What the F is "go go" and who the hell is Chuck Brown?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To all the people who think it's not possible for a local to not know who Chuck Brown was, is there the same lack of belief if you grew up here but don't know who Fugazi was? I grew up here - DC native, black, went to DCPS, didn't have too many white friends, and I never heard of Fugazi until I was an adult and heard it mentioned on NPR.

I think the double standard applies here - in the 90s, go-go was on the radio ALL THE TIME. But not Fugazi - maybe one Waiting Room song made the radio on 99.1, and while lots of white people used to listen to 95.5 and 93.9, I doubt the converse was true about 99.1 (I didn't even really listen to 99.1 and I'm white). I did both though - went to go-go's (early 90s), and went to see Fugazi (circa 88-89).

Yeah, I grew up here, and I am just generally music-clueless. I had never heard of Chuck Brown NOR Fugazi. I, being white, had heard other references to Fugazi a few years ago in my 20s but still never paid it much attn. I (again, being white but generally music clueless) started hearing about Chuck Brown and go-go this past week or so. So yeah, I can attest: as a native yet musically clueless indiv., I view CB and F about the same. By virtue of my race, ,maybe I heard of F a few years earlier than CB, but neither was particularly meaningful to me.

[Anonymous]

Memba these?

Junkyard (Take me out to see junkyard)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpJ3CaJ_Qqk&feature=fvwrel

Rare Essence (Lock it - has a minute long intro. . .)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3pgAppHbTg&feature=related

[Anonymous]

00:00 poster again:

Thanks, 00:21, for your links. I listened to both of them. Both of them were interesting, nothing unappealing or anything to me, but nothing jumped out to me with either of them as in, "Yeah, I have heard these before!" Again, nothing was unappealing to me; I could see myself enjoying the song or something if it was at a party or a club I was at, but I wouldn't have remembered it or anything, and it wouldn't have played lots of times on, say, a radio station I listened to.

PS What IS go-go? what differentiates it from . . .jazz? blues? I don't know? What is its definition?

[Anonymous]

Go-go is sort of akin to rap/dance music, but it's mostly live recordings (not much studio recorded stuff), and the instruments are different. It's not all electronic - people actually play instruments. They use drums, bells, & congos, and I'm thinking a keyboard.

Jazz, I don't like it, but I'm thinking that's drums, bass guitar, and maybe a trumpet and/or saxophone. And, this is key, I think most jazz has no vocals at all - it's all instrumental, and pretty peppy in tempo. Picture New Orleans.

Blues, this is a slower genre, and to me it's akin to like a slow, heartfelt motown-ish music (maybe somebody else could describe it better - I think BB King is/was very popular). I'm thinking of the sax again too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go-go is sort of akin to rap/dance music, but it's mostly live recordings (not much studio recorded stuff), and the instruments are different. It's not all electronic - people actually play instruments. They use drums, bells, & congos, and I'm thinking a keyboard.

Jazz, I don't like it, but I'm thinking that's drums, bass guitar, and maybe a trumpet and/or saxophone. And, this is key, I think most jazz has no vocals at all - it's all instrumental, and pretty peppy in tempo. Picture New Orleans.

Blues, this is a slower genre, and to me it's akin to like a slow, heartfelt motown-ish music (maybe somebody else could describe it better - I think BB King is/was very popular). I'm thinking of the sax again too.

Your music descriptions suck. Stick with your day job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go-go is sort of akin to rap/dance music, but it's mostly live recordings (not much studio recorded stuff), and the instruments are different. It's not all electronic - people actually play instruments. They use drums, bells, & congos, and I'm thinking a keyboard.

Jazz, I don't like it, but I'm thinking that's drums, bass guitar, and maybe a trumpet and/or saxophone. And, this is key, I think most jazz has no vocals at all - it's all instrumental, and pretty peppy in tempo. Picture New Orleans.

Blues, this is a slower genre, and to me it's akin to like a slow, heartfelt motown-ish music (maybe somebody else could describe it better - I think BB King is/was very popular). I'm thinking of the sax again too.

Your music descriptions suck. Stick with your day job.

Okay. . . DICK. Cares about you and your expert opinion (oh wait, you haven't offered one). Get laid. By somebody hot/not fat or smelly.

[Anonymous]

or Google and copy/paste your expert opinion. Maybe from Wikipedia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go-go is sort of akin to rap/dance music, but it's mostly live recordings (not much studio recorded stuff), and the instruments are different. It's not all electronic - people actually play instruments. They use drums, bells, & congos, and I'm thinking a keyboard.

Jazz, I don't like it, but I'm thinking that's drums, bass guitar, and maybe a trumpet and/or saxophone. And, this is key, I think most jazz has no vocals at all - it's all instrumental, and pretty peppy in tempo. Picture New Orleans.

Blues, this is a slower genre, and to me it's akin to like a slow, heartfelt motown-ish music (maybe somebody else could describe it better - I think BB King is/was very popular). I'm thinking of the sax again too.

PP here again. Thanks for these descriptions. They do help. It would make sense that go-go was mostly live recordings, then, bc I never have really paid attn to these and really just turned on the radio (or listened to CDs or other widely-recognized music in a genre I won't id for fear of outing myself to other dcum readers). But suffice it to say: live music or even live recordings? yeah, completely off my radar screen. So that does make sense.

Thank you also for trying to explain what gg is as relative to other types of music. That did help a little too. Appreciate your replies. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

So, DCUM - what's the difference between go go and funk? That's what I can't figure out.

[Anonymous]

OK. Here are my "expert" music descriptions (I knew I'd get flamed for criticizing without offering more):

Go go - a type of dance music that at its core has a very syncopated drum line, usually played on the congas. The full band usually also includes regular drums, a bass guitar and a keyboard. Lots of call and response, since as others have mentioned, it's a generally a live music performance. Vocals are rapped or sung - although I do seem to remember one instrumental go go song - it was a cover of the original theme music from the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Jazz - would be different from go go because it is not dependent on a syncopated drum line, is not primarily a live music form and does not always include vocals - but, to contradict the previous poster's "this is key" comment, jazz most certainly can include vocals. Jazz can be just a piano, or a full orchestra. The breadth of jazz is infinitely broader than go go. The distinguishing feature of jazz is that it takes a melody and then improvises on it. Go go doesn't do that.

Blues - a forerunner of jazz. Blues is distinguished by the use of chords played in certain rhythms. Can be on piano, guitar - maybe some sax or horns, but I don't think of those as the dominant musical instruments in blues. Also, almost always includes vocals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, DCUM - what's the difference between go go and funk? That's what I can't figure out.

23:54, 00:21, and 00:39 here-

I used to play bass guitar, and funk is a style of playing bass - it uses a slap and pluck motion to produce the different sound. Listen to the beginning of Red Hot Chili Peppers "Higher Ground" -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gs2o5T7oN8

But also, when I think of funk, I always think of Chuck Brown's Bustin Loose - it's the quintessential funk song - to me -. It's very 70s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwHi10qX8u8

[Anonymous]

After reading these descriptions, I would conclude that many are not musically inclined.

The difference between funk and Go Go is the beat. Go Go is a very percussive form of music. Funk is bass driven.

I am a native. I say that to establish my bona fides. I have heard of Fugazi (I think I skew older from the targeted demographic), and I definitely know Chuck Brown, EU, et al. I was never a big fan, but there were Go Go hits. The beats have influenced a number of artists to this day - mostly R & B. The Go Go beat actually has Latin roots or Afro-Latino. It's an acquired taste in some ways, just as is jazz or classical.

I happen to love all music, including opera, bluegrass, country, zydeco, etc. Go Go is to DC as zydeco is to Louisiana. Good music is good music, and as much as Go Go concerts were not my cup of tea, I found myself dancing if I heard it and the mood was right.

Chuck Brown was a very engaging and entertaining person. His music was positive and happy. There were never vulgarities or other negative images we associate with certain genres. DC is very proud of the Godfather of go go, and rightfully so. May the man rest in peace and may the music keep playing.

School's over. I have to sleep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK. Here are my "expert" music descriptions (I knew I'd get flamed for criticizing without offering more):

Go go - a type of dance music that at its core has a very syncopated drum line, usually played on the congas. The full band usually also includes regular drums, a bass guitar and a keyboard. Lots of call and response, since as others have mentioned, it's a generally a live music performance. Vocals are rapped or sung - although I do seem to remember one instrumental go go song - it was a cover of the original theme music from the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Jazz - would be different from go go because it is not dependent on a syncopated drum line, is not primarily a live music form and does not always include vocals - but, to contradict the previous poster's "this is key" comment, jazz most certainly can include vocals. Jazz can be just a piano, or a full orchestra. The breadth of jazz is infinitely broader than go go. The distinguishing feature of jazz is that it takes a melody and then improvises on it. Go go doesn't do that.

Blues - a forerunner of jazz. Blues is distinguished by the use of chords played in certain rhythms. Can be on piano, guitar - maybe some sax or horns, but I don't think of those as the dominant musical instruments in blues. Also, almost always includes vocals.

So, maybe, in terms of chronology, you could think of it as: blues ----> jazz -----> gogo? (????) Thanks for your replies, PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's very possible to have grown up here and not know who Chuck Brown is. But only if you're white (or more accurately, not black) and were never around local black people growing up. And you didn't listen to any of the black music stations. And you hardly ever went into the more "urban" parts of the city (sorry, cleveland park doesn't count).

I'm white and went to Holton and we had go-gos as some of our dances. Other privates did too so it's not like you had to drive to Anacostia to hear it.

There's still an annual GoGo held at one of the private schools -- in recent years @Sidwell, STA or GDS -- and it draws tons of kids -- all races and ethnicities -- from many schools in the area, public and private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the Jerz girl PP, I grew up in Jersey too and never heard of GoGo as related to pole dancing or strip clubs. NJ is not all Soprano-land, PP, I'm from horse country, the land of moderate Republicans and good government -- remember Gov. Tom Keane "New Jehzy and You . . . Pehfect Together."

Oh, back to Chuck Brown -- I moved here with DH after law school. We're white, but got to know and love gogo music. Hey, our kids are DC natives, so we feel that we owe it to them to know the local culture.

yeah ... Jersey guy (white boy) here too, (Passaic Co.) longtime NoVA/DC'er now ... hard to believe anyone who's been here for some time doesn't know about Chuck or go-go ... the closing show of the outdoor lunchtime concerts near my downtown office has been Chuck Brown every year. It won't be the same without that spirit and feeling "bustin' loose" to say goodbye to summer.

Wait, do you actually remember the Tom Keane TV spots? Also, would you sign my recall petition on Christie? Regardless of your politics, you've got to agree that no NJ Gov should be caught sleeping at a Springsteen concert.