Song of the Day 8/9: Kool & the Gang, “Get Down on It”
Dennis “D.T.” Thomas, alto saxophone player and founding member of Kool & the Gang, died Saturday, and while the obituaries listed the band’s numerous hit records and various lifetime achievement awards, one honor was conspicuous by its absence: They are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
My theory about Hall of Fame snubs is that the poobahs in charge are reluctant to give a platform to — well, I’ll call them prickly personalities, but in the vernacular, they’re raging assholes. Sure, the Smiths are over-qualified for induction, but nobody wants to deal with Morrissey. For years, Yes couldn’t get in, and I predicted they’d be snubbed until the death of bass player Chris Squire, whom just about everybody, including his bandmates, found insufferable. Sure enough, Squire died in 2015 and Yes was inducted less than two years later.
But none of that explains the snub of Kool & the Gang, though again I have a theory. Earth, Wind & Fire is the only band with a lot of disco hits that’s been inducted. Granted, most disco bands were one-hit wonders (or, in the case of KC and the Sunshine Band, several hits that all sounded the same), but EWF and Kool & the Gang were among the few disco bands with staying power. They also stood out because of their pre-disco funk bona fides. The best explanation I can come up with is that most rock critics hated disco, so there’s a pro forma quota in effect, and EWF fills it. (The only other difference I can determine is that EWF was with industry titan Warner Bros., while K&TG were on the smaller R&B De-Lite label; yes, the people involved are petty enough for that to make a difference). Still, the genre-wide snub of disco stands out because other genres dominated by Black groups, like rap and doo-wop are, if anything, over-represented.
In short, the two bands are basically equal, though if forced to choose I’d take K&TG, mainly because they’re funkier.
Back when I was on the radio, this was the theme song for my regular Friday show with Minister of Culture Gary Mullinax.
All these years I never knew Chris Squire was considered to be an asshole. I even saw Yes once and he just shut up and played.
Big ego, in a band full of them. Various musicians in various incarnations of Yes didn’t like each other, but Squire was notorious for making everyone wait for him; Bill Buford supposedly quit the band over it. Maybe the poobahs were afraid he’d hold up the induction concert wrangling with the sound engineers over his bass tone.
Also, too, this was a man who wore a cape, unironically, and not just on stage.
I always considered Kool & The Gang more funk than disco.
Meaning, I liked them. They should’ve been in long ago.