If Nile Rodgers is one of those people musos like to call a “guitarist’s guitarist” then it has to be said he is also a “producer’s producer”. There has not been a decade since the 1970s where is deep hidden meaning (DHM) has not affected pop music. Think of the pioneering hybrid, jazz-fusion, funk pop of Chic in the late 1970s. This was subsequently sampled throughout hip-hop (indeed Rapper’s Delight by Sugarhill Gang often cited as the first hip-hop record used Chic’s Good Times). Think of the only hit worth mentioning from 2013 – Daft Punk’s Get Lucky, think of Sister Sledge, turning Diana Ross upside, showing off Madonna’s “virginity”, making David Bowie dance, helping the The B-52s find their groove and on and on. In 1984 Nile Rodgers worked with one of my other musical heroes, Peter Gabriel, on a rarely heard song, “Out Out”. He even did the Moonlighting theme with Al Jarreau! Come on…
The list of amazing musicians from whom Rodgers has extracted the DHM is a showreel of some of the biggest names and I haven’t included them all here:
Chic, Norma Jean Wright, Sister Sledge, Sheila B. Devotion, Diana Ross, Johnny Mathis, Debbie Harry, David Bowie, Kim Carnes, INXS, Madonna, Stevie Winwood, The Rolling Stones, Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel, Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, Thompson Twins, Sheena Easton, Laurie Anderson, Grace Jones, Al Jarreau, Bryan Ferry, Depeche Mode, The B-52s, Cathy Dennis, David Lee Roth, Michael Bolton, Daft Punk, Avicii, Chase & Status…
My wife thinks I have an infatuation with him…but I just happen to like the Nile style and highly recommend his autobiography. It tells the tale of how an Alphabet City boy grew up to be the multi-billion dollar hitmaker we know today. Apparently, he had met Madonna and had mutual contacts long before he worked with Bowie. Bowie didn’t tell Madge about Nile 😉