Latest / I Am All In with Scott Patterson / This Isn’t Old Man Music: Kool & The Gang
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: I Am all in.
- 0:08Speaker 2: You.
- 0:16Speaker 1: This Isn't Old Man Music with Scott Patterson Everything You've
- 0:19Speaker 1: ever wanted to know about the music of Gilmour Girls.
- 0:23Speaker 1: Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all of Them Podcast
- 0:26Speaker 1: one eleven Productions. iHeartRadio Media, iHeart podcast. This Isn't Old
- 0:32Speaker 1: Man Music, Episode two, and I have a very very
- 0:35Speaker 1: special guest, the one and only founder of Cool and
- 0:42Speaker 1: the Gang, Robert cool Bell. Welcome, Robert. Let me tell
- 0:47Speaker 1: everybody a little bit about your accomplishments, and buckle up everybody,
- 0:53Speaker 1: because it's gonna take a while. He's a co founder, leader,
- 0:56Speaker 1: and master bassist for the legendary Grammy winning rock and
- 0:59Speaker 1: roll Hall of famers Cool and the Gang. Cool and
- 1:04Speaker 1: his family emigrated to Jersey City, New Jersey, in the
- 1:08Speaker 1: early sixties. Shortly thereafter, Cool and his brother Ronald joined
- 1:12Speaker 1: neighborhood friends Spike Mickens, Dennis Thomas, Ricky Westfield, George Brown,
- 1:18Speaker 1: and Charles Smith to create a distinctive musical blend of jazz,
- 1:22Speaker 1: soul and funk. At first calling Spells the Jazzy Acts,
- 1:28Speaker 1: and the band went through various name changes, New Dimension,
- 1:30Speaker 1: the Sole Town Band, and Cool in the Flames before
- 1:34Speaker 1: settling on Cool in the Gang, nineteen sixty eight multi
- 1:37Speaker 1: platinum selling group. The most sampled band of all time,
- 1:41Speaker 1: Cool in the Gang has sold over Get This eighty
- 1:44Speaker 1: million albums worldwide and influencing music of generations with twenty
- 1:49Speaker 1: five top ten R and B hits, nine top ten
- 1:53Speaker 1: pop hits, at thirty one gold and platinum albums. Classics
- 1:58Speaker 1: include the one and Only Jungle Boogie which I just
- 2:02Speaker 1: figured out on my guitar, Hollywood Swinging Ladies' Night, and
- 2:05Speaker 1: the number one hit Celebration. The band were recently inducted
- 2:10Speaker 1: into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Cool's business
- 2:13Speaker 1: ventures include a successful Lay Cool Champagne uh and, with
- 2:18Speaker 1: his departed wife Sekina I hope I got that pronounce
- 2:23Speaker 1: Yester right, it co founded a nonprofit music education initiative,
- 2:28Speaker 1: the Cool Kids Foundation, which is currently overseen by his sons,
- 2:32Speaker 1: Haquem and Mohammad. Just such a pleasure to have you, Robert,
- 2:41Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming. And what do you
- 2:43Speaker 1: remember most about those early days in Jersey City when
- 2:46Speaker 1: when Cool in the Gang was just getting started well.
- 2:50Speaker 2: In Jersey City and also downtown on the Village of
- 2:52Speaker 2: New York. We used to play and uh, you know,
- 2:56Speaker 2: they dropped a little money in the basket, you know
- 2:59Speaker 2: that kind of thing. Who were young having fun at
- 3:01Speaker 2: the time. And then we ended up working over the
- 3:04Speaker 2: Cafe WA in New York where on weekends every Saturday
- 3:10Speaker 2: and Sunday they were having they call who Danny And
- 3:15Speaker 2: that's one different groups like Richie Havens and other artists
- 3:18Speaker 2: were like Starist, but we was like the young artist
- 3:22Speaker 2: going up. So that was the early days working in
- 3:27Speaker 2: New York and New Jersey. And then we used to
- 3:32Speaker 2: work in New Jersey. We came up with the name
- 3:35Speaker 2: the Jazzy Acts, and uh we were into jazz. My
- 3:40Speaker 2: brothers into John Coltrane, d T was Canniball Alley, George Phi,
- 3:47Speaker 2: Philly Jones, Charles West Mctgummy Spike was then too, uh
- 3:53Speaker 2: you have it, and Ricus Herbie Hancott. Yeah, jazz and
- 3:58Speaker 2: I played based. I was with us excuse me on
- 4:03Speaker 2: Carlon jamieson some of the other basics right right.
