Eric Burdon & WAR - Spill the Wine

Eric Burdon & WAR - Spill the Wine

"Spill the Wine" first appeared on the album Eric Burdon Declares War. Its writing credits include the members of War: Papa Dee Allen, Harold Brown, Eric Burdon, B.B. Dickerson, Lonnie Jordan, Charles Miller, Lee Oskar, and Howard E. Scott. The song was inspired by an accident in which keyboardist Lonnie Jordan spilled wine on a mixing board. It features a prevalent flute solo, and the sound of a woman speaking Spanish—a friend of Eric Burdon—is heard in the background. An edited version, released as a promo single for radio stations and subsequently included on most compilations, omits the middle spoken recitation, plus one chorus. The song was re-released as a single in 1996, after a remix by Junior Vasquez.

Lyrics:

I was once out strolling one very hot summer's day
When I thought I'd lay myself down to rest
In a big field of tall grass
I laid there in the sun and felt it caressing my face
As I fell asleep and dreamed
I dreamed I was in a Hollywood movie
And that I was the star of the movie
This really blew my mind
The fact that me, an overfed long-haired leaping gnome
Should be the star of a Hollywood movie, hm
But there I was, mm
I was taken to a place
The hall of the mountain kings
I stood high upon a mountain top
Naked to the world
In front of
Every kind of girl
There was long ones, tall ones, short ones, brown ones
Black ones, round ones, big ones, crazy ones
Out of the middle came a lady
She whispered in my ear
Something crazy
She said

Spill the wine, take that pearl
Spill the wine, take that pearl
Spill the wine, take that pearl
Spill the wine, take that pearl

I thought to myself, what could that mean?
Am I going crazy, or is this just a dream?
Now wait a minute
I know I'm lying in a field of grass somewhere
So it's all in my head
And then I heard her say one more time

Spill the wine, take that pearl
Spill the wine, take that pearl
Spill the wine, take that pearl
Spill the wine, take that pearl

I could feel hot flames of fire roaring at my back
As she disappeared, but soon she returned
In her hand was a bottle of wine
In the other a glass
She poured some of the wine from the bottle into the glass
And raised it to her lips
And just before she drank it, she said

Take the wine, take that pearl
Spill the wine, take that pearl
Spill the wine, take that pearl, uh-huh, uh-huh
Spill the wine, take that pearl
Take that pearl, yeah
It's all yours
All you gotta do is spill that wine
Spill that wine, let me feel, let me feel hot, yeah, yeah, oh, uh-huh
Spill the wine, spill the wine, spill the wine, spill the wine
Spill the wine, spill the wine, spill the wine
Take that pearl
It's all yours