1972 War – Slippin’ Into Darkness

Between 1962 and 1968, an ever-expanding group of musicians in California played together as the Creators. The band became the backup musicians for football player Deacon Jones when he began singing professionally.

In 1969, record producer Jerry Goldstein saw Deacon and the band performing at the Rag Doll club in North Hollywood. Jerry and Eric Burdon (formerly lead singer for the British band The Animals) recruited the band to play and sing as part of Eric Burdon and War.

Eric and the band toured briefly in the Southern California area before recording their first album with MGM Records. Eric Burdon Declares “War” included the single Spill The Wine, which reached #3 on the Hot 100.

Late that year, the band released a second album, The Black-Man’s Burdon. The double album did not generate a hit record, and Eric left the group during a tour of Europe.

The band moved to United Artists and changed their name to War. Their first album for the label did not do well, but the second one contained two top forty singles.

The first single from the album was the title song, All Day Music. The single stalled at #35 on the Hot 100 but made it to #18 on the R&B chart.

The album also contained Slippin’ Into Darkness, a song written by the band. The album cut ran nearly seven minutes, which was clearly too long for a single release.

They edited out some of the slow beginning of the song and the second verse to shorten the song to slightly less than four minutes, and they issued the shorter recording in 1972. The single reached #16 on the Hot 100 and #12 on the R&B chart.