Chic: Good Times

Remarks:

This was the number one song on the US R&B charts 40 years ago today, about to become #1 on the US pop chart as well. It went to #4 across the Anglosphere (weighted average).

I remember hearing it on the radio in 1979 and thinking, “Wow, I hope these are not the good times!” Some of my friends and others would later romanticize the 1970s in the 1990s. I tried to patiently explain to them that their parents were sheltering them from the worst.

The song was written the morning it was recorded by Nile Rodgers and done in one or two takes. But Bernard Edwards’s now-legendary bass line in the song was something they had been trying to achieve for years, inspired by the bass line in “Hollywood Swinging” (1974) by Kool & the Gang. It was quickly copied by the Sugarhill Gang in “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) and by Queen in “Another One Bites the Dust” (1980).

The violins are from the New York Philharmonic.

See also:

• songs: the 1970s
• also Nile Rodgers:
  • Chic: Le Freak
  • Sister Sledge: We Are Family
  • David Bowie: China Girl
• R&B: a brief history: 1975-1979

Lyrics:

Good times, these are the good times
Leave your cares behind, these are the good times
Good times, these are the good times
Our new state of mind, these are the good times

Happy days are here again
The time is right for makin’ friends
Let’s get together, how ’bout a quarter to ten
Come tomorrow, let’s all do it again

Boys will be boys, better let them have their toys
Girls will be girls, cute pony tails and curls
Must put an end to this stress and strife
I think I want to live the sporting life

Good times, these are the good times
Leave your cares behind, these are the good times
Good times, these are the good times
Our new state of mind, these are the good times

A rumor has it that it’s getting late
Time marches on, just can’t wait
The clock keeps turning, why hesitate
You silly fool, you can’t change your fate
Let’s cut the rug, a little jive and jitterbug
We want the best, we won’t settle for less
Don’t be a drag, participate
Clams on the half shell and roller-skates, roller-skates

Good times, these are the good times
Leave your cares behind, these are the good times
Good times, these are the good times
Our new state of mind, these are the good times

Good times!

Source: Songfacts, Sway in the Morning (Nile Rodgers interview in 2015).