R.I.P. Chuck Brown

Godfather of Go-Go Music.

[boingboing.net]

Ohhh man, this makes me sad ... "Bustin' Loose" always was one of my go-to songs whenever I did the soul/funk/R&B show on KRCC. Gimme the bridge now!

Rest in peace, Chuck. Bring that sweet funky music to heaven.

I work with a couple of people from Baltimore and they're pretty broken up about Brown's passing - he may have been one of the last regional superstars. Seems like he was a household name for people in the DC/Baltimore area but more of a cult artist in the rest of the country.

I'm not really all that familiar with go-go music, either. I have one Brown compilation from the late 80s and that's it. It's my understanding that go-go basically came up in DC around the same time hip-hop did in NYC and was based on the same sources - funk, soul, Jamaican toasting, etc. - but was always more live band based than hip-hop, which focused on MCs and DJs, all of which resulted in go-go getting steamrolled by hip-hop. It was a lot more manageable for poor urban kids to invest in a turntable, microphone and a stack of records than to recruit a shit-hot funk band.

I'm pretty sure you guys have heard "Da Butt" ("doin' the butt...Ow! pretty pretty") by E.U. - it was wedding-dj inescapeable for a while there. Still great, tho. The "Go Go Crankin" comp is a good overview. And try to find maybe my fave go-go tune ever, "The Word," by the Junkyard Band, on Def Jam, no less - they featured some little kids playing junk percussion and a singer who could be a 12-year-old Michael Jackson. Yep, I used to be quite the funk-aholic a decade or two ago when I got bored with rock.

I must confess that, though I've heard of Brown, I've never actually listened to him - or any go-go, for that matter. I'll make a point to check it all out now. Sad that I'm doing it only after its pioneer has passed away.

Brown's obit was center column, above the fold, front page of the Washington Post, so yeah, he was a big deal here. In terms of DC musicians, he would rank probably #3: Duke Ellington, Marvin Gaye, Brown.

I was out last night in a bar in H Street, with a bunch of dads talking about kids and watching the Pacers win (and Nats lose). Chuck Brown's "Bustin' Loose" came on the stereo, and everyone paused to offer a toast to Chuck.