Washingtonians paid last respects Tuesday to Chuck Brown, “the Godfather of Go-Go,” whose infectious funk riffs and marathon gigs gave the US capital its own soundtrack when it needed it most.
Brown, 75, who embraced music while serving time in prison for murder in his early 20s, died May 16 in a Baltimore hospital of multi-organ failure from sepsis, leaving behind a unique genre of African American music.
The public viewing at the Howard Theater — with thousands of mourners lining up around the block — came one month to the day before Brown was scheduled to play at the historic and recently restored venue.
“Hip-hop came to DC (in the 1980s and 1990s) but it could never take over Go-Go,” said retired firefighter Ditalian Raufu, 56, wiping the sweat off his brow in the midday heat on Chuck Brown Way outside the theater’s main door.
“Hip-hop is sampling. Go-Go is pure beat,” added Raufu, explaining how Go-Go gigs — in venues as varied as tiny nightclubs and wide-open parks — would “Go-Go” on and on, with the congas and drums never stopping between songs.
“Chuck could take that beat and rock that beat for two hours, three hours or more, and just come up with different lyrics, different playback to the crowd … and before you knew it, it was daybreak.”
Fans filed past Brown’s coffin inside the Howard Theater at a rate of 1,200 an hour, starting at 11:00 am (1500 GMT) following a private service attended by family and close friends.
In a black pinstripe suit with satin lapels, together with his trademark black hat, sunglasses, and salt-and-pepper goatee, he looked splendid. Flowers spilled off his coffin. His Gibson electric guitar was at the side.
Mayor Vincent Gray shook hands with mourners, giving the 11-hour public viewing the flavor of a full-dress civic funeral, as soft jazz tunes played in the background.
Brown’s 1979 R&B hit “Bustin’ Loose” heralded the arrival of Go-Go at a time when Washington, despite being the political heart of a global superpower, was riddled with crime and crippled by a crack cocaine epidemic.
He went on to record a raft of other upbeat floor-fillers such as “We Need Some Money,” “Go Go Swing,” “We the People” and “Run Joe,” and became a beloved folk hero in the hometown of Duke Ellington and Marvin Gaye.
“You know, I could play jazz or R&B or rock and roll or gospel tomorrow if I wanted to, but Go-Go is still what gets (Washington) people to come out,” Brown told National Geographic in a 2010 interview.
Brown, who never knew his Marine father, was born in North Carolina — the ancestral state of many black Washingtonians — and moved to the capital as a child, eventually dropping out of school and working odd jobs.
Serving eight years in prison for fatally shooting a man in what he called an act of self-defense, he swapped five cartons of cigarettes for another inmate’s guitar — a life-changing moment.
Upon his release on parole, he started off playing backyard barbecue parties, then joined a group called Los Latinos in 1965 before starting up his own ensemble, the Soul Searchers.
“I’ll put it this way: when Chuck played for four hours, people stood up for four hours and partied,” said shopkeeper Nia Barnes, 57, who recalled one show that ran without any interruption to the music from 11:00 pm to 4:00 am.
Kenny Gross, 32, who succeeded his uncle as the Soul Searchers’ drummer, said he still has the telephone voicemail that Brown left him on the evening in 2007 that he invited him to join the band.
“Chuck was a special guy. He could take a million people to one place” with his music, said Gross, whose current group Familiar Faces is among several Go-Go bands that are taking the genre forward.
“It’s a movement,” he said. “It’s going to keep growing. We have no choice but to keep growing.”
Washington bids farewell to Go-Go legend Chuck Brown
