WEBVTT - Questlove Supreme: George Brown Of Kool & The Gang Part 1 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.040 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:13.480 Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another episode of Quest Love Supreme. 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:15.040 I'm your host Quest Love Supreme. 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:20.000 With me, we have the strongest, the strongest team in 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:22.560 the land, of course, Team Supreme. 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:25.440 Are you walking on the moon right now, Sugar Steve? 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:29.200 That's correct, Yes, the moon. 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:30.880 That's where you're at. Okay, you're walking on the moon. 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:33.080 We also gotta lie you with us. 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:36.080 What up, Quest Love Supreme? How are you doing? I said, 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:37.319 is this the name now? 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:39.280 Oh? 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:41.040 Because she was like, welcome to Quest Love Supreme. I 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:42.440 am Quest Love Supreme. 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:44.120 Yes you are, and you. 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:48.720 Are I I embodied theing tired. 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:51.120 Sorry that's what it is. 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:57.400 Sorry, Uh, I know he is working extremely hard. Future episodes. 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:01.680 We're getting ready for another round of in person episodes 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:03.400 for the for course of Supreme. 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:07.119 So you know, oh yeah, l a edition. Yes, it's 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:10.640 going to be exciting. Fon tikeolo, what's going on? 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:10.920 Man? 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:12.720 New bombs on this? 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:13.080 Man? 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:15.560 I gotta say, yeah, man, thank you? 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:17.920 Where did this come from? What you know? You gotta 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:18.760 you gotta like me? 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:19.040 Where? 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:19.880 Where where did this? 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:20.400 Uh? 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:22.399 The spark of an idea come from? 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:22.760 Who? 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:24.479 And I you know, we've just been for the last 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:27.640 couple of years, been working really hard, like on the documentary. 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:28.120 Uh. 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:30.479 And then also you know, playing a block party made 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:34.720 in Durham, uh October seventh. But uh but nah man, 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:37.240 we just I missed the chair, bro, I missed being 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:40.600 in the chair, I missed recording and so were just like, yo, 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:42.480 let's just go cook up, like we just wanted to 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:44.200 have some fun and just you know, let them go. 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.160 Those records they're out now. Wish me well, Glory Glory 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:49.840 is out on all platforms. But those records ain't even 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:52.120 they ain't even three weeks o. Maybe a little over 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:54.200 two weeks though, like they fresh fresh, we just. 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:57.360 Finish Wow fresh fresh otter other all right, that's. 0:01:57.280 --> 0:01:57.920 Just exciting to me. 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:00.720 That's more exciting and recording something and where for like 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:03.560 you know, however long making the year cycle to get it. 0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:06.360 Nah, bro, cook it up, let it go. 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:09.840 That's what's up, yo. Today is going to be an 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:15.520 awesome episode. I will say that for the Wow six, 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:20.680 for the last six decades, our Guests has literally been 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:29.000 the heartbeat of Jersey City's finest musical unit. Jersey City 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:32.400 is probably the most diverse unit they pretty much changed 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:38.600 music numerous numerous times. Kind of going through a metamorphosis 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:44.360 period really not afforded to any artist, maybe close to 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:48.560 Miles Davis in terms of going through different phases. Of course, 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.320 you know their late sixties early seventies soul phase. 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:54.840 And then we got the. 