The Chic organisation - geniuses or what ?

Also spoken by Richie Cunningham in the Happy Days "They Shoot Fonzies, Don't They" episode.

Le Freak, c'est Chic

Did a Chic Org box set ever come out?

OMG OMG OMG: http://www.empsfm.org/education/index.asp?categoryID=26

In 2007, I discovered a set of masters to the album while combing through the Warner Bros. vaults for material related to an upcoming Chic boxed set. As the producer of that project, I will be discussing both the history behind the album’s original recording and subsequent suppression as well as the current attempt to bring it back into light. I’ll also be touching on some of the challenges facing recovery projects of this sort, especially in a time where record companies are making it more difficult to search through archived material for just these kinds of forgotten recordings.

This is from the abstract for a paper at EMP '09 about Johnny Mathis's never-released I Love My Lady, produced by the Org. So fucking excited.

woah

oh holy God yes.

My feet keep dancing.

My stomach hurts now.

Wait...where's the link to that Chic box quote????

one post above the quote

Oh goodness, that's just to the front page for Pop Conference. The quote is from Andy Zax's abstract: http://www.empsfm.org/education/index.asp?categoryID=26&ccID=127&xPopConfBioID=1228&year=2009

OMG! Sooooo go and report back pretty please!!!

Man, I'm really glad we cleared that up. I was wondering exactly which of the zillion people contributing to this thing was actually responsible for that quote! I figured everyone on the entire board reading this must know the answer but me, and I gave up.

Browsing iTunes this morning, I found Adventures in the Land of the Good Groove! Is it worth buying?

Chic are incredible. Someone should remaster their original studio albums on CD as they're dainty quiet. Honestly, I would do it if I knew how.

Maybe there isn't a reasonable demand and people are simply happy with their most well-known songs on compilations..

Chic are incredible. Someone should remaster their original studio albums on CD as they're dainty quiet. Honestly, I would do it if I knew how.

Maybe there isn't a reasonable demand and people are simply happy with their most well-known songs on compilations..

― David Katz (davek_00), Friday, 22 January 2010 23:04 (28 minutes ago) Bookmark

I agree.

The lack of a Chic Box-set is a tragedy too.

All the Chic stuff sounds best on vinyl, and especially 12". The Cd's sound subdued at times.

Good God! Is there a band anywhere that deserves to be heard more?

I've been chasing the Norma Jean album by Norma Jean Wright. The cheapest copy is $206.54 used from amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Norma-Jean-Wright/dp/B00004TS8Y

It's so frustrating.

LP is cheap as chips

I'm really chasing the:

8. Hold Me Lonely Boy
9. High Society [12" Mix]
10. Saturday Nite [Single Mix]
11. Sorcerer [12" Mix]
12. Having a Party [Extended Mix]

Also, interesting aside, one of the places I DJ got rid of their turntables just last week, after 18 years. It was a little disconcerting.

popture, you can e-mail me if a .wav file i made from High Society [12" Mix] will suffice

Done. That would just thrill me to bits. Many thankyous!

Le 18 octobre prochain Rhino France sortira le boxset "Nile Rodgers presents THE CHIC ORGANIZATION BOXSET VOL 1 : "Savoir Faire". Ce coffret réalisé en association avec Nile Rodgers donne pour la première fois accés aux archives du maestro. Au programme des titres de CHIC mais aussi de nombreux artistes produits par THE CHIC ORGANIZATION : Norma Jean, Sister Sledge, Sheila & B Devotion, Diana Ross, Fonzi Thornton et beaucoup d'autres surprises à venir.... Titres remasterisés, versions rares, titres inédits, outtakes, remixes de Dimitri From Paris....Le tout sur 4CDs format digipack long box & livret 20 pages avec notes de pochette de Nile Rodgers. Le Graal ultime pour tous les fans !...Rendez-vous tout de suite sur le Facebook Rhino France pour découvrir 2' du remix de Norma Jean "Saturday" réalisé par Dimitri From Paris. More news soon....

