Chords for Nile Rodgers Tells the Story of David Bowie's "Let's Dance"

[G] I was at [B] an after-hours club and I run into this guy named David Bowie.
[E] _ [Abm] And he was sitting at the back of the room all by himself.
And so I walk [Ebm] over to him and I start talking to him because he lived in [N] the same building as Luther [G] Vandross and the Young Americans and [Cm] all these guys.
[G] And [B] so I say, yeah man, Luther is my boy, blah blah blah.
And we start talking [E] and all David wants [B] to do is talk about jazz.
And I'm like, oh really?
And we're talking about everybody that we love and this one and that one.
And he was into really avant-garde stuff.
So _ [N] _ he asked me to come to Switzerland.
_ [E] And I [Ab] think that the Swiss trip was some kind of audition.
[N] So I go to Switzerland and David writes something that sounds like [F] this.
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _
[F] _ _ _ [Bb] Oh right, he was playing [Ab] like a 12-string guitar.
So it sort of makes sense, but the 12-string guitar only had six [Bb] strings on it.
And he [Dm] was playing [B] like, oh I [Em] know, it was like.
[C] _ _ _
_ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Bm] And [Db] I said, so David, what is that?
He went, I want to call that song [N] Let's Dance.
And I went, really?
And he _ said, that word was not a dog name, I think it's a hit.
And I was so weird.
I was like, whoa dude. _
Like I come from dance music, you can't call that.
_ I can just play Let's Dance.
So I [Bb] went to Switzerland with music paper, right?
I had [F] all this manuscript paper with me.
I didn't know what we were going to do.
So I said, well David, [Bb] can I do an arrangement?
And he said, [E] sure.
So I did, [C] I went _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ something like [E] that.
And that [B] was like sort of sounding cool, but it was a little dark.
And then I just moved it up to B [Bbm] flat and went, _ _ _ [Bb] uh-oh, I'm onto [Fm] something here.
[Bbm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Abm] Because I knew he liked jazz.
[Eb] And [Bbm] then, _ [Bb] but it sounded a little dark.
So then I inverted it [Fm] up to, _ _ _ and I started going.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Bbm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Gb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Bbm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Fm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Bbm] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _
_ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _
_ [Bb] But because [E] I was so afraid of [B] the little such thing, I just [Bbm] played. _ _
_ [C] [Abm] And then Bob Claremont put these unbelievably cool delays.
_ [Bb] I just went.
_ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
_ [Bbm] _ _ _ _ _ And _ _ [Bb] _ _ [Gb] _ _ _ _
[F] _ _ [Db] [N] Bob was going. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ And it was a smash.
It was a smash.
[B] And I remember, _ so I used to always tell this story [N] that we did the record in 19 days because
David had booked three weeks at the studio.
[Bb] So Bob and I, we did a video game [F] soundtrack not too long ago.
[Gb] And he said, no, [B] Nyle, we did it in 17 days.
The last few days, you just didn't show up.
You were like, I'm [F] pardoned.
Because [Bb] remember, the party [Db] animal, you know, I was out.
And so we did it in 17 days, literally start to [Gb] finish, [Bb] mixed and everything.
Stevie Ray's solos, David's vocals, everything.
I even wrote the horn arrangements.
[B] Nick Ricochet, he just threw that together.
And I went out and wrote the hit, hit, hit, [Ab] all that stuff in 17 days.
And then Bob [F] mixed like three or four songs a day.
And we [C] were done.
So for the last [F] few days, he had listening parties along with selling the [Bb] record.
So _
_ _ [Eb] then all of a sudden, [F] then my career [N] got another boost.
And I did In Excess.
I did In Excess, then I did Duran Duran, then I did Madonna.
And then there's just like [B] a string of really cool records.
[Bb] Everybody from Paul Simon.
And I saw it earlier, I saw [Abm] Rico Casick in the room.
I mean, Rico [Bb] Casick, I did David B.
Roth.
I did just a ton [Gb] and a ton of records [Fm] with Michael Austin here, my new partner.
We just signed a deal with Warner Brothers.
[Eb] Oh, [Bm] right, and Cameron is going to take [Bb] this [F] _ whole [Bb] charity-ness event.
So [Db] we did a bunch of [Bb] records, some more successful than [F] others.
But the truth of the matter is that everything was done with [B] passion and from my heart.
And I [Ab] always tried to make the best record I could.