It was late 1979, and the snow was blowing under the breath and blusters of billowing wintry weather. I was a young driver. You know, one of those high school seniors who would not turn 18 until a year after graduation. I was utilizing all the tools and techniques in the winter driving toolbox. My parents, especially my father, would have been so proud of how I was navigating this Ohio winter night, apart from a carload of high schoolers that I was driving from a basketball game to go slipping and sliding to a local pizza joint where all the Friday night teen culture of the day would congregate. I was young and naive, yet full of energy. About a mile away from our destination, on the radio I could hear it. I recognized the beat, cadence, and bass line. It was my favorite song at the time. Good Times by Chic. Instantly, snow or no snow, I turned the volume up to level 10.
Something was different about this version. Maybe it was an ultra-long 12-inch single they were playing on the radio station that night. I was waiting for those familiar vocals to begin to chime in. Suddenly, to my chagrin, some voices started barking and chanting out some rhyming words. I yelled out, “What is this! They have ruined my song.” My midwestern and suburban ignorance was apparent, not recognizing that I was listening to the Sugar hill Gang, doing rappers delight.
They took the clever bass runs of Nile Rogers and Chic and took the Hip Hop/Rap six-year-old East Coast genre of music and instantly turned it mainstream.
Here in 2024 what was called a fad is very much a mainstay of American music, now celebrated worldwide. We all remember how last year we celebrated a half-century anniversary of Hip Hop.
Thanks to what the composer Nile Rogers was to later describe as “a Walking Bass,” Nile Rogers’ Song “Good Times” with its Walking Bass was one of the most sampled songs in musical history. Those memorable bass lines inspired not only the Sugar Hill Gang but many others, some of which are listed below from a list compiled by an October 10th, 2010 Mental Floss article by David K. Israel, entitled “Ten Songs that Sample Good Times.”
“Father MC – Everything’s Gonna Be Alright
“It’s All Good,” by Will Smith
Gabriel o Pensador – 2345meia78
Everything is a Remix Part 1 (2021), by Kirby Ferguson
The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel
Another One Bites The Dust – Queen
Doowutchyalike – Digital Underground
Just The Two Of Us – Chubb Rock”
The Pittsburg Pirates, led by Willie Stargell, captured the hearts of America and the 1979 World Series while inspired by the team theme song, and Sister Sledge hit “We Are Family,” a Nile Rogers’ creation. He Serendipitously aided in the launch of a music revolution.
Nile Rogers was and continues to be one of my favorite and most celebrated musical artists, much like Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, and Prince, his influence on modern music was profound. However, Nile Rogers took it to a different level. Unfortunately, Rogers, the man, did not receive the accolades of the aforementioned. He also was socially conscious. Being a teen during the Civil Rights Movement brought an intimate awareness of the struggles of African Americans against the overt racism he and his family faced in those days; another point my personal story can relate to, though I was a good ten years younger. As a sixteen-year-old, young Nile was involved in a Black Panther-associated group.
In a Grunge online story quoting parts of an interview from “Inside Edition” the following was shared by Rogers.
As “Inside Edition” points out, the Black Panther movement was rooted in 1966 Oakland, California, and was centered on working to better the Black community. The group followed a doctrine that called for the end of police brutality toward members of the Black community. Black Panthers demanded peace for Black Americans but also advocated for structural changes that would lead to fair housing, better educational opportunities, and peace.
The Black Panthers were labeled a communist organization by the FBI. The Panthers organized and led police watching patrols in predominantly Black neighborhoods, with many of the members openly carrying firearms. But Nile Rodgers said the heart and soul of the movement were much more than that: “Real Panther life is painting a person’s house, taking their laundry, getting groceries, feeding kids. That’s real Panther life.”
Rodger’s activism continues to this day. He founded the We Are Family Foundation in 2008 with the mission to “create programs that promote cultural diversity” and assist youth who have visions to make positive change (via the We Are Family Foundation website). An extension of this foundation is the Youth To The Front Fund, which gives aid to youth leaders of organizations that fight racial injustices and promote total equality (per PR Newswire).
His life choices were by no means perfect ones as we all can identify with. However, scripture reminds us “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. “New Living Translation (NLT) As an up-and-coming young musician, he admittedly dabbled in psychedelic drugs.
Chic dominated the golden days of Disco, right on the heels of the Saturday Night Fever phenomenon. Nile Rogers’ passion for life transcended a musical era to affect genres and generations in future years and continues to this day because the human spirit the very breath of God, cannot be defined by a period of time or mode of expression. The initial and fleeting first impressions are inherently biased and tainted by the populist and vain lens of the contemporary. The human spirit can only be experienced against the backdrop of historical perspective, endurance, time, and perennial effects upon lives changed upward in trajectory along with the multiplying aftereffects to reach and empower throughout generations.
The Celebration of Black artists during Black History Month, i.e., Anthology in Black, would not be complete without Nile Rogers and an abundance of transformative musical artists.
“Beyond the rivers of Ethiopia[a] there is a land where the sound of wings is heard. 2 From that land ambassadors come down the Nile in boats made of reeds. Go back home, swift messengers! Take a message back to your land divided by rivers, to your strong and powerful nation, to your tall and smooth-skinned people, who are feared all over the world.
Discover more from Three-Fifths
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Three-Fifths 