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Everybody dance: Nile Rodgers’ 20 greatest tracks – ranked!
As the 72-year-old prepares for Glastonbury with Chic, we rate the best of his guitar licks and songwriting magic for Madonna, Diana Ross, Sister Sledge and more
Chic at their vertiginous zenith, when Rodgers and Edwards seemed incapable of making anything that didn’t sound simultaneously flawless and effortless: the simplicity of the four-note hook balanced out by the complexity of the slow-building horn and string arrangement, which achieves euphoric take off at 3min 25sec. More so than their debut single, Everybody Dance defined Chic’s sound, their ethos of music as a form of luxury goods: sophisticated, spare but somehow sumptuous, driven by incredible musicianship (listen to Edwards’s bass), lyrics that hymn the dancefloor as the cure for whatever might be ailing you. Originally a complaint about Rodgers and Edwards being refused entry to Studio 54, titled Fuck Off (there’s still a snarky quality to the finished song’s suggestion you “come on down to the 54”), Le Freak’s irresistible call to the dancefloor sold 7m copies, proof that living well is the best revenge.
Or read this on The Guardian