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:58.480 Mid seventies funk phase and then exploding into the disco scene, 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:02.680 adjusting to it well enough to guard them a Grammy 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:05.480 Album of the Year, not for their participation in the 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:10.760 inescapable Mammoth soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever and then riding 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:14.680 off successfully into the eighties with just an unprecedented streak 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:21.720 of really perfect dance pop classics. In my opinion, this 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:26.280 unit known as Cool and the Gang is the dream 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:30.679 as far as legacies can turn like, dabbling in many genres, 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:34.040 and of course, with this being the hip hop's fiftieth 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:40.080 anniversary and our brother Lovlily known as Funky George being 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:45.120 part of the unit that's probably the most sampled I 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:48.480 didn't realize that Coolnan Gang is the most sampled band 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:51.800 in hip hop. That's an honor, so that means that 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.760 they also changed hip hop. What we have him here today. 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:56.160 We hope to go. 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:58.240 Through his history and his legacy. 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:01.640 The One and only Funky George, Funky George Brown of 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:02.360 Cool the Gang. 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:05.560 Welcome to course, loves degree, How you doing. 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:07.400 Nice to be here, quess. 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:08.200 Great to have you. 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:09.600 Where are you talking to us right now? 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:10.520 From where are you? 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:19.120 Woodland Hills, California? The valley? Okay, you know Calabasa's Tasannah 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:21.120 that area Woodland. 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:23.560 Hills, so literally Hollywood Swing. And how how long have 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:24.640 you been out there? 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.880 I've been here thirty seven years? You know. My band 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:31.200 members would actually say when you're coming back home, when 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:33.400 you're going back to Jersey, you know, So it was 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.640 used to be a running joke. But love it out here. 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:42.560 Right before the pandemic, we were privy to a series 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:50.840 of animated shorts that basically told the story of the 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:53.600 band's origins and their very beginning before they got a 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:59.479 record deal, these little animated minustitials, and to me that 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:02.080 was one of the most at least as as a 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:04.880 as a music head, that was one of the most 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:07.640 incredible things I've ever seen, because, you know, a lot 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:10.440 of the favorites that we grow up with really aren't 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:14.360 afforded much information, especially for like groups in the seventies 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.320 and eighties, like you guys are given the fair level 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:20.520 playing field of your you know, your your peers that 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:25.479 get access to mainstream press. So I knew nothing about 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:27.960 the history of the band. You guys were like rigorously 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:29.400 honest about your beginnings. 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:30.760 I didn't know that. 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:33.640 You know, when we're talking about Cool in the gang, 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:36.640 that Cool was like a leader of a gang. You know, 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:39.320 most most most bands I know, starting church and all 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:41.880 that stuff. So well, first of all, where where were 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:44.160 you born? I assume that is Jersey City. I don't know, 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:49.120 I could be wrong. Okay, that's where you were born, Yes, sir, 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:54.160 so you were first generation Northeast family. Most most soul 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:57.200 acts I know come from the South and then they 0:05:57.279 --> 0:05:59.559 migrate up north. But you were born in Jersey City, 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:02.919 Jersey City, okay, So could you just give me a 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:07.080 description of what Jersey City was like for you in 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:10.919 your childhood, at least for those formative years before you 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.400 started discovering your talent. 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:16.159 You know, we're going back one hundred and fifty years, 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:19.600 you know, so it's kind of hard for me to remember. 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:25.359 You know what you can't remember the blacksmith shorting Norse 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:29.800 the shoes, right, right right, you know, and the guy's 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:33.599 pumping the water when it was a fire so long ago. 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:39.760 But Sugar, he's in jerseys He's in Steve Right. Hoboken. 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:45.840 Jersey City and Hoboken were very alike at that time, 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:49.560 Jersey City being the second largest city in New Jersey, 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:56.880 it was a basically a working class town, quiet working 0:06:56.920 --> 0:06:58.600 class town. I got. 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:00.960 I got to put more respect on it because I think, 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:03.800 you know, I mean, I'm not a New Yorker, even 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:07.560 though I've been here long enough to kind of claim it. 