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

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From a chance encounter with Tim Leary, Diana Ross watching from the wings, David Bowie alone in a bar, Michael Jackson making confessions, and Madonna, well, being Madonna. At that point, the profits were so big that the deals became more complicated, chaotic, and crooked” The Chic composer also picked out a special mention for Beethoven, picking his collection of letters as perfect reading material: “Whenever I’ve seen the famous bust of Beethoven, he looks like the ultimate tortured soul. The list of Nile Rodgers’ favourite books about music was always going to be heaving with credentials but even we were surprised at just how perfect his selections were. He's dead interesting without being pretentious about disco arguing that -contrary to popular prejudice of the time- it was not decadent, self centred hedonism but an ecstatic celebration (decadent and hedonistic, admittedly) of something shared, even if it's only a dance floor.

The suave appearance of himself and musical partner Bernard Edwards always gave off well-heeled vibes of the black urban professional making a name within the sophisticated world of disco culture of the late 70’s, Nile, however, was pretty much a street kid. As it is, he covers his tumultuous early childhood, his meteoric rise to success, some of his most famous collaborations such as David Bowie and Diana Ross, and his downward tumble into alcoholism and coke addiction. Nile Rodgers is a brilliant storyteller who gives readers the surprising behind-the-scenes tales of the songs we all know, and lovingly re-creates the lost outsider subcultures—from the backstreets of 1950s Greenwich Village to the hills of 1960s Southern California to the demimonde of New York’s 1970s and 1980s discos and clubs—that live on in his music and in the throbbing, thriving world of pop he helped to set in motion.

His knowledge on how to work collaboratively, how to deconstruct and then reconstruct a song puts to shame all the simplistic bombast of the (generally white) Disco Sucks "authentic" music brigade. There's a lot going on beneath the surface that's barely touched on here, probably because at the end of the day the guy's just made too much money to really tell it how it is.

Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny is one of the most engaging, entertaining, profound, and relatable memoirs that I've yet read.That and a whole lot more, actually, and the charmed if drug-fueled life he led as he produced hit after hit for the Material Girl as well as Diana Ross, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, the B-52s, Duran Duran and countless others is the heart of this book. The book eventually details on the rise and fall of disco, the "disco sucks" movement, and their future success as producers writing for Sister Sledge and Diana Ross. 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. I was lucky enough to catch a question/answer session with Nile Rodgers earlier this year, and his fun, humble, and engrossing personality made me decide to read his book.