Chuck Brown: The Godfather of Go-Go

[mjzee]

In a town where bureaucrats come and go, Chuck Brown remains.

Now 74 years old, the singer-guitarist dubbed "The Godfather of Go-Go" just released a three-disc set, "We Got This" (Raw Venture), that includes an EP—with five new tracks featuring Jill Scott, Ledisi and bassist Marcus Miller—as well as a concert CD and DVD that serve as career retrospectives. The last two discs document a phenomenon in contemporary pop music: Go-go is a form of funk indigenous to this city that's rarely heard elsewhere—unless Mr. Brown is touring. At a table at Ben's Chili Bowl here, he said that "I would've been just as happy if the sound only stayed in D.C."

Go-go music's lack of broad appeal seems to boil down to the perception that it can draw a violent crowd: Promoters would rather steer clear of it, and as a result a wide audience hasn't been nurtured. That's a shame, because go-go music, at least when Mr. Brown serves it up, is an undeniably infectious strand of dance music with the potential to draw in fans of old-school R&B, hip-hop and '70s jazz funk. Put Mr. Brown on stage at a festival like Bonnaroo or Glastonbury and he'd come away with thousands of new fans—and so would go-go music.

More here:

WSJ

[JSngry]

Chuck Brown swings. That stuff gets deep sometimes...

If you can find this - and live through both discs - you will be high for life, I promise.

[MomsMobley]

Chuck Brown is cool, Go-Go is crap... Or, let me clarify, the whole 'go-go' schtick was jive from the start, a useless 'distinction' for mess of musics that were failing nearly everywhere save oldies shows and the chitlin' circuit. The perception that shit is boring (sometimes it is) or 'corny' is by far most important; hardly anyone anywhere thinks of 'go-go' enough for any other perceptions to register.

Also, a little guy named Prince had A LOT to do people not giving a shit.

The Walk

And oh yeah, Michael too.

Just ask Carlos Ward (pre-Cecil)--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eqRHdaARCw&feature=related

Also, who says a blues band can't play country?

today i started licking you again

Chuck Brown swings. That stuff gets deep sometimes...

If you can find this - and live through both discs - you will be high for life, I promise.

[JSngry]

Or, let me clarify, the whole 'go-go' schtick was jive from the start...

You take the schtick, I'll take the groove. Works for me,

[John L]

Bunch of failing musics? I don't see it that way. Go-Go, or whatever you want to call it, draw on whatever is out there to play something that soul/funk-generation adults can REALLY boogie to now, in real time, no bars spared. This is dance and party music of the first degree. A Chuck Brown concert is always a genuine thrill and one hell of a party. This is music of the people, by the people, and for the people. If most of it is not also music for the ages, so damn what.

Edited October 2, 2010 by John L

[Hoppy T. Frog]

Chardly anyone anywhere thinks of 'go-go' enough for any other perceptions to register.

Bullshit. "Anyone" apart from African Americans of all ages in a swath from Baltimore to Petersburg, Va.

And what I'm saying is, let's go to a VFW hall in Temple Hills, MD and you take the mic and tell that to the crowd.

Edited October 3, 2010 by Hoppy T. Frog

[JSngry]

Also, who says a blues band can't play country?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORKwOg1sUMk&feature=related

I think you got Wayne Bennett for two full choruses there, in which case, you got something to pay extra attention to.

[MomsMobley]

D.C. cracks me up-- you all spend half your lives in hideous traffic making nice to venal apparatchiks and are therefore rather tense, I understand, but FACTS ARE FACTS:

virtually ** nobody ** gives a shit and the failure of go-go has NOTHING do with 'danger' or any "racial" or racialized perception besides its own general lack of interesting content-- people can, and do, dance to lots of other stuff; i appreciate the proponents of dance but they DO protest too much-- they should include dance as part of theater if they're going that way, though the french often took things too far in 18th-19th c. opera.

so why are you guys not crying about zydeco's lack of a national audience, or bluegrass, or old-timey, or cowboy songs? what about minstrel music and vaudeville, both of which are greater traditions than all of go-go ever combined? oh wait, save minstrel shows, they all DO have national audiences, albeit (often very) small ones, with less than a few handfuls of its practitoners able to make a full-time living (which is why bluegrass trends to mainstream contemporary country: it's a matter of survival).

"go go" shuck was jive from the start, a useless "distinction" of a certain strain of late '60s, early '70s funk/blues the promotion of which, in willful ignorance at least a dozen other past and present black Chesapeake cultural traditions (from Frederick Douglass forward), couldn't have ended well-- and it didn't.

do you believe otherwise?

if it's a sustainable regional or local culture, GREAT, but there's no reason anybody else should care, let alone feel guilty for ignoring it or moving on to lots of other things.

Side Q: why do many black folks like "smooth jazz"? because it's not "dangerous"?

Moms

Stag Director

VFW Post 3285

Frederick, Maryland

p/s-- I know Petersburg very well, Hoppy. Funny to see Civil War tourists looking for the Crater and wondering how they wandered into the land Reconstruction and its AWFUL (really) counerrevolution forgot.

Chardly anyone anywhere thinks of 'go-go' enough for any other perceptions to register.

Petersburg, Va.

[JSngry]

You know who really protests too much? Motherfuckers (plural) who know something but don't get it. that's who. Otherwise, why be bothered about bullshit like "hype" and whatever it ultimately means (less than nothing), and oh by the way, who exactly is "crying" about "a lack of a national audience"? I for one don't give a fuck about a "national audience" for anything. We got an "industry" to worry about that, let them go buggin' about it.

People who get it get it. Those who don't think it matters one way or the other if they don't.

