Looking back over a long and varied career, Nile Rodgers could pick any number of occasions as his finest hour. But instead of focusing on his chart-topping records with the band Chic or landmark albums he produced for Madonna and David Bowie, he highlights what would seem like a low point.
"My proudest moment was when the 'disco sucks' movement was at its peak, when we had the song 'Good Times' on the charts," Rodgers, speaking by phone from Connecticut, says of his days in the crosshairs of angry rock fans.
As Chic's guitarist and, with bassist Bernard Edwards, its coproducer, Rodgers was one of the architects of an influential sound that's finally getting its due. A March issue of New York Time Out, ranked Chic third among the city's top 50 musical acts of all time, putting them above Miles Davis and below Duke Ellington and The Velvet Underground. Chic stand out because their R&B wasn't blues-based — they opted for European-derived chord progressions instead.