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:09.120 I think I should be here for twenty years before 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:11.640 I say I'm a New Yorker. But you know, a 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:14.800 lot of times, even as a Philadelphia, Jersey's just like 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:19.240 over there, you know, from New York, Jersey, Jersey's over there. 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:21.880 The amount of talent that came out of Jersey City 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:25.920 and New Jersey is a mind boggling. I mean, you 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:31.560 got count Basie. It's just for one like Sonata, you know, 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:32.280 so on. 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.200 This is Jersey City, Jersey, This is just Jersey. 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.600 But out of Jersey City too, you got people like 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:46.760 Nick Adams, Brenda Ver, Carol Coolerni, Gang, Roy Hamilton. It 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:47.920 just goes on and on. 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:51.120 Roy Hamilton, Roy Hamilton's don't let go Roy Hamilton. 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:51.520 Okay. 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:54.680 Yeah. So there's a pluffer of talents that came out 0:07:54.680 --> 0:08:02.080 of Jersey City, proper, the Duprees, the spell Buy okay, yeah, 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:06.800 because you know I know those names and those you know, 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:10.160 like if you if you count Duke by himself, I mean, 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:14.160 we wouldn't be playing anything if it was not for 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:18.760 a Duke Ellington, you know. So it's it's amazing, no 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:22.200 fronk snosa. You know they came with it. 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:27.080 How old were you when you discovered your talent for 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:27.679 the drums? 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:33.560 I think it discovered me. It discovered me because you 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:37.559 know I stop on the table with spoons and forks. 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:40.920 You know, I just took it to the next level, 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:44.800 just intuitively. I just took it and said, hey, you know, 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:49.120 let me go take some lessons. But mind you, we 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:53.800 were so poor that we can only afford a couple 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:57.440 of lessons. That's three dollars a lesson. So there was 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:02.720 a gentleman named Joe to play behind the sirolls. I 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:06.920 went to him up on Newark Avenue in Jersey City, 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:10.360 and he like, sit down here, it's a practice pad. 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:15.520 I take these sticks, show me something, and it wasn't 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:18.960 a massester standing grip, wasn't a match grip. And he said, hey, 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:24.000 you're you're pretty much a natural. And second lesson three 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:28.600 bucks and I got the Buddy Rich sixteen Sensor Rudiment 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:32.120 Book and took it from there and from that point 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:34.560 on it you know, it was like by the time 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:38.480 I reached to thirteen fourteen, I met Ronald Bell and 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:42.080 Robert Mickens and Ricky Westfield and we started the Jazz 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:46.439 Birds because we're all deep into jazz at the time, 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:51.680 which is a main foundation of cooling a gang. So 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:57.440 John Coltrane and Charlie Parker, Lee Morgan, a Buddy Rich, 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:02.080 you know, all the grace at that time. You know, 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:06.760 we were into and we'd sit and listen to all 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:08.120 those jazz albums. 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:11.520 So at the time, though, and assuming that this is 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:16.880 the early sixties or mid sixties, you know, were you 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:20.800 aware of the pop landscape or the soul landscape? 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:25.240 We were totally aware of, you know, what was happening 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:31.320 pop wise and what was happening jazz wise. Because we 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:35.320 would do little shrawets and we'd have to play the 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:38.440 music of the day. You know, nobody wanted to hear 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:43.440 a bag's groove, who do lead? You know, blah blah dah. 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:45.760 They didn't want to hear that. The kids. They wanted 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:50.720 to hear the hunter gets captured by the games. Boom boom, boom, 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:54.960 body bone, a lot of stuff. So we knew that too. 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:57.280 Yeah, I was going to say that, you know, for 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:01.040 our listeners that don't know that, you know, in the 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:05.800 early period of jazz, which was more danceable, then this 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:08.839 virtuoso face starts where the music gets faster and it's 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:12.040 more about the solos and kind of more about sit 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:14.559 down and watch us play as opposed to like us 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:17.240 being a wedding band or a jukebox per se. But 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:20.200 you know, every one of my heroes and idols in 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:24.280 funk music that tells me about their beginnings in jazz. 