Chic were a dance/R&B group formed in the late 70's by Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards. They had numerous hit albums in the 70's, 80's & 90's and are still making music today. Wounded Bird presents a two-fer o... more »f Real People & Tongue In Chic. Real People hit # 30 on the charts in 1980 and Tongue In Chic hit # 173 in 1982. They have a cult following who will scarf up this 2-on-1disc fast. 15 tracks. 2003.« less
Chic were a dance/R&B group formed in the late 70's by Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards. They had numerous hit albums in the 70's, 80's & 90's and are still making music today. Wounded Bird presents a two-fer of Real People & Tongue In Chic. Real People hit # 30 on the charts in 1980 and Tongue In Chic hit # 173 in 1982. They have a cult following who will scarf up this 2-on-1disc fast. 15 tracks. 2003.
CD Reviews
Ooooh Sooo Satisfied
Andre S. Grindle | Brewer Maine | 08/04/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Chic's album 'Real People' is a classic album that not only represents the peak of Chic's first stage of developement but the end of a musical era.Call it the last shabang not only for 70's style disco but for Chic's classic sound.Every track is excellent (among them two superb shoulda' been hits in "Chip Off The Old Block" and "I've Got Protection").And 'Tongue In Cheek" from 1982 is just PLAIN underrated!!!By that point it was 1982 and Chic were nearing the end of their run as a band.The result was a sound such as on "I Feel A Love Comin' On" and "Hangin'" that embraced tighter funk rhythms then the more polished sound the band had once been known for.Don't get me wrong-Chic were always tight but they chaged what tight was by this time and it's worth the adventure!"
When Music Had Real Talent
World Champion | Bridgeport, Ct. United States | 01/15/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers are one of the most talented Production teams in the history of popular music. There are some Chic Albums that are a little better than others but they're all all worth listening to. "Real People" very good album. I love "I Got Protection", "You Can't Do It Alone", "I Loved You More" and many others.
"Tongue In CHIC" although good, I found this album by accident while making a trip to the record store in mid-1982. Lucky for me, it was a new release. To this day, I heard no singles or saw any advertisments promoting this particular Chic album. But I really enjoyed it nontheless. All the tracks are very good, but I really love Bernard's solo track "Sharing Love". "City Lights" is a very good track that could be a staple on Contemporary Jazz radio. The live track "Chic (Everybody say)" is a crowd pleaser that ends with an awesome Nile Guitar solo.
Both these albums should've been big sellers when they were first released but I guess some A&R people back then and today really have no idea what real talent sounds like. They Should listen to these 2 albums and see."
Chic and the Changing Times
M. | The Lou, Missouri United States | 01/21/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"By the time Real People came out, Chic was trying to adjust to life after disco. This portion of the review is from the stand-alone "Real People" CD - which I was lucky enough to get from an independent seller on this site.
I bought the Real People/Tongue In Chic double CD, but being a hardcore Chic fan, I had to have the stand-alone product. The double CD sounded horrible - tinnish with no bass.
The music on this CD literally bounces with more of Bernard's bass, has more pop with Nile's guitar, sparkles with playful keyboard work, glides with swoopy string arrangements, percolates with percussion, and stabs at you with the sharp vocals from the lead and backup vocalists. Real People sounds as fresh as when it was first released!
While Chic's previous albums were more commercially disco (or whatever you choose to call them), RP - at least for me, marks the beginning of a change for the group. This album was not a commercial success in the way that Risque gave us "Good Times" and "A Warm Summer Night", or in the way that C'est Chic gave us "Le Freak" and "I want Your Love", or in the way that Chic gave us "Dance, Dance, Dance" and "Everybody Dance". Times and tastes were changing, and disco was officially DEAD.
RP was significant for the group as the music moved somewhat away from disco. At the time, I didn't know how to identify it; this wasn't disco and it definitely wasn't new wave. Still, I couldn't call it R&B, but it wasn't pop either. FUSION(?) Still, the music was (and is) excellent.
Back in the day, I didn't like "Open Up" - it took some time for me to appreciate Chic's more instrumental numbers. This song showcases The Chic Strings: Karen Milne, Cheryl Hong, Valerie Heywood. Bernard's bass and Nile's guitar provide the funky underpinning for a dramatic opening number.
