Nile Rodgers names the two most “extraordinary geniuses” popular music has ever produced
His hitmaker guitar is apparently the most heard instrument in pop music, he’s the only producer to have held the top three places in the charts at once with hits from Madonna, Duran Duran, and Robert Plant, and he just about invented disco. In short, Nile Rodgers knows a thing or two about music, to say the least. And yet, his constant hunger for collaboration has led to a bewilderingly undersized ego.
With that in mind, there are two stars that he has worked with that he places above any other in the world in of modern music. Writing for Billboard, the godfather of disco explained: “Prince and David [Bowie] were both absolutely extraordinary geniuses who saw the world in ways unlike we see the world. I would have conversations with both of them about a specific object or situation, and they would look at it from a completely different perspective.”
He continued: “Prince once said to me, ‘Nile, I’m really thinking about moving Paisley Park to Sweden. All the girls are beautiful, they drive Mercedeses and BMWs, and they can dance.’ It was profound to him. I tried to see if he was joking — ‘C’mon, Prince, that’s the most superficial thing I ever heard of’ — but he was not pulling my chain.” While that might not sound all that ‘profound’, Rodgers saw it as indicative of his artistic zest. Most would find the proposition preposterous, but as Mike Scott of The Waterboys wrote of The Purple One, he saw the whole moon without hesitation.
Similarly, Bowie didn’t just see the moon, he set a fair chunk of his songs there. “I always go back to [Bowie’s 1972 album] The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars,” Rodgers continues. “It was a real story and you could see it — it’s like a film. Everything Bowie did was theater — even if we were having dinner, it was theater. And Prince could make music with and out of anything. When you break down ‘When Doves Cry’, it’s so musical, but there’s actually not much going on. How do you make a record and have no bass? And it was a smash!”
Artists like this are few and far between. Neither Bowie nor Prince ever seemed to bow to trends or temper their vision. In fact, Bowie failed to make it for years, floundering around with hybrid mime acts and performance art that would never be commercial. Prince simply strolled into a studio as a teenager, refused to play ball with executives, and played a whopping 27 instruments on his debut record.
They also managed to bring out the best in people. “I’m more proud of Let’s Dance than damn near anything I’ve ever done, and it’s the easiest record I’ve ever made in my life — we did it from start to finish in 17 days,” Rodgers reflected. And even Bowie would cite that most of his collaborators ended up doing their best work with him. As for Prince, well, he was such a perfectionist you had no choice but to raise your game. Together, they ensured music stayed interesting long after the supposed death sentence of Woodstock.
As Rodgers concluded: “What they’ve given to the world, what they’ve given to me as an individual, is extraordinary — wonderful moments of brilliance. To have friends like that, unique thinkers in your midst, is a great gift.”