- 4:08Speaker 1: For those of you listening who do not know, jazz
- 4:11Speaker 1: was very prevalent in the seventies, especially on the East Coast.
- 4:15Speaker 1: I used to spend weekends up in New York City,
- 4:18Speaker 1: My sister was living with a with her boyfriend up there,
- 4:22Speaker 1: and so I used to spend summers up there, and
- 4:24Speaker 1: I used to come up on weekends as well during
- 4:27Speaker 1: school sometimes, and the jazz clubs were filled with great players.
- 4:34Speaker 1: Cafe you mentioned Cafe Wah. I know that was a
- 4:36Speaker 1: very famous spot. Tell us a little bit about Cafe
- 4:39Speaker 1: wa and some of the legends that used to frequent
- 4:42Speaker 1: that place.
- 4:43Speaker 2: Yeah, well, like Ritchie Havens mil came. He played drums. Yeah,
- 4:52Speaker 2: a lot of different lot it was a fun day.
- 4:54Speaker 2: Was on Sunday, right, Okay. I learned how to play
- 5:00Speaker 2: at the bass after my bullet told me you should
- 5:03Speaker 2: try to play the basement this one song, uh as
- 5:07Speaker 2: Caffrey walk now Spike Mickens brother play guitar. So I
- 5:12Speaker 2: learned how to play one song on one string. It
- 5:17Speaker 2: was called coming Home Baby, and all you have to
- 5:20Speaker 2: do is go up and down the East Ring. And
- 5:22Speaker 2: so when I replanted, I said, well don't you try
- 5:25Speaker 2: to playing that one song? I would bout that guy's
- 5:28Speaker 2: base and I did, and that was the beginning of
- 5:32Speaker 2: my bass plan.
- 5:33Speaker 1: Mm hmm. Well you started banding out playing jazz, uh,
- 5:38Speaker 1: how did that evolve in the funk and then the
- 5:40Speaker 1: soul sound.
- 5:41Speaker 2: We know today, well we're playing jazz. But when we
- 5:45Speaker 2: started playing for what happened was there was an organization
- 5:49Speaker 2: in Jersey City, Uh we called so the Souletown Review.
- 5:55Speaker 2: They were trying to be like the Motown Review. So
- 6:00Speaker 2: we became the Soultoime band, and we would have to
- 6:05Speaker 2: learn the various RV song mostly Motown songs, you know,
- 6:10Speaker 2: and that's how the jazz kind of kind of transmitted transits.
- 6:16Speaker 2: This is into the trying this into RV side.
- 6:21Speaker 1: Cooley Gang has been sampled by so many artists from
- 6:26Speaker 1: hip hop to pop, you name it. Do you have
- 6:29Speaker 1: a favorite sample of one of your songs?
- 6:33Speaker 2: I would say some of the Madness because Will Smith
- 6:38Speaker 2: came up with Summer Time, went platinum with number one,
- 6:43Speaker 2: and became a movie star. Right. There's others, I mean,
- 6:48Speaker 2: you know, try called Quest the sample of music, a
- 6:53Speaker 2: lot of other groups sample of music, but that one
- 6:56Speaker 2: Coon sticks out some.
- 6:57Speaker 1: Of Madness and is the idea behind that song. There's
- 7:02Speaker 1: no lyrics, it's just this beautiful, easy listening song. What
- 7:08Speaker 1: inspired that song?
- 7:10Speaker 2: It started off with a song called you Don't Have
- 7:12Speaker 2: to Change Mike Mickens wrote that song and at the
- 7:20Speaker 2: end of the song there was a vam and my
- 7:26Speaker 2: brother was in the studio one day. He said, you
- 7:31Speaker 2: know that vamp. I want to work with that van
- 7:35Speaker 2: and uh. He had just got the art synthesizer, so
- 7:40Speaker 2: he was in there fooling around with it. And that
- 7:43Speaker 2: part that you talked about that and then that became
- 7:50Speaker 2: some of Madness because Spike said, oh he was gay,
- 7:55Speaker 2: all right. I told me we'll call this. He said, well, well,
- 7:58Speaker 2: let's call it some of badness. So we didn't know
- 8:02Speaker 2: that song was gonna be called the Smell it ca.
