3:25 p.m.: After one last chorus of “Wind me up, Chuck!” Freeman returns for a quick benediction. “Don’t leave here without hugging someone,” he says, repeating something KK said earlier. And the memorial draws to a close.
3:20 p.m. The big finish, naturally, is “Bustin’ Loose.” Sugar Bear and the other singers are doing a serviceable job, but of course it isn’t the same without Chuck.
3:15 p.m.: The band, including Chuck’s family, works through “Wind Me Up Chuck,” “We Need Some Money” and “Run Joe.” KK is rapping “Chuck Baby,” making the funeral-appropriate substitution “Chuck Baby don’t give a what.” (The original lyric rhymes with Chuck.)
3:10 p.m. The Chuck Brown Band is joined by fellow go-go artists Maysa, James Funk, White Boy, Big Tony and Experience Unlimited’s Sugar Bear for a medley of Brown’s music. Maysa starts off with a chanted version of the “Love Theme from The Godfather.” It soon bursts into the bouncy beats of “It Don’t Mean a Thing if It Ain’t Got That Go-Go Swing.”
3:07 p.m. Gray spokesman Pedro Ribeiro says about 9,000 people are in the crowd for today’s memorial.
3 p.m.: The Rev. Dr. Michael A. Freeman giving the formal eulogy for Chuck Brown. Lots of talk about Brown’s faith. Freeman recalls that on his 50th birthday, Brown came to his church, prompting calls of “Wind me up, Chuck!” from the pews. Freeman says Brown leaned over and said, “I don’t do that in church.”
2:44 p.m.: Donnie Simpson recalls the last thing Chuck said to him was “I love you, brother.” Raheem DeVaughn takes the stage to sing “Song for You.”
2:35 p.m.: Chuck’s kids take the stage. Brown’s daughter, Takesa “KK” Donelson, says “I love you, Daddy.” She also thanks Brown’s concertgoers for their years of fandom. “Even the bootleggers, I love you.”
2:30 p.m.: Radio One’s Chris Paul takes the stage with his on-air partner Huggy Lowdown. “A Chuck Brown party with no cover charge!” he says. “It has never, ever happened!”
2:24 p.m.: Nat “The Bush Doctor” Mathis leads the crowd in another round of “Wind me up, Chuck!” Mathis says that in life, Brown was capable of impressive feats of strength. “I seen Chuck do push-ups up against the wall with his feet in the air,” Mathis says.
2:17 p.m.: Go-go promoter Darryll Brooks says Brown “had the biggest heart of anyone.” Brooks says that to be recognized by Brown was an aspiring musician’s “ticket out of Southeast.”
2:10 p.m.: Anwan “Big G” Glover is the first of many friends and family members to offer brief remembrances of Brown. Glover says that when he was getting started out, he asked Brown what to do about his “froggy” voice. Brown told Glover to just go with it.
2 p.m.: A couple more musical tributes. First is the R&B group Kindred the Family Soul with a rendition of “Nature Boy,” a song described as one of the Godfather of Go-Go’s personal favorites. Following that, Brown’s brothers Tim, J.D. and Randy performed an a cappella version of Boyz II Men’s “It’s so Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.”
1:50 p.m.: Willie Jolley, a motivational speaker, tells an abridged version of Chuck Brown’s life story, including his eight-year prison term during which Brown learned to play the guitar that would define the rest of life. In his eulogy, presented as “words of encouragement,” Jolley also plugs his own book multiple times.
Following Jolley is a clip from NBC’s Last Call With Carson Daly that originally aired in February 2011 shortly before that year’s Grammy Awards, when Brown was finally honored by the Recording Academy.
1:30 p.m.: Donnie Simpson introduces Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) as—what else?—the mayor-for-life. Barry says he’s not at the service as a councilmember or even as the “mayor-for-life,” but as a friend and fan of Chuck Brown’s.
Barry’s speech is genuinely heartfelt, though, perhaps the most moving of anyone so far. “Chuck Brown was about teaching people, reaching people, letting them know they could be whatever they wanted to be,” he says. Barry acknowledges Brown’s family and asks the audience to tell the family they are loved.
Barry also tells the crowd he has a message from the go-go artist Lil’ Benny, who died in 2010. “I just got a message from Little Benny. D.C. better treat Chuck right.”
1:20 p.m.: Two more musical performances—Cliff Jones does the gospel “Steal Away to Jesus,” followed by Ledisi with a cover of “Wind Beneath My Wings.”
1:15 p.m.: D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown brings up the rest of the Council. As a native Washingtonian, he says, “I am go-go. To the media, you better get that right.” Kwame Brown also has some ideas of his own for how the District can permanently memorialize Chuck Brown: In addition to Gray’s idea for a Chuck Brown Park, Kwame Brown would like to see the creation of a “Go-Go Hall of Fame.”
1:00 p.m: Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton follows Gray with an impassioned explanation of how go-go defined Washington’s culture. Unlike cities like New York or Chicago that are receive the tributes of individual songs (Norton mentions “Theme From New York, New York” and “Sweet Home Chicago,” respectively), D.C. enjoys an entire genre in go-go.
Norton also reminded the crowd of her proposal to declare August 22 “Chuck Brown Day.”
12:50 p.m.: Mayor Vince Gray says he will ask the D.C. Council to name a park after Chuck Brown. “Don’t you think we need to find a way to remember Chuck forever?” he asks.
In paying his last respects to Brown, Gray calls the Godfather of Go-Go a “personal friend” and saying that he is “honored” to know Brown’s family. “This may be the nation’s capital, but go-go is the District of Columbia’s music thanks to Chuck Brown.”
The future Chuck Brown Park, Gray says, will be a place where people “can say over and over again, ‘Wind me up, Chuck! Wind me up, Chuck! Wind me up, Chuck! Wind me up, Chuck!'”
12:45 p.m.: Former WPGC host Donnie Simpson, today’s emcee, compares today’s ceremony to one held earlier this year for Whitney Houston, saying it’s the kind of celebratory event that shows “how black people do a home-going.”
12:30 p.m. Isaiah Thomas, a gospel singer, performs “Can’t Nobody Do Me Like Jesus.” Backed by the Chuck Brown Band and joined by Andrea Dumas, the crowd is going to the gospel go-go.
12:20 p.m.: Gospel singer Andrea Dumas gives the service a prayerful start with a soaring, wailing performance of “I Love the Lord.” She’s backed by the “Chuck Brown Memorial Band.”
The Rev. Tony Lee, a pastor from Hillcrest Heights, Md., is leading the room in prayer, mixing go-go appreciations with Christian ministry. “We’re here not to have a pity party but to have a celebration,” he says. “Ain’t no party like a Chuck Brown party. Ain’t no party like a Holy Ghost party.”
The public memorial for Chuck Brown, the Godfather of Go-Go, is beginning now at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. No attendance figure has been announced yet, but the crowd is clearly far short of the 14,500 capacity.
Via NBC4, watch live streaming video of the service.
View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.
