Thomas “Papa Dee” Allen

Thomas “Papa Dee” Allen was the conga player for the group “War”. In 1970 “War” chalked-up a top ten single with the hit “Spill The Wine” featuring Eric Burdon from the “Animals” on lead vocals. After releasing the double album set “The Black Man’s Burden”, Eric left the band. The band went on to release a string of hit singles that appealed to both rock and r & b FM radio formats. Some of their popular songs include “Slippin’ Into Darkness”,”The Cicso Kid”,”Low Rider”,”Me and Baby Brother”,”Why Can’t We Be Friends”,”All Day Music”,”Summer” and “The World Is A Ghetto”. In concert they would stretch songs out into extended jams. On August 30th of 1988 “Papa Dee” suffered a massive heart attack while performing on stage which proved fatal.