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:27.960 Most of them sort of had a condescending attitude towards 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:30.559 soul and pop music. But I know that you guys 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:34.640 were younger, so you weren't like looking down on it 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:37.720 because you guys were teenagers. But I mean, how common 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:41.599 was it for and having heard like especially like the 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:43.760 jazz chops on the first two records, you guys were 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:47.720 still teenagers. How common was it for teenagers to be 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:53.440 that to have that virtuoso level of musicianship during that 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:54.480 time period. 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:57.600 The con words are being virtual. Also, it wasn't common 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:04.080 at all, you know. How. Also was that we played 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:09.840 almost nightly, and Newark would play at the Blue Note 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:16.240 and NewYork would play Tuesday through Sunday nine pm to 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:18.920 two am. And what we were playing was all the 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:24.160 popular music at that time and behind different artists and 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:27.319 Bay owned New Jersey pretty much the same. At the 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:30.480 Kenya Club, there are five six acts that we played 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:35.280 behind each evening, so we would be getting our pop 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:40.120 chart shopping and honing our skills and loving jazz and 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:44.080 learning you know, the all the bebop scales and just 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:47.600 hanging out that way. So that's how we grew working 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:51.320 the clubs nightly and go to school. 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:55.240 What's the rehearsal process like, because again, you guys were 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:59.720 a tight unit and really intricate, which so I assume 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:02.200 that lot of rehearsal went behind that, Like, what's the 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:03.280 rehearsal schedules like? 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:07.360 Well, a rehearsal for the the the pop groups was 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:10.040 just you know, they come up, they don't want their 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:14.440 music done a certain way. Uh, and basically really close 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:18.320 to the the record itself. So we pulled that off 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:22.160 and keep the arrangements exactly like they were from Motown 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:26.959 or you know, or the Atlantic sound. Uh. For what 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:31.360 we did as far as jazz was concerned, if we 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:34.440 were going to play take five, we sit down and 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:39.800 go through it or Milt Jackson's bag's crew. The rehearsal 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:44.480 process was easy flow. You know, Clease would take out 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:48.760 us on It's pretty ba bas be uh, you know, 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:53.080 and in that process also we came up with our 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:57.760 own music. Okay, you know, but we would listen to 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:03.880 everyone on the scene, pop, jazz, funk, country, and uh. 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:07.679 Rehearsals were easy. It's just we come in and say 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:10.200 let's do this, and we get at it and it's 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:10.640 come out. 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:16.120 You were such a large, sizeable unit. How are you 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.960 guys managing like getting to gigs? Like we live in 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:22.840 the era now where you know there's a thing called 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:26.480 a rider and you know there there are companies that 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:28.120 you rent your equipment from. 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:30.320 But them stock them on, pock them and stock them. 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:38.360 Yeah yeah, I don't mean uh no, we are brought 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:43.480 in our own equipment, right, We've set it up, We've 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:47.920 had our little rehearsal, you see, if everything was on 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:53.400 par as far as it working, and we have no 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:58.120 no crew whatsoever. Uh. And even in the early days, 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:03.280 the beginning, I think we had two guys, Donald Boyce 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:06.200 who became the voice, the voice of Jungle Boogie. 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:08.720 Yeah, I was going to say, and. 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:12.400 Bobby Simms and those two guys who were Riot, you know, 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:17.800 So that was it. I mean, you know, now it's 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:19.320 a whole different bowl game. 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:22.520 He said, you were still in school during this time. 