War, The Cisco Kid | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 192^nd edition of Throwback Vibez (2024), we recollect and reflect on “The Cisco Kid” by War.

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 192^nd edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2024), we recollect and reflect on “The Cisco Kid” performed by War.

“The Cisco Kid was a friend of mine / He’d drink whiskey, Pancho drank the wine.” War released a surefire classic with “The Cisco Kid”. The funk, alongside Latin music influences, was alive and well on this top 10 hit by the creative R&B collective. “Cisco Kid” peaked at no. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, the band’s best showing. The opener from their 1972 album, The World is a Ghetto, was certified gold by the RIAA. Adding to the accolades, it earned War two Grammy nominations for Best Rhythm & Blues Song and Best R&B Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group, Or Chorus.  Jerry Goldstein, Lonnie Jordan, and Howard Scott produced it.

The lyrics are simple and repetitive throughout “The Cisco Kid,” as evidenced by the excerpted lyrics.  Even so, listeners are given a novel tale about a Mexican cowboy. The inspiration for the song, which guitarist Scott came up with, was from The Cisco Kid, a Western starring Romanian-born American actor Duncan Renaldo that aired from 1950 – 1956.  Leo Carrillo played Pancho, the Cisco Kid’s (Renaldo) sidekick.  Notably, Each line is sung twice.  “We met down on the border of Rio Grande… / Eat the salted peanuts out of a can… / The outlaws had us pinned down at the fort… / Cisco came in blastin’, drinkin’ port.”  Beyond the fun lyrics and energetic vocals, the music is top-notch.  The groove, with its Latin influence, is epic. Just as epic or even more epic is the bass line, which is one of the fattest and funkiest you’ll ever hear.  So much more could be said regarding “The Cisco Kid” but the awesome music speaks for itself. “They rode the sunset, horse was made of steel / Chase a gringo last night through a field.” Indeed!

War // The World is a Ghetto // Far Out Productions, Inc. / Rhino Entertainment Company // 1972

War, The Cisco Kid: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 192 (2024) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Far Out Productions, Inc. / Rhino Entertainment Company; OpenClipart-Vectors, Clker-Free-Vector-Images, Speedy McVroom from Pixabay]