Song of the Day 5/22: War, “Why Can’t We Be Friends?”

War is one of those groups that shows up year after year on lists of “best bands snubbed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.” This was the title track to their 1975 album, which also included a song you hear a lot more often these days, “Low Rider.” If it sounds incongruous for a group named War to be talking about peace, remember that this was recorded in the immediate post-Watergate period, when the split in American society morphed from being generation-based to being culture-based, and has remained that way ever since. What I wonder about most is what audience there was for a music video in 1975. MTV didn’t start until 1981.

They also made a video for “Low Rider,” which features a few scenes of hydraulically enhanced cars circa 1975.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeKw6c9aTJ0