War of the Gods (album)
album by Billy Paul
War of the Gods is an album by soul singer Billy Paul. The album was produced by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff and arranged by Bobby Martin and Lenny Pakula. Released in 1973, the album reached number 12 on the Billboard soul chart and number 110 on the pop chart. The single "Thanks for Saving My Life" was a top 40 hit, reaching number 37 on the pop chart and was a top-10 soul record reaching number 9. In 2012, Big Break Records remastered and reissued the album on CD with bonus tracks and new liner notes.
Release and critical reception
A departure from Paul's previous work, War of the Gods contains only six songs, nearly all of which are extended psychedelic soul song suites fusing jazz, soul, funk, Latin, rock, and pop. In the new liner notes for the 2012 reissue, Paul calls it "the best album I've ever done in my life."
Stephen McMillian recounted Paul's appearance on Soul Train to promote the album: Billy returned to Soul Train on its January 20, 1974 taping to perform 'Thanks For Saving My Life' and an uptempo danceable tune entitled 'The Whole Town's Talking' from War of the Gods. 'Super smooth Billy,' as Don [Cornelius] referred to him in his introduction of the singer, looked dapper in grey suit and grey hat with the brim of the hat slightly tilted down. During Billy's interview with Don, he mentioned that he had returned from a European tour with The O'Jays and The Intruders, stating that the response was great and very receptive. 'The most amazing thing is to see people who can't understand your language but they enjoy your music and the sound,' Billy told Don."
In addition to the hit single "Thanks for Saving My Life," the album's title track was released as a white label, promo-only single in two different, shorter forms.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “War of the Gods (album)” is album by Billy Paul. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Gods, album and Billy, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “album by Billy Paul” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7968684. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1973, 2012 and 1974.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “War of the Gods (album)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.