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 the Washington, D.C. area during the mid-60s to late-70s. Go-go has limited popularity in other areas, but maintains a devoted audience in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area as a uniquely regional music style and was named the official music of Washington, D.C. in February 2020.

Performers associated with the development of the style include Young Senators, Trouble Funk, Black Heat, and singer-guitarist Chuck Brown.
In the 1990s and 2000s, hip-hop increasingly influenced go-go. However, there is also a retro movement going back to its original style of marathon sessions incorporating popular contemporary R&B songs.

Description

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... ndis ornamented by the other percussion instruments, especially by the conga drums, rototoms, and hand-held cowbells."

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. A swing rhythm is often implied (if not explicitly stated).

Its name arises from the persistent percussive beat, but it incorporates elements of many other genres.

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 Black Heat, Experience Unlimited (E.U.), Vernon Burch, Sir Joe Quarterman & the Free Soul, the Moments, Ray, Goodman & Brown, True Reflection, the Unifics, Peaches & Herb, Terry Huff & Special Delivery, Act 1, the Dynamic Superiors, Skip Mahoney & the Casuals, the Choice Four, and the Fuzz that played soul music during pre-go-go era.

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!". 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. 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. 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, as many as twenty at a time, performed by local bands and djs. (The French Whiskyagogo had been one of the first venues in the world to replace live music with records selected by a disc jockey)

In Washington D.C., the Young Senators (later known as "the Emperors of Go-Go") were formed in 1965; there soon began a fierce competition with Chuck Brown and Black Heat on the local club circuit. They later became known for their hit "Jungle."

Chuck Brown was a fixture on Washington and Maryland music scene with his band the "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," though Brown has said in interviews that both he and Washington had adapted the beat from a gospel music beat found in black churches.

Washington, D.C. funk's early national chart action came when Black Heat (the first D.C. go-go band to be signed by a major record label) released their Billboard top 100 hit "No Time To Burn" from their second album on Atlantic Records in 1974. They then toured with such national acts as Earth Wind & Fire, Parliament Funkadelic, Ohio Players, The Commodores, and others. In 1976, James Funk, a young DJ who spun at clubs in between Soul Searchers sets, was inspired (and encouraged by Brown himself) to start a band—called Rare Essence (originally the Young Dynamos)—that played the same kind of music.

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), 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.

Trouble Funk had its roots in the early 1970s Top 40 cover band called Trouble Band, then fronted by drummer, Emmett Nixon. With the inclusion of Robert 'Dyke' Reed (keyboards, guitar, vocals), Taylor Reed (trumpet, vocals), James Avery (keyboards, vocals), Teebone David (percussion), and Tony Fisher (bass, vocals), the band changed its name, and, in the late 1970s, after seeing the light at a gig they played with Chuck Brown, they, too, adopted the go-go beat. The band was signed to the Sugar Hill Records label in 1982 and recorded with Kurtis Blow. Trouble Funk recorded the go-go anthem "Hey, Fellas."

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.

In 1984, Island Records founder Chris Blackwell heard Chuck Brown's " We Need Some Money" on the radio in New York, which ultimately led to him signing some of the brightest stars of the go-go scene. Trouble Funk and E.U. were both signed to Island, while Chuck Brown, Redds and the Boys and Hot, Cold, Sweat were signed through a distribution deal between Max Kidd's T.T.E.D. and Island subsidiary 4th & B'way.

Along with the recording contracts Blackwell was handing out, he also wanted to make the go-go film and soundtrack; a D.C.-based version of ''The Harder They Come''. The resultant film, '' Good to Go'' (or ''Short Fuse'', as it was called on video) was plagued with problems: co-director Don Letts was let go halfway through production, the film became less about the music and more about drugs and violence, and despite the fact that most of the post-production was completed in the fall of 1985, the film was held for release until late-summer 1986. When it did poorly on release, it seemed that go-go had missed its best chance to break into the mainstream. "Good to Go" OST album was released in 1986 also. Soul/Funk groups used go-go beat in their songs. Examples were Club Nouveau "Lean on Me"(pop #1, yearend #10) Lebert "Casanova", and Midnight Star "Headlines".

The Junk Yard Band started out in 1980 as a group of kids (as young as nine) from the Barry Farm, Washington, D.C. projects. Unable to afford instruments for their band, they fashioned drums out of empty buckets and traffic cones, tin cans substituted for timbales, and, in place of a brass section, they used plastic toy horns. Adding real instruments to their gear a little at a time, by 1985 they had joined the ranks of D.C.'s finest; they were scooped up by Def Jam, who released a Rick Rubin-produced single "The Word" in 1986. Not much happened with that record—at first. However, within a year or two of its release, the flipside, "Sardines", became (and remains to this day) the group's signature song. It was even performed in the 1988 film '' Tougher Than Leather''.

Rare Essence signed with Mercury/ PolyGram Records but for one single for the label—"Flipside," released in 1986—was unremarkable.

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''. 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 (#35 Pop) and scored the band a Grammy nomination (they lost to "Love Overboard" by Gladys Knight & the Pips). Hoping to build on their success, in 1989 they released '' Livin' Large'' on Virgin Records. Two singles from the album (" Buck Wild" and " Taste of Your Love") made respectable showings on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop singles chart but they failed to repeat the success of "Da Butt." (The album peaked at #22 on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart and #158 on the Top 200.) A second Virgin release, ''Cold Kickin' It'', came out the following year but failed to make much of an impression on the national charts. Experience Unlimited had a resurgence in the mid-1990s by partnering with the jazz and gospel singer Maiesha Rashad, performing under the name "Maiesha and the Hip Huggers". Maiesha and the Hip Huggers have headlined events and concert venues such as B.B. King's Blues Club and Grill, DAR Constitution Hall, ''Black Family Reunion'' and D.C.'s ''Stone Soul Picnic'' and ''Unifest''. In 1988, R&B singer Jesse James and Fay Marshall released soul singles(T.T.E.D. Records).

1990s–2000s

As time passed, more and more of a hip-hop influence crept into go-go. Early MCs like D.C. Scorpio gave way to DJ Kool, whose 1996 indie release, "Let Me Clear My Throat

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