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.640 We were going to school, as in they were like 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:26.480 fifteen sixteen. 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:28.400 We were going to school and working in the club. 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:31.800 Wow, that was what's your parents saying during this time? 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:33.720 Were they just supported from the jumper? 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:34.400 How did that look? 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:37.160 We had our parents, all of our parents were very 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:44.040 close to each other, and it's just like a gut feeling. 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:46.840 Like they had the gut feeling so did we. It 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:50.560 was just these all children are going to make it. 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:56.160 And sure enough, I mean, of course, but we put 0:15:56.200 --> 0:16:00.520 that time in and they allowed us to do that time. 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:04.000 I was also I was playing with other people up 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:08.560 in the Catskills and you know, playing blues, you know, 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:11.680 with other artists, and so I just learned I used 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:14.400 to play with a guy named a gentleman named Duke 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:19.160 Washington all over New York City played tennisax He electrified 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:25.440 tennis saxophone player, you know, and electrified elect saxophone. So 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:31.800 he would say listen, Papa when I played. But that 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:34.600 means all the band members come to the stage, you know, 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:36.640 because it's something that he's some of that era that 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:39.480 we just got fitished talking about, you know, the twelve 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:42.560 years of big band and all that. You know, so 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:46.680 you hear that, and me being young, I had to 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:50.160 stayed a dressing room or outside, and those cold New 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:52.920 York nights, I was sitting in the car. Yeah, it 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:57.920 was tough, but I think that's how, you know, people 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:06.480 horn their skills and you really show the intense, the 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:09.280 intensity of the love that you have for the music. 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:12.440 Even today we speak of the music. 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:21.320 You know, how did you avoid the kind of gang 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:25.399 mentality that pretty much what it seems like according to 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:30.880 those uh those shorts that everyone but your band somehow 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:31.639 didn't avoid. 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:38.359 In the early stages, we were always rehearsing. The gangs 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:43.400 in the area. We avoided, we avoided, we were practicing, 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:49.960 and myself, I've even had physical fights with some of 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:54.000 the gang members who came out of Jamesburg in uh 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:57.560 the like you know, like they've called it the King 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:01.119 of Jamesburg and he's back in the school yard taking 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:04.520 over the schoolyard. You know, these like major gangs. But 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:09.040 you see, in my life, I didn't care about anybody 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.639 being a gang member and if they stepped to me, 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:16.120 I'm going to try to knock you out. And what 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:20.400 happened was I got I can go in schoolyard and 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:22.000 nobody that touching me. 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:26.080 This is before the martial arts entered your life. That's crazy. 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:28.240 Well, I'm a second degree black belt mortal. 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:32.159 Art second black belt. Yes, sir, retrospect. 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:35.879 Cools gang is uh the leader of the gang, I 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:40.439 forgot his name, Eagle, and I came downtown and uh 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:43.200 we got into an altercation the same deal because I'm 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:48.240 from the midtown, uh from bergen Lafield, Leftian. What I 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:50.800 what I did and cool tell the story. I took 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:53.480 a bicycle and beat him with a bicycle. 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:59.320 That was it, Jesus Christ, the survival tactics done. 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:07.359 That's you got it on you. No more bathering George Brown. 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:14.000 Wow, that's a okay, I got the answer to that question. 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:17.320 I was expecting that one. 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:20.439 I don't even know what a double black belt is, 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:21.720 but I'm I'm impressed. 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:24.399 At the same time, I don't find out either, So 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:26.719 you know, somebody with the bike, I don't think you're 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:27.640 gonna have no problems. 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.639 How long was it before you guys solidified your deal 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:37.040 with Delight Records? 