A Conversation with Howard Scott
Correction: A caption on page 14 of the March 2 edition of Random Lengths News incorrectly associated an artist with his former band. Guitarist and songwriter Howard Scott is performing, on his own, March 16 at JDC Records in San Pedro and March 17 at the Carson Community Center in Carson. Random Lengths News regrets the error and will continue to strive to bring accurate independent news to the Los Angeles Harbor Area.
By Kym Cunningham, Contributing Writer
For more than 50 years, Howard Scott has made a living doing something most people only dream of: making music.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Scott was a guitarist and lead vocalist in the legendary musical omnibus, WAR, collaborating with artists ranging from former Animals lead singer Eric Burdon to Danish harmonica player Lee Oskar. And yet, Scott never thought of making music as a paycheck.
“I didn’t look at it as a way of making a living,” Scott said. “It was just something that we were doing and we were very good at it.”
The Music of Compton
Born in San Pedro, Howard Scott grew up in Compton in the 1950s and 1960s, when the city was at its peak. Scott remembers the annual Christmas parade on Compton Boulevard, which rivaled the more famous holiday parade in Hollywood.
There was also an annual Compton Invitational Track Meet, which featured Olympic athletes.
“Athletes would come from all over the world to compete,” Scott said. “The guy that had the world record for the 440 was going to Compton High School at that time.”
Scott credits the City of Compton for much of his musical growth.
“Compton was probably one of the most unique places to grow up,” Scott said. “Everybody was into the arts…. Everybody had singing groups…. It was amazing to grow up in that era.… The whole city was into music…. The whole community was inspired.”
At Compton High School, Scott, along with Harold Brown, formed a band called The Creators.
“It was the natural thing [to be in a band],” Scott said. “It just so happened that the whole city was into music. When we were going to Compton High School … we would go to other [Compton] high schools and perform.”
But even the musical aptitude of The Creators couldn’t save Scott from the social turmoil of the 1960s. Cultivated at the height of the Vietnam War, the band took a hiatus when Scott was drafted into the Army in 1966. In a stroke of luck, Scott was not sent to Vietnam, but rather spent 18 months in West Germany shortly after finishing high school. When he returned from his service, the band had splintered.
“When I came back, everybody was gone,” Scott said. “The band had broken up. People were all over in different places.”
The Start of War
But music was Scott’s lifeblood. It was a beat coursing through his veins, waking him up in the morning, driving him through the day. Shortly after Scott returned from West Germany, he and Brown got together with Lonnie Jordan and B.B. Dickerson to form The Nightshift. The band included the late Deacon Jones, the NFL Hall of Fame defensive end for the Los Angeles Rams.
While playing at a North Hollywood club in 1969, The Nightshift met famous producer, Jerry Goldstein, and Lee Oskar, who had recently teamed up with Eric Burdon. The rest, as they say, is history.
“In the club that night, Lee came up and asked if he could start jamming with us,” Scott said. “A couple of weeks after that, we had a meeting with them [Lee and Burdon] and we decided to form a band with them. And that’s how Eric Burdon and WAR started, right there.”
But the interaction of these musicians strikes Scott as more than just history.
“It was destiny,” he said. “It was something that was meant to be. We had a band but Eric Burdon came in with his concept and took it to the next level. He was a world class entertainer.”
Scott refers to those days as carefree. He fondly remembers his time spent collaborating with Burdon and the rest of WAR.
“We cranked,” Scott said. “We played so many good shows. We were blowing people’s minds from coast to coast.”
Hendrix’s Last Jam
One of Scott’s most memorable experiences is the night WAR played with Jimi Hendrix at Ronnie Scott’s Club in London on September 18, 1970 — the night before Hendrix died. Hendrix was supposed to come in the night before to play, but he didn’t show up.
“The first night, he couldn’t play or didn’t want to play,” Scott said. “The second night … he had his Strat guitar and he was just on fire.”
Scott fondly remembers playing blues with Hendrix the night before he died.
“It was a great night,” Scott said.
Hendrix was supposed to come back the next night but instead died of asphyxiation after overdosing on barbiturates. Even today, Scott finds this difficult to believe.
“We were the last band to play with Jimi Hendrix,” Scott said. “I was the last guitar player to play with Jimi Hendrix. That always sticks in my mind.”
Scott is also proud to have written War’s top 10 smash hit, The Cisco Kid. The song’s name is derived from Cisco, a Los Angeles club where WAR used to play shows.
