Nile Rodgers tells of transforming Bowie's "Let's Dance" from folky to beyond funky

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/06/24/nile-rodgers-tells-of-transfor.html

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This is magical

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Thanks for the reminder! Will add to the post.

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Sorry. I ought to have made it this one. :wink:

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Since I knew David loved jazz and he understood the vernacular, I said to him, “Hey David, can I do an arrangement of this song?”

Whoa, easy with the esoteric lingo there, hepcat!

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It’s a shame he wasn’t mic’d properly. If I had a dollar for every video where someone is talking to their phone on the other side of the room…

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He also took Daft Punk’s last record over the moon…

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He already told that same story 5 years ago, just not in an ad for Fender (and without the delay).

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Music really is the overlap of science and art; so cool.

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There are numerous videos of him telling the same story. I like some of his more instructional stuff. It could lift a cloud over new guitar players to learn that he’s happy to ignore or mute half the strings instead of striving to perfect every bar chord.

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As long time DJ (mixing). While I agree with Nile, the Fender and the changes he made dramatically changed the song, but like with most Chic associated projects, it really came alive with Tony Thompson’s hard hitting drums.

That record still pops, of course it depends on the age group but generally it still fills a floor.

Is it me or does he have like 13s on that thing?

Interesting q! I think for one he may get a heavier sound by sometimes playing strings 2-3-4 on a higher fret instead of 1-2-3. But also looked at one of his signature guitars here and, maybe photoshop but the strings look kinda fat.

And for Let’s Dance, a heavier gauge might also make sense knowing he was book-ending SRV who most likely used 13’s. And…maybe not. Here’s a thing Nile said about that:

“The very first time I met S.R.V. it was the most charming thing ever,” said Rodgers. “He played my guitar and he used to use much heavier-gauge strings. So he was playing my Strat and he broke a string. I didn’t know because I was off in another room doing something else. When I got back to my guitar there was a sweet handwritten note that I still have. It said, ‘Dear Nile, so sorry. I didn’t mean to break no strangs.’ And he spelled it with an A!”

On a Gearslutz thread people smarter than me are guessing 10’s. But also some interesting thoughts there as to whether he’s got low output pickups which might require banging on the strings a little harder, no?

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