We Are Family

I love disco. I love it still. I love it always. I know 1979 is the year disco died at Comiskey Park, but it didn’t die for me. I love it. I love all of it.

And of the disco songs I actually remember experiencing when I was five years old, Sister Sledge’s “We are Family” is my favorite. My mom didn’t play this one at home; I experienced it mostly as a radio song in the car riding along with various babysitters.

The reason I remember it so fondly, even at a young age, was its curious grammar. I thought the chorus was “We are family / I got all my sisters in me.” In reality, they sing “with me” not “in me,” but the latter is what I heard and believed for years.

At the time, I didn’t have a sister, I only had a brother. And having all your sisters inside you didn’t make any sense. But it was gloriously nonsensical. And if that was the lyric, I think it’d be even cooler.

Per Wikipedia, this is the first song Nile Rodgers and and Bernard Edwards wrote for another group outside of Chic. And Rodgers’s Hitmaker Strat is a key reason why it’s awesome. Also, inject that piano hook and luxurious lead vocal into my veins.

This single was released at the very apex of disco in April of 1979. Three months later, disco was dead. But not for me. I got it in me, still.

Fave lyrics:

No (we), 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, oh no This is our family jewel We are family Hey, hey, hey, hey, yeah I got all my sisters with (in?) me Woah, ah, woah, ah, ah