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In case you didn’t know, I grew up in Washington DC.  Not the metro area, but Southeast DC. The hood if you want to really know.

I loved every minute of it.

As a child growing up in DC there were a few constants:

• A half smoke with chili and cheese was a must have
• Rock Creek Peach Soda and Utz  Crab Potato Chips went together like ham and cheese
• Chicken Wings and Mumbo Sauce is a gourmet meal
• Sundays were for the Redskins
• And Chuck Brown was Go Go

Now, if you don’t know what Go Go is, I’ll direct you here and  here.

To put it simply, go go and Chuck Brown was and has always been, the beat of my city, the soundtrack of my childhood.

My parents weren’t from DC, so it wasn’t like I would hear it in the house. Or even on the radio at that time.

Go Go music just was.

I don’t remember where I first heard it. But I know that the first “song” I ever became aware of, the first one I could do every beat, every “huh”, every word to was a Chuck Brown one. In fact, as I think on it, I know it was “Go Go Swing”.

It was everywhere, from open car windows in the summertime to start up bands in the alley behind my house ( that would be Junkyard Band ).

It was a beat, a rhythm, it was soo….DC.

Every cookout, every house party, every club…..

There is was.

It’s a groove that starts in your hips and moves up your spine until you are helplessly bobbing your head and moving.

Chuck Brown respresented all of this.

I can’t remember life without Chuck Brown.

“It don’t mean a thing, if you don’t got that Go Go Swing. Go doo wah, doo wah doo wah  doo wah ……”

Sigh.

RIP Chuck.