Funk gods deliver “Get Down on it,” “Jungle Boogie,” “Hollywood Swinging,” “Ladies’ Night” and, of course, “Celebration”
Thirty years after first being eligible for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, funk gods Kool & the Gang were finally inducted at a ceremony in Cleveland on Saturday night. The group that wrote “Celebration” naturally was one of the most exuberant performers of the night, drawing from both the 1970s and Eighties to deliver a hits-laden set.
Robert “Kool” Bell, the group’s co-founder, opened the medley by taking center stage for “Hollywood Swinging” before vocalist James “JT” Taylor appeared for their 1981 smash “Get Down on It.” Taylor and Bell almost never perform together anymore, so to watch the interplay of the two was as exhilarating as it was rare.
Backed by a massive horn section, Questlove on drums, and a phalanx of exuberant dancers, Taylor and Bell performed joyful renditions of “Ladies’ Night” and “Jungle Boogie” before the obvious closer of “Celebration.” The jovial ending saw everyone from Q-Tip to Sammy Hagar to Jelly Roll on their feet and dancing.
The Rock Hall inducted Taylor, who sang the group’s biggest hits from 1979 to 1988, and Bell alongside founding members Ronald Bell, Dennis Thomas, George Brown, Claydes Smith, Richard Westfield, and Robert Mickens.
It’s a bittersweet moment for the surviving members. Three founding members – Brown, Dennis “Dee Tee” Thomas, and Ronald Bell – have all died in the past three years. “We the last of those members,” Robert Bell says. “The only ones left are me from the Seventies and Eighties and JT from the Eighties. That’s it.”
“It’s emotional for me. I think about my mom,” Taylor told Rolling Stone earlier this year. “I think about her sacrifices. A young mother who was widowed in her forties. This is her award. I think about my grandparents and my sisters who sang with me when it was raining and we couldn’t go out … it’s humbling. It’s exciting. It makes me proud.”
