PBS NewsHour,
PBS is an American public broadcast service. Wikipedia
Chuck Brown performs at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.
Video courtesy of raw Venture Records & Tapes
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Chuck Brown's "Wind Me Up" record was first released in 2010
I believe that the crowd at the beginning of this video are shouting 'Wind me up, Chuck" to encourage Chuck Brown and his band to perform that song. Please let me know in the comment section below what you hear that crowd saying
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post showcases Chuck Brown's Go Go song "Wind Me Up"*.
This post also presents some information about Chuck Brown and some information about Washington Go Go music.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Chuck Brown and his Soul Searchers' band for their musical and cultural legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to PBS News Hour, the publisher of this video on YouTube.
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The English language word "wind" in the song title "Wind Me Up" is pronounced like the English language word "wine". In the context of this song, "wind me up " means "excite me".
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INFORMATION ABOUT CHUCK BROWN
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Brown
"Charles Louis Brown (August 22, 1936 – May 16, 2012) was an
American guitarist, bandleader, and singer known as "The Godfather of
Go-Go".[1] Go-go is a subgenre of funk music developed around the
Washington, D.C., area in the mid-1970s. While its musical classification,
influences, and origins are debated, Brown is regarded as the fundamental force
behind the creation of go-go music.[2][3]
At the time of his death, he was still performing music and was well-known in the Washington, D.C., area. The song "Ashley's Roachclip" from the 1974 album Salt of the Earth by Brown's band The Soul Searchers[4] contains a drum break, sampled countless times in various other tracks.[5] Brown's R&B hits include "Bustin' Loose"(1979)[6] and "We Need Some Money"(1984).[7]
[…]
Awards and honors
Brown was a recipient of a 2005 National Heritage Fellowship
awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States'
highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.[22]
In 2009, the 1900 block of 7th Street NW, in Northwest Washington, D.C., between Florida Avenue and T Street, was renamed Chuck Brown Way in his honor.
On September 4, 2011, Brown was honored by the National Symphony Orchestra, as the NSO paid tribute to Legends of Washington Music Labor Day concert - honoring Brown's music, as well as Duke Ellington and John Philip Sousa - with a free concert on the West Lawn of the Capitol. Brown and his band capped off the evening with a performance.
In 2014, the Chuck Brown Memorial Park in Langdon neighborhood, Washington, D.C., was built to honor Brown. It features a memorial wall honoring his life and achievements, as well as a sculpture called "Wind Me Up, Chuck", signifying the "call and response" associated with go-go music.[23][24]
[…]
Genres
Go-go, funk, swing, hip hop, neo soul, jazz-funk blues
Instrument Guitar
Years active 1960s–2012"...
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INFORMATION ABOUT WASHINGTON D. C.'S GO GO MUSIC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go-go
"Go-go is a subgenre of funk music with an emphasis on specific rhythmic patterns, and live audience call and response.
Go-go was originated by African-American musicians in Washington, D.C., during the mid-1960s to late-1970s. Go-go has limited popularity in other areas, but maintains a devoted audience in the Washington metropolitan area as a uniquely regional music style and was named the official music of Washington, D.C., in February 2020.[2]
Performers associated with the development of the style include Rare Essence, EU, Trouble Funk, and singer-guitarist Chuck Brown.[3] Modern artists like Charles "Shorty Corleone" Garris continue the go-go tradition in D.C.[4]
Description
The most important part of the go-go beat is the bass/snare
pattern.