- 8:06Speaker 2: I mean the movie Rocket, Uh, sevests the onest thing
- 8:12Speaker 2: there across the big the box that have a fight
- 8:16Speaker 2: that next day, and he listened to he listened to
- 8:20Speaker 2: some of that, right, So I went from there to
- 8:23Speaker 2: Will Smith to a lot of people, a lot of
- 8:27Speaker 2: samples on some of that.
- 8:29Speaker 1: Yes, So let's talk about celebration that was in the
- 8:33Speaker 1: season finale of Gilmore Girls, and it's such a timeless anthem. Uh,
- 8:39Speaker 1: did you know that it would become or had the
- 8:42Speaker 1: potential to become the ultimate party song when you were
- 8:45Speaker 1: recording it. Did the producer say anything like, guys, this
- 8:48Speaker 1: thing is just gonna go big. Everybody's gonna want to
- 8:52Speaker 1: play this song at their wedding parties and birthdays and
- 8:56Speaker 1: things like that. Did you guys have any inkling, Well, we.
- 8:59Speaker 2: Really didn't know. The journey started off with Ladies Night. Ladies'
- 9:06Speaker 2: Night was when my wife and I was hanging out
- 9:09Speaker 2: in New York and JG had just joined the band,
- 9:14Speaker 2: and we were at two of fifty four and Regimes
- 9:18Speaker 2: and some of the hotspots in New York, and we
- 9:21Speaker 2: realized that Friday nights the weekend with the Ladies Night.
- 9:26Speaker 2: So I went back to the guys. I said, wow,
- 9:28Speaker 2: you know it's a Ladies Night on the weekends in
- 9:32Speaker 2: New York. And my brother said, wow, there's a Ladies'
- 9:36Speaker 2: Night all over the world. So anyway, fast forward, so
- 9:40Speaker 2: we did Ladis Night. We end up doing two, were
- 9:44Speaker 2: getting two American music wars. I'll know it a Ladies Night.
- 9:49Speaker 2: The end of Ladies Night, this is your night tonight,
- 9:52Speaker 2: come on, it's all celebrate. My brother, Oh there's another song,
- 9:57Speaker 2: and he got together and came up with this concept. Yeah.
- 10:00Speaker 2: Uh he played for us and they had that down
- 10:03Speaker 2: Hall Field to it, you know, uh, and uh that's
- 10:08Speaker 2: how he came up with the celebration part of it all.
- 10:12Speaker 2: You know, that's how Celebration was created. Not knowing we
- 10:18Speaker 2: thought Ladles, you know new Thayer, We thought that that
- 10:22Speaker 2: would be big. It was, but Celebration top of them all.
- 10:37Speaker 1: So of all the hits, which song still feels the
- 10:42Speaker 1: best to play live after all these years?
- 10:45Speaker 2: Best to play live?
- 10:46Speaker 1: Yeah?
- 10:48Speaker 2: Well, two sections one one section of I show I
- 10:51Speaker 2: call it the gang a session. That's when we do
- 10:54Speaker 2: John Go Boogie into Hollywood swing. No, we start with
- 10:58Speaker 2: funky stuff jungle boogie until Holly was swinging and the
- 11:04Speaker 2: story around that. With the record coman, he told us said, listen,
- 11:08Speaker 2: you guys are not really you got territorial hits. There's
- 11:13Speaker 2: a producer out there and there's a record out there
- 11:16Speaker 2: that's song Solvacusa, Mango DeMarco and their producer. They said okay,
- 11:23Speaker 2: So we had a meeting with him. We weren't filling him.