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:40.480 And if you can, I mean I've heard. 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:44.960 A lot about uh, what's his name, Fred fred vicer Rodo, 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:47.000 the the president. 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:51.119 Fred Faro game Figaro. 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:57.040 So once once overall, can you can you verifire? 0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:01.600 Not if if they were the people you did not 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:03.440 play with if. 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:05.399 I want to know with names like that, and I 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:08.160 don't want to play you know, Monolith or Stereotype. 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:12.320 But were they you know? 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:17.000 Actually they were very very sweet, good people because if 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:20.320 they liked what you were doing, they gave some type 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:24.960 of reward for it. Uh, they made sure that things 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:28.919 were safe. You can spend time in the studio developing, 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:32.600 and they heard it and saw it and knew the 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:35.359 degree of talent of the band. But it's just like 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:40.320 the bicycle. They they were the bicycle, if you know 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:44.120 what I mean. Once we signed with them, they were 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:44.840 the bicycle. 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:51.480 Yeah, I'm gonna ask later about the the the origins 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:53.800 of jungle boogey they sort of figure out they will. 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:57.320 Oh no, I just wondered if they were the bicycle 0:20:57.400 --> 0:20:59.880 in business too? Were they fair to you guys and. 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:01.600 They were a bicycle in business as well? 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:07.159 Okay, I'm only asking that because. 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:11.760 Robert tells this. 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:15.880 This crazy story of how how he puts it about 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:21.560 how you guys were quote unquote forced to come up 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:23.720 with jungle boogie sort of against your will. 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:26.359 Oh yeah, it was. It was like force. It was 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:32.000 mental block time, mental block time for creative music. 0:21:32.680 --> 0:21:36.680 So are you telling me that your version of the story. 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:41.320 Yeah, it's gonna it's gonna mess with his Okay. We 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:47.680 went up to the office of the attorney at the time. 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:52.920 Today he's like the number one attorney for the entertainment 0:21:53.000 --> 0:22:00.840 business in the world. I'm not going to mention his name, right, okay, So, uh, myself, 0:22:01.280 --> 0:22:04.680 Calise and Coole went up to see him, and I 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:08.600 can say what he said though. He said, listen, guys, 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:12.800 we need some effing hits. He said, I don't care 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:17.040 how much genius you are and how many instruments you play, 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:19.560 And he looked at his watch was probably a Patack 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:23.760 Philip and said, my wife's waiting for me at the airport. Goodbye, 0:22:24.520 --> 0:22:29.560 and he walked out. So Dennis went one way. Ronald 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:32.840 Cool and myself were walking together and said, we got 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:36.560 to come up with something. And sure enough, going to 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:40.240 Baggies is not that. I'm quite sure it's not that. 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:45.040 Baggies a rehearsal steel in New York or it's like 0:22:45.080 --> 0:22:49.920 the thirties on the West Side. And we started coming 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:55.560 up with this music. Hollywood Swinging was one where Ricky 0:22:55.560 --> 0:22:57.639 Westfield came and he's had the idea. Then we were 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:02.159 over at Holloquin, which is our forty another hearsal studio 0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:07.240 like forty fifth Street upstairs over Howard Johnson's right, really 0:23:07.400 --> 0:23:09.800 cheap studio in Manhattan. 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:12.840 Yeah, where SR used to be. Okay, I said, I 0:23:12.880 --> 0:23:13.200 know that. 0:23:13.240 --> 0:23:18.640 Is yeah, and we came up with jungle Boogie. We 0:23:18.640 --> 0:23:24.600 were playing it police it was we had jungle something, 0:23:25.119 --> 0:23:27.760 but it was Dennis Thomas that came in and when 0:23:27.760 --> 0:23:29.800 you heard the track, we said we're calling it jungle 0:23:29.920 --> 0:23:33.160 gym blah blah blah blah blah, and he said, no, man, 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:38.160 people are boogie in. Let's call it jungle boogie bingo, done, 0:23:39.119 --> 0:23:41.080 wrapped up. That's the story. 0:23:42.320 --> 0:23:43.520 Can you verify that? 0:23:43.960 --> 0:23:44.160 Well? 0:23:44.880 --> 0:23:48.360 Kind of what Ronald told me was basically that that 0:23:48.480 --> 0:23:53.040 the Heads of Delight were sort of like mesmerized by 0:23:54.040 --> 0:23:56.560 you know what was slowly morphing into to New York 0:23:56.640 --> 0:24:03.000 dance night culture. Yeah, and they heard soul Makosa, of 0:24:03.040 --> 0:24:05.480 which you know, I guess either they acquired a copy 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:08.520 and was basically like, we won our version of this song, 0:24:09.320 --> 0:24:11.680 and you guys were like, no, we were serious musicians. 0:24:11.680 --> 0:24:13.520 We're not playing this mumbo jumble. 0:24:14.040 --> 0:24:19.439 Absolutely no, we love so too. But okay, then we're 0:24:19.440 --> 0:24:22.720