One More Star In Heaven

April 3, 2003 3:45 AM

A soul legend is dead. Edwin Starr, 70s soul singer, who wrote the seminal "War" has died of a heart attack aged 61.

There is one more star in heaven.
posted by essexjan (17 comments total)

Oh no! Agh, that pisses me off. Edwin Starr was fantastic.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 3:56 AM on April 3, 2003

"We made...EYE to EYE...CONTACT...!" Great disco song.
posted by davidmsc at 3:58 AM on April 3, 2003

The best 'HWERR!' in the business. RIP.
posted by i_cola at 4:04 AM on April 3, 2003

Starr ruled. how sad. :(
I never knew his name was charles hatcher - that just doesn't sound right.
posted by dabitch at 4:53 AM on April 3, 2003

Of course, being a child of the 80s, I only became aquainted through his early music via Frankie Goes to Hollywood's cover of War. *wince*
posted by thanotopsis at 5:20 AM on April 3, 2003

There is one more star in heaven.
Very punny.

Tis always a shame, but we all have our time I guess...
posted by twine42 at 5:30 AM on April 3, 2003

If there's a rock-n-roll heaven, well you know they got a hell of a band.

RIP
posted by brand-gnu at 6:24 AM on April 3, 2003

Of course, being a child of the 80s, I only became aquainted through his early music via Frankie Goes to Hollywood's cover of War. *wince*

Bruce Springsteen does a great cover too and has been performing it of late on his current tour....
posted by ElvisJesus at 7:05 AM on April 3, 2003

He was fantastic.

I'm curious how this will play out today on classic rock and classic soul radio stations. Typically, when well-known musicians die, stations play their biggest hits in tribute. But how many stations won't be able to play "War" today because its blatant anti-war stance would irritate their corporate owners and half their listeners? If it had a video, it certainly wouldn't be on MTV right now. Sigh.
posted by lisa g at 7:53 AM on April 3, 2003

If it had a video, it certainly wouldn't be on MTV right now.

Gah! This paragraph from the article you linked reads like something out of The Onion:

Aerosmith's Don't Want to Miss a Thing, which features footage from the asteroid disaster movie Armageddon; Radiohead's Invasion; You, Me and World War Three by Gavin Friday and anything by the B52s has also been deemed inappropriate for the duration of the Gulf conflict.

"and anything by the B52s?" I'd think it was an April Fool's joke, but the article was written March 27th. Sure, "Love Shack" is really going to unsettle people during this time of strife and conflict. That little snippet just dramatically highlights how idiotic and offensive that policy is.

(sorry for taking this off-topic.)
posted by spacewaitress at 8:01 AM on April 3, 2003

A great man. I saw Edwin Starr confront a skinhead on stage in '85: eyeball to eyeball - "Nobody, but nobody, walks across my stage while I'm performing!" - the skinhead backed down.

In parts of Northern England Starr was rightly treated as a God and he was about far more than 'War'.
posted by niceness at 8:49 AM on April 3, 2003

D.O.A. has done a cover of War as well. I don't know whether they've recorded it, but they've been doing it live for the last twenty years.
posted by y2karl at 9:21 AM on April 3, 2003

Whoot, there it is.... they did record it.
posted by y2karl at 9:26 AM on April 3, 2003

Edwin Starr, not to be mixed up with Edwyn Collins which I very nearly did last night on Hospital Radio. Nearly.
posted by ajbattrick at 10:00 AM on April 3, 2003

Bruce Springsteen does a great cover too and has been performing it of late on his current tour....

The follow-up single, "Stop the War Now" is a gem too -
possibly even more incendiary than the big hit.

posted by ryanshepard at 11:53 AM on April 3, 2003

The Jam covered "War" on the Beat Surrender ep in '82, and Paul Weller continues to perform it live now and then. (I was hoping it would be on the set list both times he performed in L.A. in February, but he went for another antiwar soul classic instead -- "What's Goin' On," sung to wild cheers.)
posted by scody at 11:56 AM on April 3, 2003

Word on the 'net is that a remake/cover of War featuring Edwin and the Utah Saints was already in the offing (part anti-war, part follow-up to their previous collaboration, "Funky Music"). (Not to mention that it contains major bits of the unreleasable (due to blatant AC/DC sampling) "Rock").

Seaching an appropriate Yahoo Group might turn up a link to a sample...

(No direct link out of deference to the host of the sample.)
posted by fnord23 at 2:07 PM on April 3, 2003