Le Freak : an upside down story of family, disco, and destiny / Nile Rodgers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rodgers, Nile.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rodgers, Nile.

Guitarists--United States--Biography.

Guitarists.

United States.

Composers--United States--Biography.

Composers.

Sound recording executives and producers--United States--Biography.

Sound recording executives and producers.

Popular music--United States--History and criticism.

Popular music.

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

xiv, 318 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Upside down story of family, disco, and destiny

Place of Publication:

New York : Spiegel & Grau, 2011.

Summary:

Today's pop music--genre-crossing, gender-bending, racially mixed, visually stylish, and dominated by dance music with global appeal--is the world that Nile Rodgers created. In the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote and produced the songs that defined that era and everything that came after. Aside from his own band, Chic, he worked with everyone from Diana Ross and Madonna to David Bowie and Duran Duran, transforming their music and redefining what a pop song could be. But before he reinvented pop music, Nile Rodgers invented himself. Born into a mixed-race, bicoastal family of dope-fiend bohemians, he was on his own by age 16, half-hippie and half-Black Panther. He jammed with Jimi Hendrix, toured with Big Bird, and played in the legendary Apollo Theater house band. And then he discovered disco... Here he gives us the behind-the-scenes tales of the songs we all know, and lovingly re-creates the outsider subcultures that live on in the world of pop he helped to set in motion.--From publisher description.

Contents:

Part 1 Can They Be That Close?

1 The Ballad of Beverly and Bobby 3

2 Nothing to Fear but the Fear of Fear Itself 19

3 Go West, Young Boy 35

4 Like Fathers, Like Sons-Variations on a Mormon Theme 45

5 Hippie Happenstance 55

6 In Search of the Lost Chord 77

Part 2 Roam If You Want To

7 Chic Sh*t Happens: The Rise and Call of the Disco Revolution 109

8 The Second Wind 157

9 Let's Dance...Again 177

10 Who's That Opening-Act Girl? 201

11 Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Overdoing! 219

12 Vive la Révolution! 247

Part 3 I Made It Through the Wilderness

13 The Dance, Dance, Dance of Death 261

14 We're Gonna Party Like It's 1996 277.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

9780385529655

0385529651

OCLC:

699764805