Chic
From July 2020
1980. A lifetime ago: I’d just finished my third year of high school.
There’d been an art project (I use the word ‘art’ loosely) in which we had to design (again ‘design’) an album cover. The finished products revealed two distinct musical camps: fairly lame heavy metal eg Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow and a belated enthusiasm for punk which as a movement had crashed and burned three years earlier when we were in short trousers. I however chose to illustrate Can You Feel The Force by Liverpool’s finest musical export The Real Thing. Possibly a choice made through laziness on my part - I just drew a bolt of lightning - but I did and still do love that song.
It was the tail end of the disco era and the true kings of disco were Chic, a band put together by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. Between 1977 and 1983 Chic recorded and released an album every year. The big hits - Le Freak, Everybody Dance, I Want Your Love - all appeared on the first three and the quality starts to fade towards the end of that run of seven albums.
In 1980 Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards wrote and produced albums by Sister Sledge, yé-yé chanteuse Sheila ("He’s a spacer / A star chaser / A spacer") and Diana by Diana Ross, which went on to sell 10 million copies. And they also found time to record Chic’s fourth album Real People, to which, some 40 years on I’ve only just listened. It’s 37 minutes 32 seconds of sheer joy.
By this time the Chic sound had long been perfected: minimalist bass from Edwards, funky but yet strangely laidback guitar from Rodgers, vocals from Alfa Anderson and Luci Martina, and a four piece string section (yeah, take that Richie Blackmore). The lyrics seem to have been written in a matter of minutes ("I've got protection / From your infection") but no one bought Chic records for the lyrics. It sounds like they had fun recording it: I’ve certainly enjoyed listening to it these last few weeks.
If I were asked for a starting point for someone who had never heard Chic before I’d recommend Real People. If you like it then you’ll be completely blown away by Good Times. But then how have you got this far in life and not heard Good Times?