The World Is a Ghetto (1972)

The World Is a Ghetto is the fifth album by American band War, released in late 1972 on United Artists Records. The album attained the number one spot on Billboard, and was Billboard's Album of the Year as the best-selling album of 1973. In addition to being Billboard's number 1 album of 1973, the album was ranked number 444 on Rolling Stone's original list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". The album and title track both received RIAA gold certifications.

Cover

The cover illustration, a light-hearted drawing showing a Rolls-Royce with a flat tire in a ghetto, was drawn by Howard Miller, with Lee Oskar credited with album concept.

It uses a blue and black color palette as a reference to the melancholy nature of the album.

Alternate formats

The album was also made available in a 4-channel surround sound (quadraphonic) mix in the 8-track tape format (United Artists UA-DA178-H). The original quadraphonic mix has been re-released on Blu-ray, and for the album's 50th anniversary, a new Dolby Atmos mix was released in streaming format. Furthermore, a 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition was made available as 4 CDs, 5 LPs, or as a digital download, and contained bonus tracks as well as "making of" recordings from the album sessions.

Critical reception

In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, Gordon Fletcher said The World Is a Ghetto found War progressing further in the arena of soul and jazz music, and "closer to total mastery of their music as they attempt to use it to communicate the essence of ghetto life". Robert Christgau was less enthusiastic in Creem, believing he "should love this big Afro-roots band" in theory, but was critical of the fairly slow quality of the music and the lyrics, calling it "blackstrap-rock". He singled out the "jazz pretensions" of "Four Cornered Room" and "City, Country, City", finding the latter's rhythmic foundation solid but the song too long and mawkish.

In a retrospective review, Bruce Eder from AllMusic said the album's music encompassed "not only soul and funk but elements of blues and psychedelia" and a "classy, forward-looking production" comparable to Curtis Mayfield's 1970 album Curtis and Marvin Gaye's What's Going On (1971). The Crisis journalist Bruce Britt identified The World Is a Ghetto as one of the few Black rock recordings that became a classic within the pan-African community during FM rock radio's segregation of African-American rock acts in the 1970s, a viewpoint echoed by music historian Jefferson Morley. The Washington Post critic Geoffrey Himes names it an exemplary release of the progressive soul development from 1968 to 1973.

Personnel

• War
• Howard Scott – guitar, percussion, vocals
• B.B. Dickerson – bass, percussion, vocals
• Lonnie Jordan – organ, piano, timbales, percussion, vocals
• Harold Brown – drums, percussion, vocals
• Papa Dee Allen – conga, bongos, percussion, vocals
• Charles Miller – clarinet, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones, percussion, vocals
• Lee Oskar – harmonica, percussion, vocals