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

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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.

As Rodgers muses on that pivotal experience: “By not getting what we wanted, we got more than we ever imagined.But the future had looked pretty bleak at the outset of 2010, with serious illness virtually putting paid to his live career and no new studio product in sight. 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. We end in 2011 with a cancer diagnosis which we know he survives as 10 years on he is still very much with us and still a musical force to be reckoned with (especially as a live festival act). And the books I love are also about people’s lives – all of the titles I’ve chosen offer real insights into the personalities behind the music. Rodgers, who was the core of the disco band Chic along with bassist Bernard Edwards, realized that the Motown diva could speak to her gay fans with a knowing wink—and the Ross classic “I’m Coming Out” was born.

Economic and personal instabilities at home often resulted in Rodgers being place in the care and custody of one or both of his grandmothers, and he spent part of his childhood shuttling between New York and Los Angeles. Photograph: Michael Putland/Getty Images Nile Rodgers with Debbie Harry at a party for her solo album Koo Koo, New York, 1981. 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.Legendary producer and co-founder of Chic, Nile wrote 'We are Family' for Sister Sledge and 'I'm Coming Out' for Diana Ross, and then produced Let's Dance for David Bowie and Like a Virgin for Madonna.