Best of Kool & The Gang: 1969-1976

Kool & The Gang | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 18, 1993)
• Original Release Date: May 18, 1993
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Island / Mercury
• ASIN: B000001DYO
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,714 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Absolute CREAM!, April 19, 2004

By 

Campbell Roark "tri-zeta" (from under the floorboards and through the woods...) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best of Kool & The Gang: 1969-1976 (Audio CD)

This is it- if you love the funk. I'm the Robot from Lost in sPace waving jointless arms and intoning, "STOP. GO NO FURTHER."

Real funk, like real women, be hard to come by. This is the Spot. Only Kool and the Gang can do strings as funky as this- strings I say! Hey now- it's got Jungle Boogie. Bang. It's got the blissed out funk. It's got breakdowns the likes of which you have never heard! It's got the banging instrumentals (Chocolate Buttermilk, Give it up). It's got the laid back mellowness (Summer Madness- revamped by the fresh prince half a generation ago for 'summertime,' and immortalized in Rocky a generation and a half ago). IT"S GOT THEM DRUMS- the hop, skip and a bump, slamminest, bamminest beatfest. And the bass to wedge a pneumatic drill into your hips. It's got the kind of sax that could percolate the La Brea Tar Pits into some lavalamp waterbed of funk! Just stretch out on `em and nod along with those sabre tooth tiger skeletons! Yeah cat!

One minor thang- many of the songs are the shorter versions. Oh well. Can't have it all.

Anyway. This is the best of Kool and the Gang before JJ Taylor drove the band into the everlovin' ground. (Think Cherish. Think Celebrate. Think Joanna- my wife's middle name is Joanna. I still hate that name. Mr. Taylor's saccharine ass music done ruined my wife's middle name for me).

Buy it for the drums. And the sax. and the bass. And the cowbells. Just buy this damn album. Don't make me beg! And don't listen only to the five samples that amazon has allowed to be up in here. they won't do much for you, the better tracks are the later ones.

And hey- If you love hip hop, or if you own Paul's Boutique, the Beasties best frikkin album and maybe the world's as well- I can place at least ten samples to this album. Check it out!!!!!!!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great collection. Funky Stuff, to be sure!, April 9, 2000

By 

Eric V. Moye (New York, by way of Dallas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best of Kool & The Gang: 1969-1976 (Audio CD)

This is one of those albums that is de rigeur for one of those great weekend reunions with your pals from the days gone by. It will make you get up and dance, and is more delightful if you have not heard these cuts in a few years (or decades).

Kool and the Gang were as funky as anyone this side of Sly Stone back in their day. This has so much of the better stuff from that time, like "Hollywood Swinging", "Funky Stuff" and my personal favorite, "Who's Gonna Take The Weight" (both parts).

The clapping and whistle which starts "Funky Stuff" is like a clarion call to start a monster, all day (or night) jam. All Hollywood-style swangin'

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nipping at the Godfather's heels, June 26, 2000

By 

Dave Wade (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best of Kool & The Gang: 1969-1976 (Audio CD)

I was a funk and R&B child. In the 70's, my dad had the good sense to expose me to some stellar stuff...Earth Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder, The Chi-lites, Barry White, Aretha, Marvin, Jackson Five, Soul Brother #1 (of course) and also some lesser know acts such as Bohannon, BT Express, Eric Gale, and Johnny Guitar Watson to name a few. For whatever reason, I don't remember hearing any early Kool & the Gang wafting through the house. Dad was slipping! It wasn't until my early 20's that I picked up this essential collection. Listening to it, I felt utterly ashamed...What took me so long? It was like hip-hop sample headquarters. While listening, I must have yelled out "Hey..I know that bit! " at least half a dozen times. Funk is a played-out term nowadays. Slap bass and/or a heavy beat doesn't necessarily make something funky. Funk is about timing and nuance. It's about exploiting the possibilities. That's why Led Zeppelin (not a funk act) could, at times, be just as funky as say, The Meters (bonafide funk hall-of-famers). I will say this....after James Brown, there is Kool and the Gang. They are second only to him (James even says so in the liner notes and I agree). The only thing Kool and the Gang didn't possess was the secret weapon....James himself. K&TG drummer George Brown is theirs. A canny, dynamic percussionist who is one of the greats...right up there with Maurice White (EW&F), Greg Errico (Sly), Clyde Subbelfield/Jabo Starks (JB drummers) and Harvey Mason (Headhunters). Add to that Kool's lewd, throbbing bass and the most sparkling brass you'll ever hear and you have funk nirvana. Here's one good example among many...When purchased, put on the headphones and turn up "Love the Life You Live." Pay special attention to the last minute and a half, right after the solo rhythm guitar part. It is total bliss. If you're into funk, soul or hip-hop, you cannot be without this. It'll make you cringe every time you hear "Joanna."