Obama makes Earth, Wind, and Fire cool again

This band, founded by percussionist Maurice White, was one of my favorites in the late 1970s. Built around a big horn section and some really strange-looking album covers, they caught my developing ear very quickly.

They've been out of circulation for a while, but according to Newsweek, they're enjoying a renaissance thanks Barack Obama.

President Obama, says White, "has given credibility to great music, you know really good music, from jazz to pop to like Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, Wynton Marsalis. He actually told people, 'Look, check this kind of music out. These are my guys. This is what I grew up with."

It may be the best thing Obama has done since being inaugurated. It can't be his economic policies, or his ideas for medical care.

Newsweek, on EWF's origin:

... Maurice came up with the concept for Earth, Wind & Fire—a band unlike anything around. Maurice, a drummer, was playing with pianist and composer Ramsey Lewis, who, as Verdine recalls, thought the idea was crazy: "When Maurice was getting ready to put the group together, he told Ramsey what he was going to do. He said, 'We're going to have nine different people. We're going to play all over the world. We're going to have people flying through the air. We're going to have lights.' And Ramsey told Maurice, 'Go back to bed.' But it happened."