Norton Remembers Chuck Brown

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today released the following statement on the death of Chuck Brown:

"Chuck Brown's funky go-go beat put hometown D.C. on the map, rescuing forever our town from its stolid, gray ‘government town' image and giving the District of Columbia an identity of its very own. How many cities in this country have their own sound? No city needed a native identity more than the nation's capital. Chuck knew not only who he was, but where he was when he played a concert, for statehood and voting rights, in the hot summer sun on the Capitol grounds just a couple of years ago.

Chuck was our own musical virtuoso – a singer and songwriter who played his signature guitar non-stop. But the official recognition came late in his full life, when his music finally earned him a Grammy nomination, The National Endowment for the Arts Lifetime Fellowship award and a street named for him near the Howard Theatre.

Music comes and most music goes, but Chuck's go-go goes on from generation to generation with undiminished popularity. You hear it and if you can move, you do. His beat commands you to dance, and go-go means what it says, go and do not stop! Chuck is gone, but we are forever grateful to our inventive musical mastermind for leaving us go-go with life to spare."

Published: May 17, 2012