Book reviews were an occasional part of the old blog, the original Vinyl Villain, hosted by blogger between 30 September 2006 and 24 July 2013. I have been known to dive into what’s left of the vaults and re-post some things that kind of feel timeless but until now, have refrained from doing so with any of the book reviews.
Until today.
It’s partly to do with that I’ve been a tad busy in recent weeks and while I’ve managed to keep up with some reading, I haven’t been able to make the time to sit down and type up my thoughts about any music bio. So, in order to keep the monthly series going, I’m reaching back to Friday 3 February 2012. What follows is the review posted at that time, but augmented with a couple of additional sentences/snippets that emerged from the comments section (my thanks to Swiss Adam and Craig McAllister), which also influenced the mp3s and the video footage.
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“I asked Santa to bring me this as it had received quite a number of excellent reviews towards the end of 2011. I’m pleased I did.
Nile Rodgers is best known as one of the founding fathers of disco, thanks in part to the songs he wrote and recorded with Chic and the songs he wrote and recorded with others acts such as Sister Sledge and Diana Ross. What I hadn’t realised until picking up this immensely satisfying 300 pages was his contribution to the careers of so many others, including David Bowie, Madonna and Duran Duran.
He was also a big influence on Johnny Marr, to the extent that he named his firstborn after him as well as ripping-off the Chic sound – hook, line and sinker-for the second verse of The Boy With The Thorn In His Side.
OK. Nile Rodgers’ musical career is not one your average indie-kid will confess an undying love for. And to be honest, outwith the Chic songs, I don’t have much else in either the vinyl or CD collections. And if this had been a book in which all Nile did was talk about music and musicians, I don’t think I’d have been impressed.
What makes this such a cracking read is the life he has lived…..particularly his childhood and formative years. For once, it is easier to just crib from the dust jacket.
Born into a mixed-race family of dope fiend bohemians, he learned – at a very early age – everything he needed to know about love, loss, fashion, art, music and the subversive power of underground culture. The stars of the scene were his glamorous teenage mum and heroin-addicted Jewish stepfather…..
His upbringing is a genuinely astonishing tale as he went from east coast to west coast and back again (more than once) living sometimes with mum, his grandparents, with hippies and members of the Black Panther organisation. The first third of the book is genuinely unputdownable.
The middle part is a bit less interesting – just a wee bit too ‘rags to riches to excess’ for my liking. Loads of sex, loads of drugs and loads of dancing and not too much humility. But to a large extent, given how wild an upbringing Nile Rodgers had experienced, it’s not hard to understand why he went off the rails so easily. To be fair, parts of the middle section of the book are a great read when he’s telling you about his family rather than tales of how great it was to work with the rock and pop gods of the 80s.
The final part of the book deals pretty quickly with the last 15 years. There’s a fair bit of death and tragedy in here, with the author acknowledging that but for the grace of god…and there are things you learn about what he’s now doing with his life and the fortune he has amassed.
I’m fairly sure that the story that Nile has set down is like a 7″ version of his life….and the extended 12″ version would be well worth getting your hands on. For instance, I’m sure he’s got loads more tales from his childhood – it really does seem as if that alone could have been a 500-page volume.
The positive reviews are merited. And you don’t need to be a disco king or dancing queen to get a lot of pleasure from this book.”
mp3 : Chic – Good Times
mp3 : The Smiths – The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
2 cracking tunes
SC