- 11:27Speaker 2: So we went down the baggage downtown New York and
- 11:30Speaker 2: we went in the studio about here o'clock in the morning,
- 11:33Speaker 2: and when we finished, we had created Bunky shir John
- 11:38Speaker 2: Go Boogie in Hollywood Swinging. Now John Go Boogie went
- 11:45Speaker 2: the top five. I believe Holly was swinging with also
- 11:50Speaker 2: in the top five the Funkys there for number one,
- 11:52Speaker 2: R and B for about seven weeks. So when we
- 11:57Speaker 2: play on our show, we played that part jungle boogie,
- 12:01Speaker 2: funcky stuff, jungle boogie. How I was swinging. The crowd
- 12:04Speaker 2: is up, then we slow down, go a little bit
- 12:08Speaker 2: of chairs, a little bit of summer madness, and then
- 12:12Speaker 2: we come back with Ladies Night. Get down on it
- 12:18Speaker 2: in celebration. If you ain't got the people moving by
- 12:21Speaker 2: then those three will get you up out of your seat.
- 12:23Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yes, you will get up.
- 12:28Speaker 2: You know two errors there, right, answer your question?
- 12:32Speaker 1: Right? So you got the van. Just got inducted into
- 12:35Speaker 1: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year. Tell
- 12:37Speaker 1: us if you will, what that moment meant to you personally?
- 12:42Speaker 2: Well me personally, I feel very good about that. Unfortunately,
- 12:49Speaker 2: we all wanted to be in the Wackall Hall of Fame.
- 12:52Speaker 2: All my members have passed, my brother George Brown, all
- 12:55Speaker 2: of them. I was the last minute then so and
- 12:59Speaker 2: then of doing the song with JG. But the thing
- 13:03Speaker 2: about it was that, you know, we had tour with
- 13:08Speaker 2: Elton John. We have been told Elton John Brother, Roger Stewart,
- 13:14Speaker 2: uh and we did the four year shows with Van Halen,
- 13:20Speaker 2: ten shows with kid Ron, Dave matthews Man. He said,
- 13:26Speaker 2: all rock and roll any it called the rock and
- 13:30Speaker 2: Roll Hall Fan. I was born in Yukstown and Cleveland
- 13:36Speaker 2: was right up the street. So I said, how did
- 13:39Speaker 2: I give us no love? I ask you a question.
- 13:43Speaker 2: They finally came and gave us some love. That's what
- 13:46Speaker 2: I felt about that.
- 13:48Speaker 1: It is amazing that it took so long, isn't it?
- 13:51Speaker 2: Yes? It is.
- 13:52Speaker 1: It really is amazing, really is amazing. Why do you
- 13:54Speaker 1: think that is? Why do you think that it took
- 13:57Speaker 1: so long to intuct you in the rock and Roll
- 14:00Speaker 1: Hall of Fame? Because it was it wasn't pure rock.
- 14:04Speaker 1: I mean the umbrella is pretty wide with the rock
- 14:07Speaker 1: and Roll Hall of Fame. Why do you think it
- 14:09Speaker 1: took so long?
- 14:11Speaker 2: Well, you know, you have the fans who vote for you,
- 14:17Speaker 2: and then you have these decision makers. So the behind
- 14:22Speaker 2: the scene guys is one of the big and final
- 14:25Speaker 2: of decision you know, because I mean you had like
- 14:30Speaker 2: try call well not of course, a couple of hip
- 14:34Speaker 2: hop acts Step was in the Alcohol Hall of Fame,
- 14:37Speaker 2: A couple other acts. But we're trying to figure out, well,
- 14:41Speaker 2: why do you think it's so long for us? That's
- 14:44Speaker 2: a good question.
- 14:45Speaker 1: Your songs are among the most recognized, instantly recognizable songs
- 14:51Speaker 1: in the history of modern music and jazz. I mean,
- 14:55Speaker 1: it is confounding, isn't it. It is really confounding. And
- 15:03Speaker 1: by the way, one thing when when I was re
- 15:08Speaker 1: listening to your songs before having you come on, is
- 15:11Speaker 1: the the intros to your song. The instrumental intros to
- 15:15Speaker 1: your song are brilliant. They're just they're like hooks in
- 15:21Speaker 1: and of themselves, so you know exactly what the song is,
- 15:25Speaker 1: you know exactly where you're going. You guys set up
- 15:28Speaker 1: a song better than anyone I've ever heard. You know,
- 15:32Speaker 1: that's really a question to ponder why it took so long.
