Remarks:
In 1979, this went to #1 on the US R&B charts, right after McFadden & Whitehead’s “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” and right before Anita Ward’s “Ring My Bell”. It went to #4 across the Anglosphere as a whole.
On December 2nd 2015, I became the last person of my generation in North America to realize that this sounds just like a Chic song. As it turns out, Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic produced this song.
Sister Sledge is from Philadelphia, but the video was shot in New York. You can see the United Nations across the river behind them.
See also:
- songs, the 1970s
- Chic: Le Freak
- also from 1979:
- Michael Jackson
- Jody Watley
- Phyllis Hyman
Lyrics:
We are family
I got all my sisters with me
We are family
Get up ev’rybody and sing
We are family
I got all my sisters with me
We are family
Get up ev’rybody and sing
Ev’ryone can see we’re together
As we walk on by
(Hey) and we fly just like birds of a feather
I won’t tell no lie
(ALL!) all of the people around us they say
Can they be that close
Just let me state for the record
We’re giving love in a family dose
We are family
I got all my sisters with me
We are family
Get up ev’rybody and sing
We are family
I got all my sisters with me
We are family
Get up ev’rybody and sing
Living life is fun and we’ve just begun
To get our share of the world’s delights
(HIGH!) high hopes we have for the future
And our goal’s in sight
(WE!) no we don’t get depressed
‘Cause here’s what we call our golden rule
Have faith in you and the things you do
You won’t go wrong
This is our family Jewel
Abagond 
Wow, 2 posts in one day! 😛
Or is this a call to kinship based social systems?
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LOL
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One of my all-time favorite songs from my childhood! I can hear every beat of it as I read the lyrics. Thanks for giving me a smile with this post.
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Just thinking about this for a few minutes, the subject of the intersection of kinship and race in America could make an interesting series of posts.
Maternally inherited slave status, Jim Crow and anti-miscegenation laws were attempts to regulate the kinship system in the US, making social systems based on race more important than actual family relationships. The government and the social order went as far as breaking up kinship ties in order to enforce racial status.
With the repeal of the segregation, change in immigration and naturalization laws and the regrowth in the multiracial population, how does that affect Americans’ view of kinship relationships?
What does it mean: “We are family.”?
My argument: establishing connections to groups for racial reasons is still more important in the USA than paternal or maternal or other family ties, even perhaps more important than linguistic or cultural ties.
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Loved them from back in the day. Kathy Sledge still looks the same even after all these years.
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It was also a chosen theme song, of sorts, of the Dave Parker and the ’79 World Series’ champion Pittsburgh Pirates. What I am less certain of, but really seem to recall, is that they were the first sports team to do the hi-five.
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Reblogged this on League of Bloggers For a Better World.
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I wonder if the three notes descending in the main piano riff is an intentional nod to the same in Philadelphia Freedom.
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