Whoever doesn’t know Chuck Brown… ask anybody. He brought Washington D.C. its very own style of music. He helped anybody, nobody, everybody, somebody. Black, white, Spanish, Chinese, African, rich, poor, needy, greedy, homeless, you and I…with a smile. He always said no matter what you do, big or small — do it right or don’t do it at all. Sho’ ya right.
To me what Chuck and his life was about is summed up with these words:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understanding all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have faith, so that I could move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails, but whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know on part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13
Rest in peace, my friend. And you and I, Penny, keep that Go-Go swing.