- 15:36Speaker 1: It's just it's just amazing to me, just just astounding.
- 15:39Speaker 1: I mean, these are easily the most recognizable songs in
- 15:42Speaker 1: the world over the past fifty years.
- 15:45Speaker 2: All of the things, let's cut you off, is that
- 15:48Speaker 2: my mother should tell me, brother this. You always have
- 15:54Speaker 2: to come up with a melody that people can't remember,
- 15:58Speaker 2: you know, And you thought about that, and when you
- 16:02Speaker 2: look at what you know, then you got. Damn you
- 16:16Speaker 2: go to a circuit or whatever you can remember and
- 16:20Speaker 2: come up with memorable hooks.
- 16:22Speaker 1: What you just said, Yeah, just incredible. And when you
- 16:26Speaker 1: hear them, it's like you think, well, why didn't I
- 16:28Speaker 1: think of that? Well, it's because you didn't think of that.
- 16:32Speaker 1: It's it's just like they seem so simple, but they're
- 16:36Speaker 1: so difficult to come up with.
- 16:38Speaker 2: They are.
- 16:39Speaker 1: How would you describe, uh, the creative creative relationship between
- 16:45Speaker 1: you and your brother Ronald over the years. How did
- 16:50Speaker 1: that dynamic work inside the band? Were you guys the
- 16:53Speaker 1: principal songwriters?
- 16:54Speaker 2: Well, my brother in terms of the horns, all the
- 16:58Speaker 2: horn lives, that's what my brother came up with. Wow,
- 17:02Speaker 2: you know. And then uh, you got Charles. Now Charles
- 17:08Speaker 2: he was a Western gummy guy, you know. And you
- 17:11Speaker 2: hear that thumb Sunston too hot now, George rout it okay,
- 17:17Speaker 2: So all of different slavers. It was all about what
- 17:21Speaker 2: cooling gangs about. It was hard to give us the
- 17:24Speaker 2: title so well the full the R and B or
- 17:28Speaker 2: this is this and now they're pop, But we did Johanna,
- 17:32Speaker 2: Oh then they were too bubble of them now, Johanna
- 17:36Speaker 2: the bouncing ball We did what we felt. We wasn't
- 17:44Speaker 2: looking into what people would say about us. We had
- 17:47Speaker 2: a song called Coachy Junkie in a Country Junkie. So
- 17:55Speaker 2: we just did what we felt. We didn't tell to
- 17:58Speaker 2: go by what people say, well we should be, We
- 18:00Speaker 2: just didn't and it helped us a listen for that.
- 18:04Speaker 1: So it seems like when I'm listening to these songs,
- 18:08Speaker 1: the musical i Q of the band members is so high.
- 18:14Speaker 1: Did you did all of you guys study uh composition?
- 18:19Speaker 1: Did you study jazz or did you just grow up
- 18:22Speaker 1: listening to jazz and have this sort of innate talent
- 18:25Speaker 1: to incorporate it into your music? Which one?
- 18:30Speaker 2: We grew up listening to jazz, listening to R and
- 18:34Speaker 2: B and uh. We told each other, like Charles, my
- 18:38Speaker 2: guitar player, just show me here's a little line. But
- 18:42Speaker 2: it's a line. Uh, the Halls would do something intil
- 18:46Speaker 2: hobby to play it or whatever, or Mickey West. It
- 18:50Speaker 2: was just it was imagic that, you know, hard to
- 18:54Speaker 2: explain right what we would do. I mean, he's talking
- 18:57Speaker 2: about left the music, mind, love and understanding and who's
- 19:05Speaker 2: gonna take the weight? That's all different scenarios there. Who's
- 19:10Speaker 2: gonna take the weight. That's the whole story. Yeah, so
- 19:17Speaker 2: we were blessed for that. And then like with Ladies
- 19:19Speaker 2: Night and uh pobs about George and the girlfriend they
- 19:23Speaker 2: broke up seven feel high schools. He goes, that's all
- 19:29Speaker 2: by himself because he's the only one one to that.
