Godfather of Go-Go Gone

The creator of a style of music called "go-go" - Chuck Brown - has died of complications from pneumonia. He was 75.

The Washington Post writer, Chris Richards, described the man and his music as "the gravelly voiced bandleader who capitalized on funk’s percussive pulse to create go-go, the genre of music that has soundtracked life in black Washington for more than three decades."

The style came on the scene in the mid-1970s to compete with the disco craze.

“No single type of music has been more identified with Washington than go-go, and no one has loomed so large within it as Chuck Brown,” former Washington Post pop music critic, Richard Harrington, wrote in 2001.

Brown was himself on the go-go most of his career. In 2006, he was quoted as saying, "“I’m not retired because I’m not tired. I’m still getting hired and I’m still inspired. “As long as I can walk up on that stage, I want to make people happy. I want to make people dance," Brown said

Pneumonia is a serious lung infection. Small sacs in the lungs, called alveoli, normally fill up with air. With pneumonia, these sacs fill up with pus and fluid, making breathing extremely difficult and painful.

Brown had been hospitalized with pneumonia earlier in the month, according to The Washington Post.

His death was confirmed by Johns Hopkins University hospital in Baltimore.