(Chuck Brown is photographed for the cover of the Washington Post Sunday Magazine in 2009. (MARVIN JOSEPH / THE WASHINGTON POST) )
“For me, the intensely local nature of go-go is a reminder that Washington is an actual place, not a political abstraction.”
— Eugene Robinson
With Chuck Brown’s passing, Washington feels less like Washington. As columnist Eugene Robinson explains to the uninitiated, go-go legend Chuck Brown didn’t just create a genre of music, he managed to create music tied to a place.
That ability to make lasting associations between places and music certainly isn’t unique to the “Godfather of go-go.” There are obviously other musicians whose sounds have come to define the streets and neighborhoods where their music is played.
You say “Springsteen,” I think “Jersey.”
A Nirvana song comes on and Seattle’s wet and flanneled streets come to mind.