"Real People" gave the spotlight to Nile and his guitar with a rock edge over a soulful groove.
"I Loved You More" is total melacholy with a soulfully sad lead vocal and another guitar solo.
I had heard somewhere that "I Got Protection" was originally intended for Diana Ross' Chic-produced LP, but it wound up on RP instead. It's a nice song, but RP needed a commercially viable hit and this apparently wasn't IT. They should've given this to Miss Ross and taken "Have Fun (Again)" for themselves - especially since Russ Terrana butchered it by stripping away most of the Chicness to make it nothing more than pseudo-new wave filler for that LP. The song would've fallen in line with some of their other major hits while "...Protection" would've fit Ross' image as "The Boss" and THE Diva. But that's another story altogether!
"Rebels Are We" is the reason I bought RP; I believe I heard it on the radio ONCE. It was stark, spare, and dark compared to their earlier music. The strings stab in and out of the song like knives in your back. The instrumental break is fast-paced with Tony Thompson's rough-and-tumble drumming. It certainly wasn't dance music in the traditional Chic sense, but it made for great listening!
"Chip Off The Old Block" is the song I fell in love with. It's mid-tempo with a bit of lovelorn dialed in. While Chic fans always look to Nile and 'Nard - along with drummer Tony Thompson for musical genius, it's the keyboards that grabbed hold of me on this song as the one element that makes the music work here. The melodramatic ending of the chorus with Nile, the strings, and the keys teasing us all the way through the coda always (and still do) keep me coming back for more. Their song "Believer" used a similar formula a few years later.
Unfortunately, I can't say the same for "26". I just didn't get it. Nice instrumentation, though.
The last song also took a while to appreciate. I originally thought it was Nile who tackled the lead vocal on "You Can't Do It Alone", but-in fact, it was back up singer Fonzi Thornton. This song is one of Chic's finest moments. The sound is dated, like something out of the 1960s - retro-soul before it became...well...chic, so to speak. This is something Sam Cooke would've been comfortable singing. And that's what made it cool to me. The guitar solo at the end is haunting. Later, this song found placement on a Chic compilation CD ahead of the instrumental "Tavern on the Green" from the Soup For One soundtrack. The two make a great pair since "...Alone" ends with a guitar solo and "Tavern..." seemingly picks up where it leaves off.
This set marks a transition in Chic's work from disco/dance music to their days as makers of great fusion. RP was followed by "Take It Off", which went deeper into the jazz/fusion realm. Just the group said in one of its later songs, this is "Sweet, not sugar-coated 'cause the music is Chic." "Real People" is "Something You Can Feel"!
Unlike a lot of other people, I particularly liked Tongue In Chic. In some respects, I liked it more than Real People (but then again, I am a BIG time Chic-head). When You Love Someone is another great Chic ballad that changes and goes mid-tempo near the end. I Feel Your Love Comin' On was okay, but it lasted longer than it should have. The beginning reminded me of Aretha Franklin's Jump To It. Others seem to think that the flip side was mostly filler, but Chic (Everybody Say) was really better than Chic Cheer which preceded it. More great guitar work here. Hey Fool is a mid-tempo number with a burbling bass line that follows the Chic formula. Sharing Love is also Chic formulaic, but slower with a male lead. This album marked the return of the strings to Chic's music; Take It Off did without them. Chic's jazz/fusion number City Lights features them prominently as the musicians pluck them merrily here. I have TIC as a stand-alone CD and Tony Thompson's drum work here is stellar and seems to stand out on what was probably a remastered disc. This two CD set seems to lack that extra punch. The only song I disliked was Hangin' Out.
Again, I'm a true Chic-head, so only someone like me can appreciate the work done on TIC. Chic was a victim of changing times and music tastes."
The twilight of a great era
Olukayode Balogun | Leeds, England | 11/26/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Chic defined disco. Producers Bernard Rogers and Nile Rogers, on bass and guitar respectively, and the original core line-up with Tony Thompson on drums, Alfa Anderson & Luci Martin on vocals and Raymond Jones & Andy Schwartz on keyboards, not to mention the Chic strings, formed the backbone to many a disco hit in their own name and hits by many other artistes including Sister Sledge, Diana Ross and Carly Simon. They were the sound of the late 70s. Their first three albums, 1977's "Chic", 1978's "C'est Chic" and 1979's "Risque" were as iconic as they were commerically successful. I still find them, almost 30 years on, as much fun to listen (and dance) to as I did back when they were originally released.
