Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco and Destiny

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As co-founder of Chic, he soundtracked the glamorous, decadent days of disco with hits including "Good Times", "Everybody Dance" and "Le Freak". Between his technical command and a personal charm he’s too charming to brag about, his career progressed steadily, from “Sesame Street” road band to Apollo house band to increasingly lucrative backup slots. So many of my "embarrass the kid" songs - the ones I can't help singing all the words to while I get my groove on no matter where we are or who is watching - are Nile's.

The instability extended to his formal education, as Rodgers was not much interested in school; at one point he managed to dodge going to school for almost three months before getting caught when truant officers arrived at his home. Rodgers did pick out some other icons that are a little closer to home, including Miles by Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe and the aforementioned purveyor of such quotable rhetoric, Frank Zappa, with his book The Real Frank Zappa Book. By 1968 he was a street hippie whose professional base was Greenwich Village — a practiced panhandler who slept in crash pads and on the subway.

It’s like asking Picasso how to sketch or Stanley Kubrick if he’s seen anything good at the cinema lately.

Confession: I haven't read this book but am using it as a way to highlight something very interesting I saw about him. Must read autobiography that leaves you spellbound Niles Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of CHIC have their signature on more songs than you'd imagine! as a Spiritist, I'm pretty sure his friends on the "other side" helped him avoid prematurely ending his present life.He shows that with practice, dedication and commitment anything is possible, I had no idea of his background before I read this book; but he shows clearly that if you choose to, you can exceed your environment and become great.

After the disbanding of NYC, they'd soon become involved with Tony Thompson, and the Chic trio formed. Rodgers brilliantly captures the flavour of this bohemian underground and black music scene that flourished in the big cities of the US in the ‘60s. They were never written to be read by anyone other than their addressees, and this intimacy makes them great to read.I agree with that 100%, and if you look at my book, it’s really about my life: music just happens to be a large part of it. Aside from his mom, who gets it in spades, and his partner Bernard, adualtion is chiefly meted out to his idols like Diana Ross and David Bowie that he had the privilege to work for, but also to Michael Jackson, who sought his help at a difficult time, and Madonna, with whom he partied. Nile Rodgers is an American musician, composer, arranger, and guitarist, and is considered one of the most influential music producers in the history of popular music. g. "The Greatest Dancer", "Thinking of You", and We Are Family (which became an anthem for the 1979 World Series champions, the Pittsburgh Pirates).

Frank Zappa is supposed to have said that ‘writing about music is like dancing about architecture’,” wrote Rodgers for The Guardian in 2011.

Chic were to disco what Steely Dan were to rock, bringing jazz chords, complex arrangements and subtly subversive lyrics to the top of the charts, but it’s easy to forget how out of fashion they were in the early ’80s, as ‘Le Freak‘ grippingly outlines. Rodgers, best known as the founder of Chic who went on to produce landmark albums for Madonna and David Bowie, was raised by downtown heroin junkies in the 1950s and ’60s, and it's fascinating to see how profoundly his worldview was shaped by the ups and downs of this experience.