In technical terms, "go-go's essential beat is
characterized by a five through four syncopated rhythm that is underscored
prominently by the bass drum and snare drum, and the hi-hat... [and] is
ornamented by the other percussion instruments, especially by the conga drums,
rototoms, and hand-held cowbells."[5]
Unique to go-go is instrumentation with two standard congas and two junior congas, 8" and 9" wide and about half as tall as the standard congas, a size rare outside go-go. They were introduced to Rare Essence by Tyrone "Jungle Boogie" Williams in the early days when they couldn't afford full-sized congas and are ubiquitous ever since.[6] Its name arises from the persistent percussive beat, but it incorporates elements of many other genres.[7]
Origins
Although Chuck Brown is known as "the Godfather of
Go-Go", go-go is a musical movement that cannot be traced back to one
single person, as there were so many bands that flourished during the beginning
of this era that they collectively created the sound that is recognized as
go-go of today. Artists such as Marvin Gaye, Van McCoy, Billy Stewart, Peaches
& Herb, Black Heat,[8] Experience Unlimited (E.U.), Vernon Burch, Sir Joe
Quarterman & the Free Soul, the Moments, Ray, Goodman & Brown, True
Reflection, the Unifics, Terry Huff & Special Delivery,[9] Act 1, the
Dynamic Superiors, Skip Mahoney & the Casuals, the Choice Four, and the
Fuzz that played soul music during pre-go-go era.[10]
The term "gogo" (as it applies to a music venue) originated in France in the early 1960s, at the Whiskyagogo nightclub, named after the French title for the British comedy "Whisky Galore!".[11] The club also featured go-go dancers. In January 1964, capitalizing on the emerging popularity of "go-go dancers", the name was licensed to a Los Angeles club, the Whisky a Go Go, and from there the term "go-go" spread nationwide.[12] The Cafe Au Go Go in NYC was also in business during that time, gaining notoriety when Lenny Bruce was arrested there in April 1964.[13] By 1965, "go-go" was a recognized word for a music club, as evidenced by the TV show Hollywood A Go-Go (march 1965-1966), or the song title of that year's hit Going to a Go-Go by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles (released November 1965). At a go-go club, dancers could expect to hear the latest top 40 hits, performed by local bands and DJ's. (The French Whiskyagogo had been one of the first venues in the world to replace live music with records selected by a disc jockey.)[11]
In Washington D.C., minor group the Young Senators were formed in 1965, beginning a fierce competition with Chuck Brown and Black Heat on the local club circuit. The Young Senators later became known for their song "Jungle" released in 1970 by Innovation Records.[14][10][15]
Guitarist and bandleader Chuck Brown is widely regarded as "the Godfather of Go-Go".
Chuck Brown was a fixture on Washington and Maryland music
scene with his band Los Lotinos as far back as 1966. By the mid-1970s, he had
changed the group's name to The Soul Searchers, and developed a laid-back,
rhythm-heavy style of funk performed with one song blending into the next (in
order to keep people on the dance floor). The beat was based on Grover
Washington Jr.'s song "Mr. Magic,"[16] though Brown has said in
interviews that both he and Washington had adapted the beat from a gospel music
beat found in black churches.[17]
[…]
History
Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers released their first
go-go hit "Bustin' Loose" in late 1978; it reached number one on the
Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs R&B charts and held that position for a
month during February and March 1979 (peaking at #34 on the Pop chart).
Experience Unlimited (a.k.a. E.U.) who originally formed in
1974 was a band more influenced by rock (their name a nod to the Jimi Hendrix
Experience[18]), that started out in the 1970s. After witnessing Rare Essence
in the late-1970s, they modified their style to incorporate the go-go beat.
Kurtis Blow's "Party Time" subsequently put them on the map to be
later tracked down by Grace Jones and to take the King of Go-Go Production,
Maxx Kidd to an international music adventure with Island Records, to make E.U.'s
greatest hit "Da Butt" for the soundtrack of the 1988 film School
Daze, written, directed and produced by Spike Lee.
[..]
1980s
In the 1980s, some go-go bands such as Chuck Brown, Trouble
Funk, EU, Rare Essence, Hot Cold Sweat, The Junk Yard Band, AM/FM, Redds and
the Boys, Slug-Go achieved local success. Trouble Funk put out a few records on
New Jersey–based label Jamtu before signing with one of the more powerful hip
hop labels, Sugar Hill, where it released a six-track LP called Drop the Bomb
in 1982, which included the hit "Pump Me Up" which had already been a
regional hit years before. Maxx Kidd founded go-go label T.T.E.D. Records in
1982.
E.U. got its big break in 1986 when it was booked to play a
party celebrating the release of Spike Lee's debut film, She's Gotta Have
It.[23] Lee liked what he heard, and tapped the band to perform a song in his
next movie, School Daze. "Da Butt" (written for the film by Marcus
Miller and E.U. keyboardist, Kent Wood) made it to number one on Billboard's
R&B chart (No. 35 Pop) and scored the band a Grammy nomination (they lost
to "Love Overboard" by Gladys Knight & the Pips)”…
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"Washington D.C.'s Go Go music isn't the same music that was played for "Go Go dancing".
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Visitor comments are welcome.
Here's part of a comment that I wrote in July 2011 and added to my guest post on the blog "Sociological Images". That post was entitled "Race And The Changing Image Of Cheerleading: https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/07/21/race-and-the-changing-shape-of-cheerleading
ReplyDelete"There's something about the late 1970s. The late 1970s was when Hip-Hop was created. That's the same period of time that Stomp & Shake cheerleading began. It's also the same time that the chanting and movement art of stepping became more popular with Black Greek lettered university based fraternities and sororities (although Black fraternities & sororities created stepping in the early 20th century). Stepping chants have the same braggadocio and/or confrontational spirit as stomp n shake chants. And obviously "stomping" is just another way of saying “stepping”.
[...]
