The Chic organisation - geniuses or what ?

A nice man made a mix tape full of weird avant garde stuff and stuck 'at last i am free' on the end as some light relief which was nice.

Ok, they were formulaic? Their formula was pretty good, tho.

Can someone please help me? I want to get back to what Nile Rodgers said in an interview (on BBC?) about that term "Yowsah Yowsah Yowsah". Didn't he say he'd been inspired by the film from 1969 called "They Shoot Horses Don't They?" If anyone can manage to find the quote of what he said about that, I'd be so grateful. Thanks.

The line is uttered by the emcee, played by Gig Young.

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.

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?

love the Chic s/t so much, but have always been vaguely creeped out by the cover photo for reasons I can't explain

Never seen this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBKYUr9robI#!

http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4145249

Anyone else off to the show at the Forum tonight with Seth Troxxler/Derrick Carter/Nicky Siano/DJ Pierre?

ME. (any idea what the set times are? i've got to finish some stuff first but i'd rather not turn up having missed chic.)

Wondering the same thing myself - sorry I can't be of any use.

My girlfriend is going to this. I am very jealous.

Didn't know this was happening :(

fyi dwight, it's nicky siano 10 to 11:30, then chic.

(and seandalai, i'm sure the masses of touts would be happy to accommodate...)

yeah I say ":(" but going to a post-last-train gig in London would require a bunch of organising and planning

that were fun, unfortunately the sound was muddy as fuck (from where I was at least) but not so much as to viciously diminish it. couldn't get my head in the right place for derrick carter so here i am home before 3am, boring bastard.

Yeah, the sound wasn't particularly good but fuck me they know how to put on a show...Dance Dance Dance as the second song was audacious, think I nearly blatted when they did Spacer, I was very drunk but I swear they played Le Freak/Good Times for about 15 minutes each and it was incredible, 'Thinking of You' was jawdropping...god, the whole thing was brilliant. I've never had so much fun at a gig before.

Nicky Siano's set wasn't helped by the sound being particularly shocking when he was doing his thing...Young Hearts Run Free playing at that volume was wicked though.

Hung about watching Derrick Carter till just before three; had never seen him before and quite enjoyed how chunky/thick everything he played was.

yeah, Good Times stretched into glorious eternity as I remember it. Thinking of You and Lost in Music were my two peaks I think, and I loved how fucking packed and hot the main floor was too, so much sweaty flesh on sweaty flesh felt just right (though that prolonged sensuous intensity was probably why I didn't have it in me to stick around afterwards).

We Are Family is aces.

I took my sister to last night's Forum show, as a birthday treat. She ended up dancing on the stage, while Nile and the band played "Good Times". Result!

Pics or it didn't happen.

Dead centre, directly behind/to the right of the singer at the start of the clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JuBUT9FG4U

Awesome

enjoying nile rodgers interview bbc world hardtalk right now- talking about being bowled over by roxy music's "total immersive artistic experience."

god damn this is good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLjyr2Sc3is

hell yeah

hot DAMN

http://exclaim.ca/images/chic_3.jpg

Nile keeps busy. Out touring the US now

Nile's touring Chic playing Original Sin in Australia in 2012:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgmdbc6rudM

Dmitri From Paris remix album finally on Spotify. Holy shit are these good.

His "Thinking Of You" remix works consistently very well with my Friday night crowd up the road, but his "Le Freak" has notably lesser impact than the original (and I've tried it several times, bah).

fuk yeah!

Lost in music/Saturday 1-2 punch from the chic boxset is all time.

How DO those productions rank?.

The Sister Sledge record is an oddity - three all-time classic singles and then... some other songs

I was going to say, don't you mean four classic singles, but then I remembered Thinking Of You wasn't a single until a remix came out in the mid 90s. Overall, I get way more out of Love Somebody Today as a whole album. Also, it has Pretty Baby which is one my favourite Chic related songs ever.

And I totally agree about your assessment Josefa. I've heard that album many times, but I can't remember anything about half of those songs.

I’d ask you to explain how Rod’s Out of Order is in the “Sound, Solid” category but ... I’m not sure I really care enough.

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.

Forgive me if this has been mentioned elsewhere but Alfa Anderson RIP.

Yes, I mentioned in the obit thread.

Alissa ft Nile and Earthgang, vox got the Niles meter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8UEQopqX5w