Thursday, May 17, 2012

R.I.P. Chuck Brown

Via WJLA: Chuck Brown dies: 'Godfather of Go-Go' passes away at 75.... "Chuck Brown, the legendary musician who is known as the "Godfather of Go-Go," passed away Wednesday, his daughter confirmed to ABC7's Sam Ford.

 Brown's passing comes about a week after the Washington Post confirmed that the musician, considered the pioneer of Go-Go music, had been hospitalized with pneumonia. Brown's 1970 hit, "Bustin' Loose," hit #1 on the MCA charts. The song was later sampled in the 2002 Nelly song, "Hot in Herre." He had recently postponed numerous shows due to his failing health."  More soon.

ADDED: Washington Post obituary for Chuck Brown... “Bustin’ Loose” was “the one record I had so much confidence in,” Mr. Brown told The Post in 2001. “I messed with it for two years, wrote a hundred lines of lyrics and only ended up using two lines. . . . It was the only time in my career that I felt like it’s going to be a hit.”

It was Mr. Brown’s biggest single, but throughout the 1980s “We Need Some Money,” “Go-Go Swing” and “Run Joe” became local anthems, reinforced by radio support and the grueling performance schedule that put Mr. Brown on area stages six nights a week.

While rap music exploded across the country, go-go dominated young black Washington, with groups including Trouble Funk, Rare Essence and Experience Unlimited following in Mr. Brown’s footsteps..."

WATCH: July 2011 interview with Chuck Brown...








ADDED: From Stephen A Crockett Jr, WaPo... "In 1984, before Bryant St, NW would become a one way, I am a third grader in search of candy and I hear Chuck Brown’s go-go version of this song [I'm in the mood for love] blasting out of a blue Bonneville stuck at a traffic light. I slow walk up to the Sunbeam market so I can catch more of the song.

Light changes and the Bonneville bones out but the music is still in my head and it stays with me into the corner store. Later, I would run the whole way home trying desperately to hold the melody in my head. I asked my Dad about it, but he played a different version of the classic tune. I told him that it wasn’t it. “Oh, he said, knowingly. “That was Chuck.”

One name: like Madonna or Prince or Oprah. Chuck...."

No comments: