Nile Rogers remembers crafting ‘Let’s Dance’ with David Bowie
David Bowie knew how to pick the perfect collaborator. In the early 1980s, having retreated to Switzerland following the murder of John Lennon in 1981, he embraced the sound of disco, working closely with Gorgio Moroder on ‘Cat People’ and recording the super syncopated Queen hit ‘Under Pressure’. It was at his time that he invited Chic’s Nile Rodgers – a known hitmaker – to join him in the studio. Here, Rodgers recalls how he transformed ‘Let’s Dance’ from a fawning folk ditty into a disco floor-filler.
Once in Switzerland, Rodgers and Bowie quickly set to work. “He walked into my bedroom,” Nile told The Times, “And he says, ‘now darling’- he always called me darling – ‘now darling, I think this song’s going to be a hit.” With that, Bowie began playing a jaunty folk version of ‘Let’s Dance’ on a twelve-string acoustic guitar. Rodgers didn’t know what to say.
“I thought, ‘Woah, David, I come from dance music. That’s weird; it’s not a dance song…’ And he said, ‘well, it’s not a dance song, at least not in the traditional way. It’s a song that’s about the dance between relations that you have with people.’ And he went on this very long diatribe about dancing, and I was like, ‘wait a minute, hold on.’ I said, ‘that’s all well and good, but it’s gotta make people wanna dance; that’s the world I come from.’ So I said to him, ‘hey, David, can I do an arrangement?’ And he went, ‘oh sure, I’d love to hear an arrangement’.”
Knowing that Bowie was a big jazz fan, Rodgers began implementing minor 13ths into his initial chord progression, giving the song a completely new flavour. “But it still sounded a little dark to me for a pop record, so I moved it up a half step, and I was going like, ‘woah, bright is the key’. So I said, ‘what if I took the whole thing up an octave?'”
With the song’s foundation newly invigorated, Rodgers took Bowie’s track into the studio. Producer Bob Clearmountain was twiddling with a day unit to work out the best rhythm for Bowie’s vocals, the sax and drums when Rodgers “happened to walk in,” he said. “I was like, woah, wait a minute. Put my guitar in that thing.'” On hearing the timed delay emanating from Rodgers’ guitar, Bowie was convinced. “At the beginning of the demo, he was all willing to give it a shot because that’s the kind of guy he is; he’s an artist whose searching – he doesn’t mind experimenting. At the end of the song, he was like that’s it, I got it, you’re right. ‘”
You can revisit ‘Let’s Dance’ below.
