The Chic organisation - geniuses or what ?

That Chic book isn't very good but it's all about Chic. It covers the songwriting, the production work, etc.

I got the box set. The Mathis stuff isn't as revelatory as expected. The Norma Jean ("Sorcerer") and early album tracks ("Happy Man") are.

xpost really? ive had it for years but seemed so dry and cold i never got past the first few pages. will fix that.

that norma jean is one of the best on there, amazingly. also, not completely relevant but i heard 'all american girls' by sister sledge the other day. from 1981, and just amazing. it wasn't on the chic org album collection ive d/ld and that's because it was produced by narada michael walden but by christ it's up there with 'pretty baby' as one of the best non-big hit single chic org tracks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQOIvmtoXxo

the two fonzi thornton tracks from the boxset are fucking amazing too, can't believe i'd never heard them before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i3YFACFi-c

Been loving the "Soup For One" sndtrk lots lately. Late era Chic production I a little more reliant on keyboards - but classy/weird/fun still. Teddy Pendergrass' "Dream Girl" is special.

This was 24 euro on amazon til they day I got a french speaker to come and help me buy it....

then that day it went up to 42 Euro.

:(

i was playing this a while ago and "we are family" came on and i could not hold back the tears of joy.

So, can somebody explain to me why this box is only available in FRANCE?! That makes no sense at all.

Dimitri said something along the line of a senior French music exec being particularly interested in doing the box set and it being a kind of personal commission.

At least they could make it digital-only for the rest of the whole world.

It's not like they are overly worried about low quality best of Chic CDs out there.

Seeing as there are a million of those already released.

here it is as digital.

Good Nile interview in today's NYT.

Is it available online?

I can't find it! It was on the front page of the Arts section.

A nice bit on Risqué.

A Hit Maker’s Life and Lyrics - thanks for the tip-off, Alfred.

He reflected a bit. “Now here’s the only part of the story I don’t know for sure,” he said. “I thought there were at least five Diana Ross impersonators in the bathroom, which seems like a large number, unless they were having a special theme night there.”

I think I'm sold on his autobiography. The Chic boxset v.1 I bought last year is something I dig out when I need a smile.

I've read half of the book thus far and am loving it. So many vivid scenes. First one that comes to mind: Chic, just as they getting big, played a festival at Jack Murphy Stadium (San Diego) and the crowd called for an encore. Chic had done all their songs and didn't want to replay any of them, so they hopped into the Padres' bullpen car and did victory laps.

that story alone has me sold.

Got a hold of the box set thru a friend. Blissss.

Saw Nile Rodgers' show last night in London. Possibly the most purely joyous show I've ever seen. All killer: Everybody Dance, Dance Dance Dance, I'm Coming Out, Upside Down, He's the Greatest Dancer, We Are Family, Spacer, Like a Virgin, Let's Dance, Thinking of You, Le Freak, Good Times. For the last two songs he invited the crowd to fill the stage and played among them without missing a beat. Then he closed by saying that because of the cancer he hadn't even been sure he'd still be alive now, let alone performing. It felt like a total privilege to be in the audience.

bunch of us going to see him do a talk this evening to promote his book, then tomorrow going to a Chic gig in Manchester in a warehouse at 1 am! good times.

Both will be great. The man can talk.

you lucky, lucky people - that sounds like the one gig I really want to see

Chic + Daft Punk!

???

Nile jammed over some demos Thomas and Guy-Man played him at home, talked up making an album in an Australian phoner a couple of days later

Okay, that sounds pretty cool actually. Let's just hope the result is proper disco collaboration, and not just "Nile Rodgers plays the guitar bits on a couple of Daft Punk tracks".

agreed. Not sure that the two concerned parties would bother unless it was a proper thing though.

a couple of days an hour or so later

Chic are playing Lovebox Sunday this year - announced today. I am SO there.

they're here in three weeks but on a MONDAY NIGHT, ugh

JESUS CHRIST Johnny Mathis - "It's Alright to Love Me" - no Youtube - unfuckingbelievable genius how the fuck did they never put it out? Nile and Bernard = GOD

yeah the Mathis album's ace innit? I Love My Lady = also amazing.

yeah all the Mathis stuff is remarkable, every time a track creeps up on me on shuffle i'm gobsmacked

wonder when box set 2 is coming out?

Did the Mathis stuff finally come out on that European/French box or whatever it was?

some of it

The Nile Rodgers book was OK. He's remarkably clear eyed about his career, and especially about his life and family. Everything from hanging with Brett Ratner's mom in Miami, and Madonna and Bowie, and of course Chic and Live Aid and all sorts of stuff. Surprisingly unforthcoming about some stuff, and if anything music is secondary to tales of growing up the child of hippie heroin addicts, doing tons of drugs, lifestyles of the rich and famous, etc. But worth a read.

isn't he too old to be the son of hippies? are we talking beatniks?

i love nile rodgers (and his music) so i'm inclined to get this book, but won't have time to read it until summer.

Nile is young! Or at least started really young. Recently turned 60; he was still in his teens when he and Bernard first hooked up. Pretty sure he calls them hippies, but yeah, I guess they were Beatniks. Black mom, white Jewish stepdad, open heroin users. He talked about how hard it was to rebel when his parents were an interracial couple in the 50s and early 60s, openly shooting junk. The rest of his extended family is rife with junkies and dealers, and a couple of products on incest (!).

I loved Nile's book. He's quite the storyteller, and he has some extraordinary stories to tell. Strongly recommend .

It does tend to bury the lead with the same sort of faux-naive rhetorical devices that clutter Peter Criss's (oddly similar) book. Stuff like (I'm half making this up):

"I'll never know why he didn't let me into the club. Maybe he didn't like my music. Maybe he didn't like the way I looked. I may never know the truth behind the incident, but at the time I didn't care, because I was rich, dating a beautiful woman and had been up four days doing coke. Also, I was sprayed by a skunk."

"He talked about how hard it was to rebel when his parents were an interracial couple in the 50s and early 60s, openly shooting junk. "

yes this would be a problem. alex keaton to thread.

JESUS CHRIST Johnny Mathis - "It's Alright to Love Me" - no Youtube - unfuckingbelievable genius how the fuck did they never put it out? Nile and Bernard = GOD

― Tartar Mouantcheoux (Noodle Vague), Monday, July 16, 2012 6:31 AM (9 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS1B-fe27sM

still ridiculously good

they should so totally bring out that album properly. everyone seems to love it.

Noting this am that the Sheila and B Devotion LP really is Nile and 'Nard's Abba record.

What a year 1980 was for those guys.

Would totally get the Chic Org box set but there are a couple of Amazon reviewers saying it's poorly mastered, not as full sounding as it should be. Anyone care to disagree?

Love this exchange from Nile Rodgers' twitter earlier today:
Fan - When do you sleep?!
NR - On airplanes.

Doesn't sound poorly remastered to me at all, au contraire!

Why, given how protective Nile has been over his own mixes, are some of the singles in the boxed set represented only as Dmitri From Paris remixes?