The Beatles song that made Nile Rodgers desperate to “become a virtuoso”
It was always Nile Rodgers‘ destiny to make a living from music in one capacity or another from an early age, but once the guitar became part of his life, he had a clear vision of what he wanted to do.
Rodgers’ childhood was far from functional or traditional. However, music was always there to offer a sense of hope and escapism, as well as providing a ticket to success.
His father, Nile Rodgers Sr, was a professional musician, playing percussion and specialising in Afro-Cuban beats. While his role in his son’s life was fairly minimal, passing on his musicianship was a vital lesson that stood Rodgers Jr in good stead.
The family lived in Greenwich Village, which, at that time, was the best place to be if you wanted to feel inspired. While they lacked financial riches, the beatnik community they inhabited made them prosperous in an abundance of other ways.
Like his father, Rodgers began playing percussion in a series of groups before expanding his wings by learning the flute and clarinet. Then, at 16, he got his first guitar, and every other instrument that he’d learned were set to be discarded.
While he’d received formal music training as well as a cultural upbringing that money can’t buy, his road to becoming a guitarist, like millions of others, began with The Beatles.
“When I moved back to New York, I took guitar because it was all about folk music and hippie music and protesting and things like that, and I was only into classical music as far as performing, I had never played any pop music,” Rodgers once explained to Forbes in regards to the gap in his musical knowledge.
For his 16th birthday, his mother bought him a guitar along with a Beatles songbook. Naturally, he elected to begin his mission with ‘A Day in the Life’, as the songs were in alphabetical order, and for sentimental reasons, it occupies a place in his heart above any other Beatles creation. He recalled, “I was trying to play ‘A Day In The Life’ and I could never get it right, and I didn’t understand why because I was quite diligent copying the fingering patterns.”
His mother’s husband then helped him tune the instrument, and after that crucial moment, Rodgers was away, and suddenly, his weeks of agony were over. To this day, he still vividly remembers when everything clicked into place, explaining, “As soon as this guy tuned the guitar up, I played what I had been struggling over for the last two to three weeks, and right away a beautiful chord rang out and I went, ‘Oh my God'”.
Not only does Rodgers remember how special it was to finally overcome the challenges of learning ‘A Day in the Life’, but that overwhelming sense of jubilation has never left him, either.
He euphorically remembered, “I felt like the first person (who) walked on the moon, it was the most inspirational moment of my life. At that moment, I decided I was not going to be mediocre at all the various instruments in the symphony orchestra that was assigned to me as a child, but I was going to concentrate on one instrument and try and become a virtuoso, and that’s when I decided I was a guitarist.”
The Beatles’ ‘A Day in the Life’ isn’t a song for Rodgers, it’s the sliding doors moment that pushed him on the path to greatness and answered his calling. He had no desire for it to be just another instrument that he could play with a level of competence. Instead, Rodgers wanted to be among the best in the world, and within a decade, that goal finally became within touching distance.
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