With Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and most of the other 24-hour news network propagandists in the throes of "wargasm" (OK, OK, I copped the term from "The Daily Show" but it's a witticism worth repeating), it seemed only appropriate that Edwin Starr should drop dead of a heart attack last week.

Starr, of course, was best known for his hair-raising performance of "War," the mother of all Vietnam-era protest anthems, but he was no one-trick pony.

While Buddy disses Starr's disco era output, that's where I knew Edwin from first. I still have a pink vynal extended remix of Edwin's "Contact", protected for posterity by a plastic sleeve in the VO Record Library, which remains entombed in the Casa Chaos garage in it's still-not-moved-in state. I loved the syncopated beat and that snakey synthesizer on "Contact", especially when Edwin belted, "Wemade eye to eye...Contact". We were gettin' our groove thing on in a soulful way and didn't really know it. Yet.

t was only when I met truly hip college people did I learn about "War". And only after hearing Bruce Springsteen rock the L.A. Coliseium during a Born In The USA tour stop with his downright angry and thrilling version did I go search out Edwin and experience that growly souly chanelling of deep seeded suspecion that I get from the original.

Buddy sums it up right,

"Starr exits the building with a legacy as one of Motown's most gritty performers intact, along with Junior Parker and Levi Stubbs."

And now that I know Buddy's got a New disc that we can play the shyte out of, we'll have to get him down to the station to talk about it Live.

As part of the upcoming web stream celebrating extravaganza. Bing!
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