This song involves a lot of heroes and is, in a way, about heroism itself. A ballad of psychological manumission, it was written by Nile Rodgersand Bernard Edwards for Chic's second album, 1978's C'est Chic. Chic were not merely masters of the disco sound, they embodied the best qualities of the disco ethos: unerring positivity, hope and – in the old fashioned sense of the word – the fantastic.
Rodgers and Edwards were two of my earliest musical heroes. The band's heavily cultivated image of sophistication and affluence was in part a response to the economic and social depression of late-70s New York, but this can't muddy the luminous wonder of their songwriting, musicianship and production, which went on to enhance – in some cases rescue – the careers of Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna, Duran Duran and many others (not to mention their huge influence on hip-hop).
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