Tag Archives: Nile Rodgers

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2014 Nominees, Still At It After 25 Years – Or More!

Last week the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced the nominees for the class of 2014.  You can see the full list and contribute to this year’s fan ballot on the Rolling Stone magazine website. To be eligible for induction an artist or band must have released its first record 25 years ago, but many of this year’s nominees are still putting out new music.

Nirvana is nominated this year; their first single “Love Buzz” was released in 1988. Dave Grohl wasn’t with the band at that time, he joined in 1990, but he has carried the torch as a prolific musician, producer and filmmaker. And here’s “Love Buzz” in case you’ve never heard it.

Chic is also up this year, nominated for the eighth time. Nile Rodgers’ funky guitar was a central part of Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” CD released earlier this year – maybe that will put Chic over the top this time around.

Hall & Oates are on the ballot, and Daryl Hall is planning to add more episodes to his series “Live at Daryl’s House” soon.

The Zombies first became eligible for induction in 1989 (just when Nirvana was getting started!) but are nominated for the first time this year. The classic “She’s Not There” was released in 1964, and “Time of the Season” followed in 1968. Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent, the core of The Zombies, released “Breathe Out, Breathe In” in 2011 with some jazz-inflected tunes featuring Rod’s fantastic keyboard work and Colin’s clean vocals. Check out this very retro video for “Time of the Season”, and see the gray-maned men still at it after 50 years.

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Daft Punk, Pharrell and Nile Rodgers Get Lucky

One of 2013’s most anticipated releases is Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” due out May 21st. The last album by the French electronic duo was “Alive 2007” which featured the track “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”. Both the track and the album won Grammy’s.

The first track released from “Random Access Memories” is “Get Lucky” featuring Pharrell Williams and legend Nile Rodgers. Watch the teaser video, then listen to the whole pristine production.

Singer, songwriter, rapper, fashion designer Pharrell Williams provides the vocals on “Get Lucky”. Pharrell (accent on the second syllable) is maybe best known as a producer, helping to assemble tracks for half the names in hip hop. Among his latest production credits was Frank Ocean’s 2012 album “Channel Orange” (see our earlier post Frank Ocean’s and Stevie Wonder’s Best Albums).

Nile Rodgers, who brings the funky guitar work on “Get Lucky”, has the same broad set of talents as Pharrell on a grander scale spanning nearly five decades. His production credits are completely ridiculous (click on the Wikipedia link here Nile Rodgers to read about them), and as a member of Chic he played on one of the best selling singles of all time “Le Freak”.

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