Rejected at the door of Studio 54: The true story behind Chic’s mammoth hit ‘Le Freak’
When Outkast were welcomed into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, they gave a passionate speech, but one thing stuck out in particular.
They naturally began with the usual dose of thank yous to all of those involved in their career; however, as they were wrapping things up, Andre 3000 gave an ode to beginning. “Jack [White] he’s one of my favourites man, we love you man,” he said, “One thing he said, he said something ‘little rooms’, and we started in a…”
His speech was cut short, not by an angsty sound engineer keeping his eye on his watch, but by Andre himself. Tears filled his eyes, and his voice broke under the weight of memory; apparently, being taken back to the early days of becoming a rapper was too much. After finding his voice once more, he managed, “Little rooms. Great things start in little rooms.”
Andre definitely has a point when he says this. So much great music has been the result of small rooms, as like-minded people gather in the same space and allow ideas to form there and then. Of course, this isn’t the only way to make great music. While acceptance into one of these little rooms may well be helpful for musicians, it turns out that rejection can have just as solid an impact. Allow me to explain.
There was a time when Studio 54 was the club that everybody wanted to go to. Every celebrity of the moment, Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger, Diana Ross and more would all flood the dance floor for event-filled nights of drink, dancing, and whatever your mind can fathom. Of course, it’s also where a lot of people would talk about future projects. Given you had so many great minds in the vicinity of one another, it was a good place to grab a drink and hash out a plan.
That’s exactly what Grace Jones did, as when she decided she wanted CHIC to produce her next album, she asked the bands Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards to meet her at Studio 54. The two did as they were asked; however, the bouncer on the door of Studio 54 was notoriously picky when it came to letting anyone who wasn’t an A-lister in. When Rodgers and Edwards told him they were friends of Grace Jones and there to see her, he promptly told them to “Fuck off,” and sent them away.
Denied access to that little room, they headed back to an even littler one, Nile Rodgers apartment. The two musicians, who only moments ago were excited about meeting Grace Jones, were now taking their anger out on their instruments, jamming relentlessly and running with whatever idea they could think of, repeatedly saying the same words the bouncer had so kindly offered up to them: “Fuck off.”
Upon realising the groove they had hashed out had legs, they decided to actually put it into a song. Some kind of structure fell into place, and they started to talk about potential lyrics. They knew they couldn’t keep offering up the poetic “Fuck off,” certainly not if the track was going to make it onto the radio, so they replaced those words with “Freak out,” and the rest of the song was built around that.
The track, officially titled ‘Le Freak’, was recorded and released by the band and went straight to number one. The club they had previously been denied entry into was now playing the song they wrote as a result of said refusal, and the two had ensured that they would now always be welcome in the nightclub that had originally turned them away.