By 1980 when "Real People" was released, the disco wheels were already starting to come off. Hip-hop was muscling in, thanks in no small part to Chic themselves - after all without Chic, there would've been no "Rapper's Delight" - and black music was, in general, moving towards a more synthesiser based r&b sound. Chic ramped it up on this album though, making their sound heavier by bringing the bass and drums to the fore (they used the same formula on Diana Ross' "Diana", which they produced that same year). We hear Nile Rogers playing more lead guitar on this album where before he relied on rhythm playing for the most part. The keyboards are also brought forward, while the strings are taken back. It's a bolder sound, if you will.
To all intents and purposes, this was their last hurrah. I don't know if they scored any chart success with the album but songs like the instrumental opener "Open Up", "Real People", "I Got Protection", "26" and "You Can't Do It Alone" were a huge success with me and still are. It was never clear to me and still isn't, who exactly sang the lead vocal on "You Can't Do It Alone". I was convinced it was Luther Vandross who had done a lot of work with Chic but he's not credited anywhere. If it was either Edwards or Rogers, they did a very good job. It's one of Chic's best songs ever, in my opinion.
The follow-up, "Tongue In Chic" was less successful all round and while Rogers and Edwards try to keep things current, the old Chic magic is dying. The album isn't hideously bad or anything like that but it's not really worth listening to either except, maybe, for purely historical research reasons. They gave it their best shot but Chic and funk just don't mix.
The group released a few more forgettable albums and the two producers were beginning to go their separate ways. Edwards released at least one solo album but it disappeared without trace. Rogers solo work as well but scored big as a producer on his own, most notably with Madonna. The pair did eventually team up again though (sans Thompson) for Chic's 1992 release "Chic-ism". The songs "Your Love" and "Doin' That Thing To Me" reminded me of the heydays (and "One And Only One", "In It To Win It" and "M.M.F.T.C.F." showed promise) but again, I don't believe there was any chart success. A mediocre live album was recorded in 1996 and sadly, Bernard Edwards passed away shortly after, while touring with his group Power Station. The album was eventually released in 1999. Tony Thompson died in 2003.
However one feels about disco as a whole, I personally that Chic are a crucial part of musical history. The album "Real People" is a piece of history as it's really their last good album. This CD is therefore worth getting if only for the first half. After owning it on vinyl since the year it came out, I would've happily paid for "Real People" on CD on its own but I couldn't find it for love or money. Having "Tongue In Chic" isn't a bonus in any way but it doesn't take anything away from the CD either. I can always stop the disc after track 8 if I want to, no?
"
Chic and not so Chic
Joel D. Arndt | University Heights, OH USA | 07/13/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I bought this CD because Real People is my favorite Chic album and I was thrilled to find it on CD. To me Real People is the culmination of everything that came before it. All tracks are wonderful from the opening instrumental, appropriately titled Open Up to the final and eighth track You Can't Do It Alone. The three singles that were released from this album are terrific, Real People, Rebels Are We and Chip Off the Old Block. The sound is still very contemporary. While maintaining the Chic strings it has a more jazz, rock feel which keeps it fresh. It has a very warm melodic feeling which, unfortunately, Tongue in Chic doesn't have. As a huge Chic fan, at the age of 20, I bought Tongue in Chic when it was released in 1982 and didn't care for it then and 21 years later at the age of 41 I still don't care for it very much. I hated side one so much at the time that I never turned over the record. I was surprised to hear the last three songs on this disc as they sound fairly good. I think Chic was just fulfilling contractural obligations with Atlantic Records by this point because overall the CD sounds like a throwaway. Two of the best tracks are less than three minutes in length, Hey Fool and Sharing Love and they don't sound complete. Another problem with Tongue in Chic is that the guys took over the lead vocals primarily as opposed to Alfa Anderson and Luci Martin. Big mistake. Bottom line- Real People-5 stars, Tongue in Chic-2 and 1/2 stars. This is still about three quarters of a great CD. Buy it."
Track Listings (15) - Disc #1