Book description
You will hear a Nile Rodgers song today. It will make you happy.'
Legendary producer and co-founder of Chic, Nile Rodgers wrote 'We are
Family' for Sister Sledge and 'I'm Coming Out' for Diana Ross, produced
'Let's Dance' for David Bowie and 'Like a Virgin' for Madonna. He has
worked with just about every major star, from Michael Jackson and Bob
Dylan to Prince and Duran Duran. But before he reinvented pop music,
Nile Rodgers invented himself. Born into a mixed-race family of
dopefiend bohemians, he learned – at a very early age – everything
he needed to know about love, loss, fashion, art, music, and the
subversive power of underground culture. The stars of the scene were his
glamorous teenage mom and heroin-addicted Jewish stepfather, but there
were also monkeys, voodoo orishas, jazz cats, and contract killers in
the mix. By the age of 16, Nile was busking his way through the 60s,
half-hippie and half-Black Panther. He jammed with Jimi Hendrix, took
acid with Timothy Leary, toured with Big Bird on Sesame Street's road
show, and played guitar behind history's greatest soul singers. And
then, one night, he discovered disco. This was pop's most glamorous and
decadent age. Nile Rodgers wrote the songs, produced the hits and lived
behind the velvet rope – holding court in the bathroom stalls at
Studio 54, club-hopping with Madonna, scarfing down burgers with Diana
Ross. Le Freak is the personal, moving story of a creative genius, told
in his own unique voice – warm, intimate and relentlessly charming. It
is also a stunning recreation of an age – told by the man who wrote
its soundtrack. Nile Rodgers is one of the world's greatest producers
and the co-founder of hit 70s band Chic.
