbnail”:”/sites/classicsoul.rock.tools/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/sH0Qda32IKM.jpg?itok=_Umbvomx”,”video_url”:”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH0Qda32IKM”,”settings”:{“responsive”:1,”width”:”854″,”height”:”480″,”autoplay”:0},”settings_summary”:[“Embedded Video (Responsive).”]}