A Funky German Walk
I hit the streets of Bremen early in the morning
After I was diagnosed with aggressive cancer last year the doctors started me walking to keep up my strength. I hit the streets of Bremen early in the morning. The weather was uncommonly nice. It's just a few weeks before winter but it feels like the beginning of autumn.
I never take a music player on my daily walks because I have a massive playlists embedded deep inside my cerebral cortex. The sights and situations inspire the appropriate soundtrack to accompany me.
As I left the hotel "Spring Affair" by Donna Summer was playing in my head. The entire 8:32 album version. Maybe because I was in Germany, or maybe because of the pleasant weather, or maybe both? I'll always think of Donna Summer as being on Oasis Records, the German label owned by her über producer Giorgio Moroder, whose real name is Hansjörg Moroder. He also did Munich Machine's "Get On The Funk Train" - which I sang next as I walked in the park in front of my hotel.
When I saw a family feeding birds across the lake I started singing "We Are The Robots" by Kraftwerk. I don't know why but I figured they do this every day. Between Donna, Giorgio, and Kraftwerk I had A Funky German Walk.
Doing A Funky German Walk on stage with the CHICettes
Donna Summer "Love to Love You Baby" Single on Giorgio Moroders Label
Giorgio Moroder "From Here to Eternity"
Munich Machine "Get on the Funk Train"
Munich Machine
Kraftwerk "We Are the Robots"
VIDEO: Donna Summer "Spring Affair"
Le Freak:
An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny
Written by Nile Rodgers
Category: Biography & Autobiography - Personal Memoirs; Biography & Autobiography - Composers & Musicians; Music - Popular
Format: eBook, 336 pages
On Sale: October 2011
Price: $ 12.99
ISBN: 978-0-679-64403-3 (0-679-64403-2)
Available as a hardcover and eBook.
You will hear a Nile Rodgers song today. It will make you happy.
Today's pop music—genre-crossing, gender-bending, racially mixed, visually stylish, and dominated by dance music with global appeal—is the world that Nile Rodgers created. In the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote and produced the songs that defined that era and everything that came after: "Le Freak," "Good Times," "We Are Family," "Like a Virgin," "Modern Love," "I'm Coming Out," "The Reflex," "Rapper's Delight." Aside from his own band, Chic, he worked with everyone from Diana Ross and Madonna to David Bowie and Duran Duran (not to mention Mick Jagger, Debbie Harry, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Prince, Rod Stewart, Robert Plant, Depeche Mode, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Grace Jones, Bryan Ferry, INXS, and the B-52's), transforming their music, selling millions of records, and redefining what a pop song could be.
Read more about order the memoir here:
"Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny"