“We were playing there and this wino-looking guy came up off the streets and offered me a dollar to play a song that nobody had ever heard,” Scott said. “One of the bouncers from the club grabbed this little man and threw him in the street. I was so upset … so I wrote this song.”
Scott began to sing the words to his favorite song.
“The Cisco Kid was a friend of mine,” Scott sang. “He drink whiskey, Pancho drink the wine.”
“It was my most fun song,” Scott said. “It put a smile on your face …. I was so uninhibited.”
Scott admits he also likes the song Why Can’t We Be Friends. But by the time the song came out, the band was already famous, making—as he puts it— “a bunch of money.”
“It wasn’t as meaningful to me,” Scott said.
Transcending Barriers
Arguably the most popular funk group in the 1970s, WAR featured influences from soul, Latin, rhythm and blues, rock, jazz, reggae and blues. Much of this musical amalgamation was courtesy of the various backgrounds of the band members. In fact, WAR was touted as transcending racial and cultural barriers, promoting harmony and brotherhood through its music.
Scott acknowledges the diversity of the band but maintains that it was the music that brought people together.
“When WAR came out, they didn’t put our pictures on the covers,” Scott said. “People were judging the band purely by their music, not how we looked or where we came from. We had this whole rainbow coalition of people in the band.
“Then, when people saw pictures, it didn’t make any difference. The music won them over. When you went to a War show, you saw everybody. It was a great thing to see.”
Politicization of War
Through this musical harmony, the band also politicized its message, spreading awareness within its song lyrics.
“WAR was a political band,” Scott said. “We had political statements.”
One such song was Get Down, which criticized the “police and their justice” as well as world leaders.
Scott calls these songs “unity songs,” which he says made people think “about organization, and power to the people.”
Scott even came up with a kind of musical campaign riffing on the political nature of WAR songs called Peace in the Streets.
“The world we are in now, politically, we need peace in the streets,” Scott said. “The kids today are not writing those kinds of songs anymore to get people thinking.”
However, Scott credits the lack of politics in music as a part of why WAR songs continue to be so popular.
“The songs we came up with during those days are still around,” Scott said. “The message still resonates as something the people can latch onto. It doesn’t have a time period on it … We came up with a memorable tone that will last forever.”
Still Goin’ Strong
WAR was plagued by fractured friendships and law suits among band members, some of which actually prevent Scott from using the band’s name in association with his music. However Scott hasn’t let these setbacks keep him from making the music he loves. Rather, it becomes apparent speaking with Scott that the man thinks in music, as though his words come to him in lyrics with a pre-formed melody attached to them. Every few minutes, he’ll break into song, demonstrating just how deep within him music runs.
“Music is always going to be something that when you wake up in the morning, you have a melody in your head,” Scott laughed. “It’s going to make a change. Musical statements are always going to be there.”
It seems that part of the reason Scott has not allowed WAR’s legal issues to become an impediment to his music making is simply because creating music makes him happy.
“You can always make somebody smile with music,” Scott said.
Scott has his hands in a few musical ventures. He still plays shows with some of his old WAR bandmates in The Lowrider Band — named, of course, after one of WAR’s biggest hits, Lowrider. The band just got back from a show in Panama.
“We’re working on all 12 cylinders,” Scott said. “You can’t beat it.”
Scott also hosts a radio show out of his home in Texas, where he plays a variety of music, including, of course, many of the old WAR hits.
But mostly, Scott spends his time writing more music.
“I write all of the time,” Scott admits.
His latest musical solo venture, The Howard Scott Project, seems to be his favorite as it allows him the opportunity to experiment.
“This is an outlet for me to just come up and do a whole lot of new things,” Scott said.
On March 16, Howard Scott will play at JDC Records, 447 W. 6th St., San Pedro. The next night, March 17 he will be performing at the Carson Community Center.
“I’ll be playing some of the biggest songs that WAR recorded that I personally wrote,” Scott said. “Me and Baby Brother, Slippin’ Into Darkness, Gypsy Man … Lowrider because I co-wrote that. Just some of the biggest WAR hits and some of the stuff I did on my own.”
Advice from a Legend
Scott ended his interview with some advice for aspiring artists.
“Stay focused on the art,” Scott said. “Be true to the art and who you are all the way through. Don’t play for money. Be dedicated to the music and be dedicated to yourselves,” Scott said. “Unity is something that bands need.”
But despite all this hard work and dedication, Scott broke into song with his last piece of advice.
“‘Keep on rockin’,” he sang. You could tell he was smiling as he crooned the words.
Howard Scott will perform March 16 at JDC Records in San Pedro and March 17 at the Carson Community Center in Carson.