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Just published by The Guardian - 'Charles had just bought a mean-looking Chevrolet': how War made Low Rider
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/nov/25/how-war-made-low-rider-snip-
In the beginning, we’d been Eric Burdon and War. Eric, who had been the singer in the Animals, taught us so much about improvising on stage. After he left, we’d just jam for ages and record everything. Low Rider came along in the middle of maybe an hour and a half of playing: we took a piece that became the song. Charles Miller sang the lead vocal. He walked into the studio, sat down, had a bottle of tequila, salt and a lemon, listened to the track and started singing in a low voice.
We’d been filming the lowrider car clubs in LA – the Dukes and Imperials – which had these souped-up cars with tape machines, big speakers and hydraulic parts retrieved from airplane graveyards. Charles had just bought a 1952 Chevrolet that was low and looked mean, so his mind was on lowriding. We all developed the rest of the lyrics.
“The low rider drives a little slower” line was a reference to drivers saving gas, which was very expensive then because of the oil crisis. “Take a little trip with me” was an innocent line about getting in the car with us, but after people started asking about it we realised it was a double entendre. The central riff was played by Charles on saxophone and Lee Oskar on harmonica. I played timbales in a swing style and tucked a vibraphone under to bring a bit of solid metal to the horns.
We gave cassettes to the lowriders and they all played it in their cars. As soon as it got played on the radio, the Latin community sent it up the charts, then off it rocketed and nothing was going to stop it.
-snip-
In the beginning, we’d been Eric Burdon and War. Eric, who had been the singer in the Animals, taught us so much about improvising on stage. After he left, we’d just jam for ages and record everything. Low Rider came along in the middle of maybe an hour and a half of playing: we took a piece that became the song. Charles Miller sang the lead vocal. He walked into the studio, sat down, had a bottle of tequila, salt and a lemon, listened to the track and started singing in a low voice.
We’d been filming the lowrider car clubs in LA – the Dukes and Imperials – which had these souped-up cars with tape machines, big speakers and hydraulic parts retrieved from airplane graveyards. Charles had just bought a 1952 Chevrolet that was low and looked mean, so his mind was on lowriding. We all developed the rest of the lyrics.
“The low rider drives a little slower” line was a reference to drivers saving gas, which was very expensive then because of the oil crisis. “Take a little trip with me” was an innocent line about getting in the car with us, but after people started asking about it we realised it was a double entendre. The central riff was played by Charles on saxophone and Lee Oskar on harmonica. I played timbales in a swing style and tucked a vibraphone under to bring a bit of solid metal to the horns.
We gave cassettes to the lowriders and they all played it in their cars. As soon as it got played on the radio, the Latin community sent it up the charts, then off it rocketed and nothing was going to stop it.
-snip-