- 19:32Speaker 2: So that's how you know, opens opens. Yeah, every fun
- 19:39Speaker 2: and fire that was like had the dominant horn you know,
- 19:43Speaker 2: yeah fire horn line, you know, and you compete with that.
- 19:48Speaker 2: So my brother came up with an idea and that
- 19:50Speaker 2: was what open. He said, We're gonna keep it on
- 19:54Speaker 2: the dance vibe, We're gonna swing it, but we're gonna
- 19:58Speaker 2: compete with whoever's out there. That that said, people say,
- 20:06Speaker 2: who couldn't even play that? What is they playing? What
- 20:09Speaker 2: is that end up being? In Saturday Night Fever sold
- 20:14Speaker 2: over twenty million, a record until Michael Jackson came along
- 20:16Speaker 2: with Dweller's Got's a Blessing? What can I say?
- 20:21Speaker 1: H Let me ask you this, when when you look
- 20:34Speaker 1: at how Funk and R and B have evolved, what
- 20:39Speaker 1: do you think is the biggest influence Cooling the Gang
- 20:44Speaker 1: left on the artists of today.
- 20:48Speaker 2: Well, I would say a style of thought when you
- 20:56Speaker 2: sounds like someone just asked me about that. At the
- 20:58Speaker 2: other day, Funcky Glenny said, what the hell is monkey Glenny?
- 21:03Speaker 2: Monky man? All those facts see it to an equility
- 21:08Speaker 2: breeds in soul. We just mixed it up UK with
- 21:14Speaker 2: a lot of bands. Study what we did. You know
- 21:17Speaker 2: I got I have to take my head off. George Clinton,
- 21:20Speaker 2: he calls us the master of the p phon and
- 21:24Speaker 2: we were the master of the p pong too. But
- 21:26Speaker 2: we can go out to the cherish. I wouldn't go
- 21:29Speaker 2: into rush. Oh we can go into too hot. We
- 21:33Speaker 2: can go into emergency. Rey Kaye's answer, You know, we.
- 21:38Speaker 1: Just did what we fell just a bunch of really
- 21:42Speaker 1: talented players putting it together in rehearsal and coming up
- 21:47Speaker 1: with great stuff. Huh. How often did you rehearse in
- 21:53Speaker 1: the early days did you Were you rehearsing all the time.
- 21:56Speaker 2: In earlier days? Yeah, yeah, put it all together right. Uh.
- 22:00Speaker 2: And the latter days on the road, we would do
- 22:03Speaker 2: like rehearsal at soundcheck. The soundcheck was almost like a rehearsal, sure,
- 22:09Speaker 2: and certain songs came from a soundcheck, like Reggae Danson
- 22:13Speaker 2: soundcheck and my other brother Mia started playing that little track,
- 22:17Speaker 2: you know, and then we came up with everybody was
- 22:21Speaker 2: just you know, uh chime in and then they're like,
- 22:26Speaker 2: oh lah, check it. You know, it was magic that
- 22:31Speaker 2: just happened. And that's what happened.
- 22:34Speaker 1: You also have an incredible foundation, the Cool Kids Foundation.
- 22:39Speaker 1: What kind of impact you seeing through the music education
- 22:42Speaker 1: programs your family runs.
- 22:44Speaker 2: But what happened was my wife, who up passed eight
- 22:48Speaker 2: years ago, she asked me, how come they don't have
- 22:52Speaker 2: music in the schools. So I was on the road
- 22:56Speaker 2: a lot, so I thought about it, and she was
- 22:59Speaker 2: doing trying to put something together locally, and uh, I said, well,
- 23:04Speaker 2: you you know what I said. When we were coming
- 23:07Speaker 2: up through grammar school, there was music in the school,
- 23:10Speaker 2: there were music teachers. You go in and uh yeah,
- 23:15Speaker 2: you uh pick up an instrument and you take it
- 23:19Speaker 2: home and etcetera extension that wasn't happening. I mean, I
- 23:24Speaker 2: had a melophone. I said, I ain't messing with that.
- 23:26Speaker 2: That's the one like a French hall. I said, I'll
- 23:28Speaker 2: bust my lip all of them. I took the violin.
