War promotional photo in 2019.

By Randal Hill
Guest Columnist

War

Inspirations for a hit song can sometimes spring from a most unusual source.

Members of the California septet War hailed from different neighborhoods in and around Long Beach and Compton, both burgs part of the Los Angeles suburban sprawl.

Of disparate backgrounds and different ages, the musicians found a common thread of interest in creating tunes together. “We mixed and mingled everything, even mariachi music,” War’s keyboardist Lonnie Jordan recalled. “We played blues constantly. We were trying to imitate what we heard, but it came out being something else.”

Blues and mariachi weren’t their only musical genres. Influenced by the young musicians’ racial diversity, elements of soul, jazz, reggae and mainstream rock ‘n’ roll were also combined to create an aural stew that defined War’s distinctive sound.

They went by a series of names — the Creators, the Romeos, Nightshift. In 1969, while playing a small Hollywood club, a record producer caught their act and soon introduced them to British superstar Eric Burdon, who had recently split from his hit-making Animals group. The result was Nightshift becoming War and backing Eric on the 1970 reverie-inducing, million-selling MGM Records single “Spill the Wine.”

Burdon left the band and never had another hit. War, though, was just beginning a seven-year run on Billboard’s Hot 100 charts. Switching to United Artists Records, the group saw 11 hit 45s keep the War name burning hot.

Their biggest winner — Number Two on Billboard’s chart — was “The Cisco Kid,” which was based on a favorite children’s TV show of theirs called — surprise! — “The Cisco Kid.”

“Up until that point, the cowboy heroes were people like John Wayne,” Jordan explained. “When the TV series came around, the band discovered their first non-white hero — a Mexican cowboy.”

The Cisco Kid was a popular half-hour Western that ran from 1950 to 1956, with Cisco (Duncan Renaldo) and his partner Pancho (Leo Carillo) spending 156 episodes chasing down lawbreakers.

Children were the target viewing audience, so gun violence was always downplayed. Cisco often shot a pistol from a villain’s hand, while Pancho’s bullwhip frequently disarmed the bad guy.

Every show ended with a corny joke about the adventure they had just endured. Then both would laugh, Cisco would say, “Oh, Pancho!,” Pancho would say, “Oh, Cisco,” and the two would ride off as the credits rolled.

Each War member contributed to “The Cisco Kid,” which featured an irresistible, chugging instrumental engine that drove a story line that defied analysis — or logic:

“The Cisco Kid was a friend of mine/He drink whiskey, Pancho drink the wine

“We met down on the fort of Rio Grande/Eat the salted peanuts out of can

“The outlaws had us pinned down at the fort/Cisco came in blastin’, drinkin’ port.”

The musicians met Duncan Renaldo, TV’s Cisco Kid. War’s guitarist Howard Scott said, “It was an honor to meet that guy. He was this old, elegant Spanish gentleman with white hair, lighthearted and very likable.”

As to their best-selling single ever? “He thought our song was funny.”