On October 18th , Rhino France will be releasing a 4CD boxset : "Nile Rodgers presents THE CHIC ORGANIZATION BOXSET VOL 1 : "Savoir Faire". This boxset , produced in partnership with Nile Rodgers , will not only feature songs from CHIC but also from artists produced by THE CHIC ORGANIZATION : Norma Jean, Sister Sledge, Sheila & B Devotion, Diana Ross, Fonzi Thornton & many more surprises to come... It will include rare versions, unreleased tracks, outtakes, remixes from Dimitri From Paris... All packaged in a 4CD remastered digipack long box, with a 20 page booklet and liner notes by Nile Rodgers. Please visit Rhino France Facebook Fanpage to listen to a 2' teaser of Norma Jean "Saturday" remixed by Dimitri From Paris . More news soon...

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rhino-France/336906391097

Only eight years after Douglas asked for it.

Oooh nice!

I can never see the point of remixes on releases like this.

60 fucking quid from Amazon fuck you god

You should be able to get it from Amazon.fr though where its EUR29.98 plus whatever postal charges they make to the UK.

http://www.amazon.fr/Nile-Rodgers-Presents-Organization-Boxset/dp/B0041T7FS6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288520723&sr=8-1

Looks like a plan cheers.

This compilation really is the metaphorical bee's knees.

the Dimitri from Paris remixes aren't bad from what I've heard.

a shame there is no digital release for the UK.

otherwise I'd snap this up.

Yeah the Dimitri 'I Want Your Love' remix is amazing.

That remix is pretty good, but I still prefer the original, or the Todd Terje edit.

Nile Rodgers fighting cancer :-(

Just saw this.

Big sads.

Check out this sped-up (for copyright reasons? is this a thing? I've never heard of this and doubt it would hold off copyright holders but still most songs should be sped-up including this one which always seems a touch too slow) version of "Hangin'":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RbHW9GZl_0
Love this comment too: "Friends we have to dance a little bit faster"

The "First we shake, then we break/Your love I'm gonna take" is still intense as fuck so it works.

I think being sped-up stops their clever copyright infringement auto-checker.

Either way, top tune.

Ah! Didn't know that! Clever. And funky!

"Theodore? You ain't hangin out with me callin me no Theodore!"

Love the mock outrage in the intro to Hangin', makes me lol everytime

those dimtri from paris re-edits are just incredible, his lost in music version is probably the best thing i have ever heard. wish he'd be let loose on the rest of the chic org hits

also i saw on niles's blog today that he's in the middle of writing his autobiography - this made me cheer LOUD. out in oct 2011 but as ferg pointed out, 288 pages isn't enough, surely
http://www.randomhouse.com/spiegelandgrau/catalog/author/?authorid=93446

ive been griping about this for ages - the fact there's no book that covers everything about chic, from start to end, covering the songwriting, production work, etc (feel the same about the cure too, or is there one?). seems insane there isn't. (that politics of disco book seemed a bit dry and not enough about chic for my tastes). im resorting to signing up to rocksbackpages for the minimum time, instapapering all the chic interviews then gettin the hell outta there

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.

Don't forget Rodgers & Edwards' production on King of the World by Sheila & B Devotion, especially 'Spacer'.

In 1980 alone, they produced that album, Love Somebody Today, Real People and Diana.

Norma Jean Wright's album from 78 is great too. What an incredible run of albums they had in those first three/four years.

I still think it's one of the world's biggest mysteries why the Debbie Harry sucked so much. On paper it sounds like a dream collaboration. I guess everyone involved was just burned out by then or something?

I read in a Nile interview a while ago that they did nearly no preproduction work and kind of went in expecting they could just wing it.

More like juuuuust prior to the Organisation but:

https://wewantsounds.bandcamp.com/album/missing-you

Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the reissue of Robert Cotter's ultra rare 1976 album, 'Missing You' in partnership with Robert Cotter himself. Originally released on the notorious Tiger Lily imprint, the album was never properly released at the time and most of the copies were supposedly destroyed before they could hit record store shelves. The few copies that survived now command unreasonable prices. The album, recorded in New York between 1975 and 76, is also the only known recording by The Big Apple Band, which Robert Cotter was fronting at the time alongside fellow musicians Nile Rodgers, Bernard Edwards, Tony Thompson and Robert Sabino.