Perhaps the connection between the late 1970s and the emergence of these African American art forms has something to do with "critical mass". The 1970s was the time when Washington D.C. became "Chocolate City" (It's population was over 70% Black (and now D.C. is reported to be less than 50% Black). Remember that Virginia (and therefore the Washington D.C. region) is one of the main locations for Stomp N Shake cheerleading (both university and high school). The other "main location" is North Carolina. There are other areas in the USA where stomp n shake cheerleading is done, although that term may not be known or used. But Virginia and North Carolina (or North Carolina and Virginia) are where that form of cheerleading seems to have developed and is seems to be most prevalent.
Washington D.C. is also the birthplace (in the mid 1960s) of Go Go music, a sub-genre of Funk music. Go Go music was most popular in the mid to late 1970s. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go-go: “Go-go is a blend of funk, rhythm and blues, and early hip-hop, with a focus on lo-fi percussion instruments and funk-style jamming in place of dance tracks, although some sampling is used. As such, it is primarily a dance hall music with an emphasis on live audience call and response. Go-go rhythms are also incorporated into street percussion.”
--end of that Wikipedia quote-
It’s my position that Go Go music was very instrumental (pardon the unintended pun) in the development of stepping, and stomp n shake cheerleading.
With regard to critical mass, in the 1970s-more African American students were attending colleges and universities than previously. Therefore, more African Americans pledged university based fraternities or sororities. In so doing, the percussive, choreographed art of stepping became much more well known to university students and non-university Black folks. The African American style of high stepping marching bands also flourished in the 1970s, again probably because of the increased number of African American students in HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). Furthermore, the earliest example of a foot stomping cheer that I have collected (in my 10 years of research) happens to be from a 1976 field recording of African American school girls in Washington D.C. ("foot stomping cheer" is my term for "cheerleader chants" that have a distinctive group/alternating soloist structure and are chanted by two or more girls (usually an informal group of girls ages 6-12 years old) while performing syncopated, choreographed bass sounding foot stomps, (individual) hand clapping & body patting routines. The "Shabooya Roll Call" cheer that was featured in the 2006 Bring It On-All Or Nothing movie (and which was lifted from African American communities and previously featured in the 1996 Spike Lee movie Get On The Bus) is an exaggerated example of a foot stomping cheer and not a stomp n shake cheer."...
I wrote that comment that I quoted above under the name "Cocojams Jambalayah".Cocojams.com was the name of my multipage cultural website that was online from 2001 to August 2014 when I voluntarily de-activated it. I've published a number of the children's rhymes and cheers that were found on my cocojams website on this pancocojams blog. I've also published some of those examples on my cocojams2 blog. Click https://cocojams2.blogspot.com/2014/10/introducing-cocojams2-offshoot-of.html for the first cocojams2 post which gives an overview about that blog.
Delete"Jambalayah" is a very short lived blog that I started. That blog showcased examples of YouTube videos of Black music and dance from around the world. As such, Jambalayah was a precursor of this pancocojams blog.
Unfortunately, I never saw Chuck Brown, the Godfather of Washington, D. C.'s Go Go music perform in person.
DeleteI've been to Washington, D.C. a few times, but I've never been to North Carolina. As I mentioned in my 2011 comment which I excerpted above, I believe that Washington, D.C's Go Go music influenced African American girls foot stomping cheers. The syncopated choreographed movements of foot stomping cheers were also influenced by historically Black Greek letter fraternity and sorority stepping. Washington D. C.'s Howard University is (was?) the center of historically Black Greek letter fraternities and sororities. Howard University was where five of the nine members of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (informally known as "The Divine Nine") were founded. (Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority 1908; Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, 1911; Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, 1913; Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, 1914, and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, 1920).
The DMV (Washington D.C, Maryland, and Virginia) area is one of the birthplaces for stomp and shake cheerleading.
DeleteBy the way, Google search and some other online sites/sources are incorrect when they indicate that stomp and shake cheerleading originated at HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges And Universities).*
The correct statement is that stomp and shake cheerleading originated in the mid to late 1970s at Virginia State University, an HBCU and at Winston-Salem State University, also an HBCU. Black middle schools and high schools students were probably performing similar styles of "stomp and shake cheerleading" before those universities.
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I was curious about the distances between Virginia State University and Washington, D.C. and Winston-Salem State University and Washington, D.C. Here's what I learned from Google Search:
Virginia State University (VSU) is located about 2 hours from Washington, D.C. and Winston Salem State University (WSSU) is located about 5 hours from Washington, D.C.
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* Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/05/correcting-mistaken-belief-that-stomp_25.html for the pancocojqms post entitled "Correcting The Mistaken Belief That Stomp & Shake Cheerleading Is Performed At Every Historically Black University (Part II: comments about stomp & shake cheerleading at Southern University)".