“Slippin' Into Darkness” by War

War cut "Slippin' Into Darkness" in 1971 for All Day Music on United Artists, with Jerry Goldstein producing and the writing shared by the band: Charles Miller, Harold Brown, Howard Scott, Lee Oskar, Lonnie Jordan and Papa Dee Allen. It's a blues at heart, but a strange one, its opening lines circling back over a rhythm with African and Latin roots, sung by someone reeling after a friend's life is taken and retreating from reality, with a price to pay.

The album take runs nearly seven minutes; the radio edit drops the slow intro and the second verse to come in under four. In 1972 the single peaked at 16 on the pop chart and hung around for 22 weeks, tying Gallery's "Nice to Be with You" for the longest stay that year, while the R&B chart took it to 12 and Canada to 13.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.