- 23:34Speaker 2: I couldn't quite get into that. Couldn't quite get into that,
- 23:39Speaker 2: you know, I remember the base but one music was
- 23:44Speaker 2: in school. School. So that's when I came up with
- 23:49Speaker 2: a concept. Idea said called school to stay is cool?
- 23:52Speaker 2: Excuse me to stay in school? Chilli Coke get to
- 23:57Speaker 2: the table. I said, yeah, we like to prom was that?
- 24:00Speaker 2: So we did forty two City four and all those
- 24:05Speaker 2: kids that had good grades and uh nothing playing not playing,
- 24:12Speaker 2: I hope you from school and all that stuff. We
- 24:15Speaker 2: would meet them on the meet and greet and after
- 24:17Speaker 2: them and at the meet and greet, uh, four guys
- 24:23Speaker 2: came up to us and said, yeah, we're doing good
- 24:27Speaker 2: in school, but we want to sing something. And so
- 24:31Speaker 2: I said, okay, we listen, and they did a cappella
- 24:34Speaker 2: on four songs. You know that group became colored me bad,
- 24:41Speaker 2: I want to sex you up. All that was about
- 24:44Speaker 2: the school thing. So that's what my wife wanted to
- 24:47Speaker 2: bring back so far. Next year will be our seventh
- 24:51Speaker 2: Cool Kids Foundation. We're donating knowing into the schools, the
- 24:54Speaker 2: marching bands. Uh that's the whole thing about Cool Kids Foundation.
- 25:00Speaker 1: I want to ask you about Jungle Boogie. Tell tell
- 25:02Speaker 1: me about how that jam came about, because that is
- 25:05Speaker 1: just deadly. That is just the most lethal piece of music.
- 25:09Speaker 1: I think coming out one of the most lethal pieces
- 25:12Speaker 1: of music coming out of the seventies. It's just so
- 25:15Speaker 1: incredibly rich. How'd that happen?
- 25:20Speaker 2: We were under pressure. The record company came to us
- 25:23Speaker 2: and said, yeah, you guys got territorial hits Connecticut, maybe Virginia,
- 25:29Speaker 2: Jersey and the Soma. So we'd say, Okay, we're gonna
- 25:37Speaker 2: create our own so not that we're trying to do with,
- 25:42Speaker 2: but there is and the Prussia we will song about.
- 25:47Speaker 2: Let get your back of all the wall? How bad
- 25:49Speaker 2: was on the wall? Okay, that's how y'all feel? And
- 25:52Speaker 2: Joe Oboden was the first one check this out, came
- 25:57Speaker 2: over them all line, we came up with it all
- 26:01Speaker 2: came together. It wasn't like a complicated song with a
- 26:05Speaker 2: lot of lyric ability.
- 26:06Speaker 1: It was no, it was you didn't need it with
- 26:10Speaker 1: with that riff, you just need to repeat it.
- 26:13Speaker 2: Yeah, that was We have fun play.
- 26:16Speaker 1: And when do you play that in your set? And
- 26:19Speaker 1: what is the reaction in the crowd when you play that?
- 26:22Speaker 1: When do you usual? Where do you have that on
- 26:24Speaker 1: the set list?
- 26:25Speaker 2: Close to the middle of the set?
- 26:27Speaker 1: Middle?
- 26:27Speaker 2: Okay, when we go to the funk stuff. We played
- 26:32Speaker 2: funky stuff, jungle boogie, Hollywood swing, you know, and we
- 26:39Speaker 2: got them and that's that's the funky side. Then we
- 26:43Speaker 2: go through some of that and then we come to
- 26:44Speaker 2: the end. But yeah, they really those songs. Sometimes a
- 26:48Speaker 2: song and in the biggests something else. Yeah.
- 26:54Speaker 1: So yeah, people tell you after the show, like like
- 26:56Speaker 1: when you guys went into jungle boogie, that was like
- 26:59Speaker 1: a moment for me, you know, right swinging to right.
- 27:05Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, So when when you look.
- 27:08Speaker 1: Back on well not you let me rephrase this. When
- 27:12Speaker 1: people look back on cool in the Gang, let's say
- 27:16Speaker 1: one hundred years from now, what do you hope they
- 27:19Speaker 1: remember Robert.
