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

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As it is, he covers his tumultuous early childhood, his meteoric rise to success, some of his most famous collaborations such as David Bowie and Diana Ross, and his downward tumble into alcoholism and coke addiction.

If you’d like to file an allegation of infringement, you’ll need to follow the process described in our Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy. In fact, one of the surprise gifts of “Le Freak” is that a third of it covers Rodgers’s own opening act — a coming-of-age tale every bit as impressive as the musical insights and star-time chronicles that follow. Rodgers comes across as a tremendous, benevolent, friendly guy who has taken a big, deep drink of life, loved his work, loved a whole load of fine women, and is welcome at my house or my disco anytime.He jammed with Jimi Hendrix, rocked out at Max’s Kansas City, toured with Big Bird on Sesame Street’s road show, and played in the legendary Apollo Theater house band behind history’s greatest soul singers.

It would likely be impossible for him to not mention the people he worked with, given the influence they've had on his career. In the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote and produced the songs that defined that era and everything that came after: “Le Freak,” “Good Times,” “We Are Family,” “Like a Virgin,” “Modern Love,” “I’m Coming Out,” “The Reflex,” “Rapper’s Delight. Rodgers and Edwards regarded Chic as a rock band for a multicultural disco movement that made good on hippie peace, love and freedom.His sporadic relationship with his biological father, an addict first and a musician second who died before reaching 40, also made its mark. No kid likes shots, so why, 7-year-old Nile wondered, did his parents and their friends stick themselves with needles every day? He wrote 'We are Family' for Sister Sledge and 'I'm Coming Out' for Diana Ross, and produced two of the most popular albums of all time - Madonna's 'Like a Virgin' and David Bowie's 'Let's Dance'. And although he credits many individual paramours for their many individual benisons, a few reflections on serial polygamy would also be nice. As Rodgers narrates his story, anecdotes like this show that his signature talent is working as the perpetual underdog, finding artistic inspiration in unlikely places.

The Americana he wrote about so passionately were mainly events that had happened long ago – but he wrote about them as if they were ‘current events’. Chic, Sister Sledge, Diana Ross's comeback album, Bowie's comeback album, Madonna's launch album, Duran Duran's last good album; Rodgers was the guru behind all these and more. He excuses Bowie’s failure to credit him for Let’s Dance by writing that Bowie feared “the world was starting to overidentify him with this single album,” a phenomenon that Rodgers understands all too well: “To date ‘Le Freak’ is my biggest [hit song]—though not my favorite. Le Freak is as much about the greatness of life as it is about Nile Rodgers's extraordinary musical journey. The suave appearance of himself and musical partner Bernard Edwards always gave off well-heeled vibes of the black urban professional making a name within the sophisticated world of disco culture of the late 70’s, Nile, however, was pretty much a street kid.You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. After disco burned out, he went on to produce a staggering list of pop's biggest stars, including Michael Jackson, Madonna, David Bowie, Diana Ross, Prince and Mick Jagger. The most obvious example is that he tells the story of his partner Bernard Edwards' death, but doesn't mention the cause of death.