Loved this story - this was in both Stereogum's 80th birthday tribute to McCartney and Uncut's new issue (“McCartney at 80,” May 2022):

"I’ve crossed paths with him many times, but I have to say the most touching one is a silly one. We played President Obama’s final party. I looked out on the dance floor. It was my very first time meeting Paul McCartney, and he was singing every one of my songs. I was thinking, ‘How weird is this.’ The very first song I ever learned how to play on guitar was ‘A Day In The Life,’ and now I’m looking out at the dancefloor and Paul’s got a dance circle with his wife and he’s singing my songs.”

(This was Nile Rodgers being interviewed, of course.)

Music is the key to a summertime experience for pros and amateurs called the DiscOasis in Central Park. Its curator: the funk-disco guru and lifelong skater Nile Rodgers.

Rodgers created the playlists for the performances, which happen throughout the night, interspersed with live D.J.s (the daytime is for more relaxed skating). A longtime New Yorker, Rodgers coined his skate style as a 12- or 13-year-old on a brief sojourn in Los Angeles, when he tore up the town with other kids, performing little routines. “I had this wobbly leg way of skating,” he said. He still does, “even though I’m going to be 70. And it looks cool.”

His crew stood out even then: “We used to skate to jazz,” he said, recalling their grooves to the guitarist Wes Montgomery’s 1965 classic “Bumpin’ on Sunset.”

Fast forward 30 years, and Rodgers had largely hung up his skates. But he has been so energized by his association with the DiscOasis, which approached him for the Los Angeles event, that it reignited his devotion. Now on tour in Europe, he has been conjuring minirinks wherever he goes, one hotel ballroom at a time.

“They lift up the rugs for me and create a big dance floor,” he said. “I can skate in a little square. There’s nobody in there, because I skate at such weird hours — 4 or 5 in the morning.” (He doesn’t sleep much. As befits a disco-era fashion legend, he also has personalized skates — orange, green, iridescent — which got stuck in customs on their way to Europe. His favorite are a classic pair of black Riedells.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/21/arts/music/discoasis-roller-skating-nile-rodgers.html

Totally get the association of skates w Chic, now that you show me that, thanks.
I got this from the bargain bin long ago, so maybe the minimal price makes me lenient, but always enjoyed Chic's Soup For One soundtrack: they get Carly singing reggae, well kind of, and it's one of the best things I ever heard her do. Also got Teddy Pendergrass, Sister Sledge, not at their best, but effective here, Fonzi Thornton earns the spotlight, the Debbie Harry track works as a change of pace, well kind of, and several fine Chic tracks, incl the long version of "I Need Your Love," same as the 12-inch single, I think though this play list substitutes the 7" edit, but still fine, ditto Nile's acoustic solo guitar "Tavern On The Green":
https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC84abHuRA0&list=OLAK5uy_kBWsYtjLrTMXqTLVmCxBqMWxBBqW2okXE

oops--might as well show the cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC84abHuRA0

Yesss, here's the long version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGc3dtxsXFI

Soup for one
When you're on the run

RT @nilerodgers "Thank you ⁦@Celtronic⁩ #derry never let’s us down. The people of #Ireland were at the beginning of the rebuilding of our #live #concert #audience, for that I’ll be eternally #grateful - #funky #dance #music #peace #love #goodtimes pic.twitter.com/uVYgLnl5Lu"

— CHIC (@CHICorg) June 26, 2022

RT @nilerodgers "Catch me on @magicfm this Sunday as I do my first of four shows! I’ll be playing you some of my favorite summer songs and talking about my career highlights.

Listen online, via the Magic App or by asking your smart speaker to "Play… pic.twitter.com/CQnIy9Gfec"

— CHIC (@CHICorg) July 1, 2022

Nile and Bob Clearmountain on making "Let's Dance" and the album---a lot of the best comments are about Chic's role, so I'll put it here first:

https://variety.com/2023/music/news/david-bowie-lets-dance-at-40-nile-rodgers-1235583524/

The “Modern Love” story at the end is awesome.

interesting

We really do need to do that artist poll for these guys.