- 27:22Speaker 2: Well, some young guys from Jersey City coming up to
- 27:27Speaker 2: JAD coming up through a R and B p H.
- 27:32Speaker 2: We'll go to pop. Actually they call those pop outs,
- 27:38Speaker 2: you know, I mean top ten pop records, you know,
- 27:41Speaker 2: and it's like, I guess, slice it in something, Well,
- 27:46Speaker 2: you can make it if you try. We never gave up.
- 27:49Speaker 2: That's the same thing with the cool kids. You can
- 27:52Speaker 2: become somebody. That's what the foundation is about, right, That's
- 27:56Speaker 2: why we help them because a lot of the programs
- 27:57Speaker 2: are not in school anymore. Right, So that kind of
- 28:01Speaker 2: a thing. Uh. We had songs like Love and Understanding,
- 28:06Speaker 2: which was a big record for us, and uh, you
- 28:10Speaker 2: know you need more love today, you need more understanding today.
- 28:17Speaker 2: Look at what we're dealing with today. We had a
- 28:21Speaker 2: song called music is the Message that sings universal love
- 28:25Speaker 2: for what and all. We were dropping some messages there.
- 28:29Speaker 2: They were all about bump, you're closer, saying that's what
- 28:34Speaker 2: I want people to know.
- 28:36Speaker 1: Beautiful. So you're on tour, tell me what we can
- 28:40Speaker 1: expect and where we can see you.
- 28:44Speaker 2: Well, we just did thirty days in Europe just past
- 28:48Speaker 2: July and August, and we're going out again next year.
- 28:55Speaker 2: And h we have a concept I do anyway, the
- 29:00Speaker 2: Cool Champagne and I have to do with Akatron watches
- 29:05Speaker 2: the Cool Champagne and Akatron possesses the Cooling game Rock
- 29:11Speaker 2: the World Tour and I got a part to it.
- 29:15Speaker 2: What I want to do ten classical shows, a classic
- 29:21Speaker 2: evening with cool in the game. Because we've played with
- 29:23Speaker 2: Philemon books, so we want to pick ten cities. Well,
- 29:28Speaker 2: we bring on sixty piece office. Wow. Also because we've
- 29:33Speaker 2: done them already, Wow, we want to do them again.
- 29:36Speaker 1: Next year coming to California. You're coming to Southern California.
- 29:39Speaker 2: Yeah, we played with down Walk down there with orchestra.
- 29:43Speaker 1: All right, we gotta come out and see you if
- 29:46Speaker 1: you come to Southern California, we gotta come out and
- 29:48Speaker 1: see you because that would be an incredible show. And yeah,
- 29:52Speaker 1: you also have your your lay cool Champagne. Uh where
- 29:57Speaker 1: can people get this?
- 30:00Speaker 2: Well, right now, you can get it online who Champagne
- 30:05Speaker 2: dot com. Well it's sanatorial as who get into Champagne
- 30:10Speaker 2: in different states? Right now? We have a new Jersey,
- 30:15Speaker 2: we have Florida. We're working back again in Ohio, Las Vegas.
- 30:23Speaker 2: You know, we're building the market.
- 30:26Speaker 1: Robert, thank you so much for taking the time talking
- 30:28Speaker 1: to us. You are a legend and Cooling the Gang
- 30:34Speaker 1: is probably the coolest band coming out of the seventies.
- 30:38Speaker 1: Just incredible music, incredible guys, and uh and thank you
- 30:43Speaker 1: for all you do and keep doing it. And that's
- 30:47Speaker 1: going to wrap us here on on this segment. And uh,
- 30:51Speaker 1: Robert cool Bell, thank you Sarah for joining us, and
- 30:56Speaker 1: thanks to the best fans on the planet. Keep the
- 30:58Speaker 1: downloads coming, cards and letters, and remember where you lead,
- 31:02Speaker 1: we will follow. Stay safe everyone, Let's keep and let's
- 31:07Speaker 1: keep the funk. Alive, absolutely everybody, and don't forget. Follow
- 31:41Speaker 1: us on Instagram at I Am all In podcast and
- 31:45Speaker 1: email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com