During the 1979 “Disco Sucks” movement, Rodgers learned firsthand how pop careers are subject to fickle social and political forces. Nile Rodgers was someone in the music business I had been aware of since 1977, when I --- who had just crossed the threshold into adolescence --- first heard on the radio the song "Dance Dance Dance" from his group Chic, with whom he would enjoy a dizzying and intoxicating run of success over the next 2 years with hits like "Le Freak (C'est chic)", "Everybody Dance", "I Want Your Love", and "Good Times.

Yet beyond the hit man who fell for his mom and a few incestuous child abusers scattered among his relatives, he radiates love and respect for his family, and gratitude to random benefactors now long gone. As a producer, he had plenty more, most prominently with Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna and the B-52s, whom he portrays with the sharp eye and tolerance for foible that make his love for his family so believable — the regal Ross nervous about her D. Not in David Bowie’s opinion, though, and the extended riff on the making of Let’s Dance is essential reading for any fan of that album. As a musician, music is my main source of enjoyment and income but the truth is that I have many other interests and I wanted to show people that my life was this weird, multifaceted, complicated thing.He became a Black Panther, was hospitalised at the same time as Andy Warhol, after being spiked with hallucinogens, and jammed with Jimi Hendrix. 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’. His childhood was spent moving around 50s New York, from Alphabet City to the Bronx, interspersed with two stints in Los Angeles.

Eventually it all moves onto the ill-fated Chic show at Budokan after which Bernard Edwards was found dead in his hotel room. 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. But as I read this book, I learned about his unconventional upbringing in both New York (where he was born in 1952) and Los Angeles, and the richness --- complete with highs and lows, and brushes with death --- of his life.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. Recomendo a qualquer um que se interesse por música — mesmo que não por disco music pois, como Rodgers deixa claro, nunca a viu separada do rock e do pop. Too bad that by ending with Edwards’s death during a 1996 Chic reunion in Japan, Rodgers fails to provide a final act — a full picture of a life that slowed down but continued with sobriety, and included his so-far successful battle with aggressive prostate cancer.

So it seems a good time to revisit ‘Le Freak’, Nile’s 2011 memoir (and it accords nicely with my current early-’80s NYC obsession). He sneaks transgressive messages into smash radio singles, flourishes in improbable collaborations, and trades the spotlight for behind-the-scenes influence, reporting on pop music from the vantage of a prankish infiltrator. 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. The scandalous namedropping is kept to a tasteful minimum, but this book is still juicy and full of crazy tales. The list of Nile Rodgers’ favourite books about music was always going to be heaving with credentials but even we were surprised at just how perfect his selections were.I used to see Mr Rodgers all the time on music documentaries, always commenting on bands and entertainers from NKOTB to Jimi Hendrix as an avid music lover I was captivated by his all encompassing knowledge of the different genres. Which sounds like it could be bollocks, but then you think of how many hits these dudes made, and there has to be something to it.