[MomsMobley]

Dude-- did ** I ** write this? The answer is NO. And the music's "potential" has been actualized; there are reasons to celebrate it if its your bag, and reasons to shrug if it ain't.

There are, also, those of who are tired from working all goddamn day and night-- you might be among them, I know-- and would rather read a book or eff some single mom (they try harder) from the customer service department than "dance". Ain't wrong if you wanna shake it and it ain't wrong if you don't.

Look, Moms, I'm dancing in my head!

Go-go music's lack of broad appeal seems to boil down to the perception that it can draw a violent crowd: Promoters would rather steer clear of it, and as a result a wide audience hasn't been nurtured. That's a shame, because go-go music, at least when Mr. Brown serves it up, is an undeniably infectious strand of dance music with the potential to draw in fans of old-school R&B, hip-hop and '70s jazz funk. Put Mr. Brown on stage at a festival like Bonnaroo or Glastonbury and he'd come away with thousands of new fans—and so would go-go music.

You know who really protests too much? Motherfuckers (plural) who know something but don't get it. that's who. Otherwise, why be bothered about bullshit like "hype" and whatever it ultimately means (less than nothing), and oh by the way, who exactly is "crying" about "a lack of a national audience"? I for one don't give a fuck about a "national audience" for anything. We got an "industry" to worry about that, let them go buggin' about it.

People who get it get it. Those who don't think it matters one way or the other if they don't.

[JSngry]

there are reasons to celebrate it if its your bag, and reasons to shrug if it ain't.

Shrug away, it might even become your dance, if it hasn't already.

[MomsMobley]

guess again, crazy legs-- i'm the one playing bayan (russian accordion) just offstage--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9EqQ7LOAq0

otherwise, the party blues cliches Chuck Brown plays over and over and over again were weary before he was born but if the beefy thighs within a 100 mile radius of WDC get to quaking anyway, fine... Gatemouth Brown was fine too, Johnny Guitar Watson finer... and Prince on the worst night of his life never had a band as pedestrian as the majority of Chuck's 'functional' grooving.

American culture is supposed to feel 'guilty' about that or-- hardee har har-- pretend its a race/class/regional conspiracy? Fuck that.

Let's sabre dance!

My link

there are reasons to celebrate it if its your bag, and reasons to shrug if it ain't.

Shrug away, it might even become your dance, if it hasn't already.

[AllenLowe]

I like Moms - he always says the stuff I don't wanna say because I'm trying to stay out of trouble here.

I'm really, let's face it, a born-again Organissimo-ite.

Moms, on the other hand, is Malcolm X to my Martin Luther King (or maybe Jesus H. Christ; I'm feeling virtuous today) -

[medjuck]

I'd never heard of Chuck Brown till I read this. Then I was reading the catalogue to the Miles museum show in which it lists Chuck Brown as one of the influences on Miles during his last years.

[MomsMobley]

CHARLES BROWN was a giant for whom I have nearly boundless admiration--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQddiBz0Px8

Chuck Brown is a well-meaning journeyman, fine, with mediocre bands; dig it or shrug.

Just noticed this Bobby Bland (>>>> any possible Chuck Brown, even heard between the meatiest of Petersburg, VA thighs) is from Chicago Soundstage--

My link

Any chance Chuck or Larry were there?

[JSngry]

Bottom line - Chuck Brown grooves like a mofo. Always has, always will.

Anything else is seriously overthinking it.

[JSngry]

I'd never heard of Chuck Brown till I read this. Then I was reading the catalogue to the Miles museum show in which it lists Chuck Brown as one of the influences on Miles during his last years.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=RICKY|WELLMAN&sql=11:fzftxqygld6e~T4

[Hoppy T. Frog]

if it's a sustainable regional or local culture, GREAT,

All I was sayin' re: your categorical statement that nobody rates it.

(And I know you exaggerate for effect--it's funny until my particular ox gets gored.)

Hoppy "Stuck in bumper-to bumper traffic on I-270 as we speak"

Edited October 10, 2010 by Hoppy T. Frog

[Cali]

After all is said and done, this was a major party jam:

[John L]

After all is said and done, this was a major party jam:

Sure was!

[seeline]

OK... whoever thinks that go go is manufactured (or whatever) is not from D.C. (or PG County, MD) and doesn't know the music - or hasn't taken the time to listen to it (or dance).

The Junkyard Band, Trouble Funk, Rare Essence, EU... Chuck Brown is getting lots of press now, but he and other early go go artists were never able to break out.

You look around for old-school go go sites and vids, and then you'll get some feel for the music. Lots of the clips are very "homemade," from block and pool parties. (With bad sound and shaky camera work, but still...)

Also... D.C.-area bucket drummers deserve some respect. They generally play go go beats, unlike their peers in other cities.

"Sardines and pork and beans" and all.

Edited October 25, 2010 by seeline

[seeline]

From the DVD of the Capital Center go go bash (1987) -

Chuck - Run Joe

Rare Essence - Do You Know What Time it Is?

There's lots more on the Tube.

Edited October 25, 2010 by seeline

[seeline]

E.U. (same gig) -

(My fave out of these three clips.)

Fast-forward to 2010, RFK Stadium parking lot - Junkyard Band doing their signature song...

Edited October 25, 2010 by seeline

[seeline]

The original video for Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers' "Bustin' Loose" (shot in the Cap. Center parking garage, IIRC).

Take the tempo down a few notches, and you have the basic go go beat, minus the "congos" (congas).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoUVPXxlvmY

Nobody has to like it, after all... but the thing some people seem to miss is that it's for dancing, not for analyzing. (Like zydeco, fwiw.)

Edited October 25, 2010 by seeline