Live at the Sex Machine [Live] [Original recording remastered]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
This live outing shows Kool & The Gang in their infancy. Formed as a jazz group, they quickly evolved into a horn-based club band playing hits of the day along with their own original songs, and this package represents them at this embryonic stage in their career. The only significant hit here is the preachy "Who's Gonna Take the Weight," which became a Top 5 R&B hit. The rest of the album shifts between jazzy instrumentals, dance floor jams, and contemporary R&B covers from the early '70s. A fine live representation of the band before they broke through in 1973, this is still the portrait of a band in search of an identity and sound that they hadn't quite discovered. --Tom Vickers

Live at the Sex Machine,Kool & the Gang,Polygram Records,Funk,Pop,R&B,Soul-Jazz,Soul/R & B,Soul/Reggae/Rhythm & Blues,Urban

Tracks:

What Would The World Be Like Without Music/Let The Music Take Your Mind Medley
Walk On By
Chocolate Buttermilk
Trying To Make A Fool Of Me
Who's Gonna Take The Weight
Pneumonia
Wichita Lineman
I Want To Take You Higher
Funky Man
The Touch Of You
Kool It (Here Comes The Fuzz)

Amazon.com

This live outing shows Kool & The Gang in their infancy. Formed as a jazz group, they quickly evolved into a horn-based club band playing hits of the day along with their own original songs, and this package represents them at this embryonic stage in their career. The only significant hit here is the preachy "Who's Gonna Take the Weight," which became a Top 5 R&B hit. The rest of the album shifts between jazzy instrumentals, dance floor jams, and contemporary R&B covers from the early '70s. A fine live representation of the band before they broke through in 1973, this is still the portrait of a band in search of an identity and sound that they hadn't quite discovered. --Tom Vickers

Customer Reviews:

Kool & the Gang Live and Funky.......2002-07-15

This is an excellent sample of the original Kool and the Gang (pre J.T. Taylor) with a raw, jazzy, and funky set. Recorded in 1970 (and released the following February), this features some excellent instrumentals and a nice streetwise vibe that captures the mood of the era (althlough it still sounds very good today). The rendition of "Trying to Make a Fool of Me" sounds like a Black college marching band playing during the halftime crowing of the homecomeing queen (which is not a bad thing). But the covers of "Walk on By" and "Wichita Lineman" add some creative, jazzy improvisation that takes these songs to another dimension. "Who's Going To Take The Weight" is the fisrst of the gang's message songs, but it doesn't beat you over the head like many others from that time, and the previously unreleased "Kool It, Here Comes the Fuzz" sounds like the soundtrack to a Black exploitation film (some two years before the genre began). This wonderful live set does the amazing feat of capturing the mood of the era while still sounding enjoyable today.

R&B Music:

R&B Music

r&b music

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