By: Lennard James
Dr. Logan Westbrooks understood that musical movements don’t just happen, they’re introduced, nurtured, and strategically placed in front of the right ears. In the late 1970s, as Washington, D.C.’s homegrown go-go scene surged in neighborhood clubs, one act towered above the rest: Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers. Their percussive call-and-response jams, anchored by congas, timbales, and a relentless pocket, had already made them the hottest ticket in D.C. and nearby Baltimore. Yet, for all its electricity, go-go remained a fiercely local sound. It needed a champion with national relationships and the will to deploy them. Westbrooks became that catalyst—and Source Records became the platform.
In 1978, Westbrooks signed Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers to Source Records, a new label he was launching. It was a decisive bet that a regional phenomenon could be translated into national demand without diluting its identity. He began by aligning the business scaffolding: a manufacturing and distribution arrangement with E.C.E./Universal to ensure that, once the record moved, the product would be everywhere it needed to be. Later, a national tie-up with EMI would further widen the pipeline. With the infrastructure taking shape, he turned to the delicate art of timing.
Releasing a record in the fourth quarter—when Christmas albums, superstar releases, and greatest-hits packages crowd every shelf—can bury a newcomer. Westbrooks knew that. Still, he pressed ahead, using his network to “stage” the single so it could cut through the holiday noise. He learned on the relationships he had cultivated through radio programming, retail buyers, club promoters, and television bookers. The goal wasn’t simply to ship units; it was to choreograph a breakout.
Early in 1979, one of the first singles Source Records pushed was “Bustin’ Loose.” The track distilled the essence of the band’s live show—raw, syncopated, and audience-driven—into a radio-ready statement. Westbrooks immediately mounted a national campaign. He flew the group to Los Angeles and ushered them through the city’s tastemaker circuit, from influential DJs and club residencies to industry hangouts where a single night could change a record’s fate. He fine-tuned the group’s presentation—right down to putting them in new uniforms—so that every TV hit, photo, and newspaper image communicated a unified brand.
Television exposure on Soul Train, the era’s most visible music platform, proved pivotal. For millions of viewers who had never set foot in a D.C. club, Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers suddenly became the face—and sound—of go-go. Print coverage reinforced the moment. Local and national newspapers ran features that explained the groove, the culture, and the community that made go-go the anthem of its time in the district. On the ground, radio station “bases” in key markets began spinning the record, creating a virtuous cycle of club demand, airplay, and retail sell-through.
Behind the scenes, Westbrooks’s strategy was deceptively simple: make the band the movement’s vanguard and place them everywhere that tastemakers converged. He wasn’t trying to polish go-go into something else; he was packaging authenticity with discipline. By synchronizing media moments with inventory, tightening the live show’s look, and aligning radio, retail, and press, he transformed a local sound into a national conversation. The campaign’s effects were immediate and measurable: people didn’t just ask for the single, they asked for the band. Demand for Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers grew in markets where they’d never previously toured, and Source Records rode that wave.
Crucially, Westbrooks used “Bustin’ Loose” and the band’s momentum to launch Source Records itself. A new label often struggles for credibility—buyers to hesitate, radio waits for proof. By leading with a record that felt both fresh and undeniable, he flipped that equation. Source wasn’t merely another imprint vying for shelf space; it was the label that brought go-go to the national stage. With manufacturing and distribution first stabilized through E.C.E./Universal and later amplified by EMI’s national reach, Source had the channels to keep up with demand once the spark caught.
What made the push unique was the balance of instinct and infrastructure. Westbrooks trusted the street the neighborhoods where go-go was born—and then built the business case around that energy. He understood that timing a single at the height of holiday clutter required more than confidence; it demanded access. By leveraging his relationships, he secured placements, airtime, and coverage that most new labels couldn’t touch. The rollout for “Bustin’ Loose” demonstrated that relationships, executed through a strategic plan, can do more than promote a record—they can midwife a movement and inaugurate a label.
In the end, the story of Source Records’ launch is inseparable from Dr. Logan Westbrooks’s connective tissue across the industry and Chuck Brown’s singular command of a sound. Go-go may have started as a local anthem in D.C. and Baltimore, but Westbrooks’s orchestration—national TV exposure, targeted club seeding, coordinated press, and airtight distribution—turned “Bustin’ Loose” into a national statement. That statement did more than sell records; it announced Source Records as a force and proved that a regional rhythm, properly introduced, could move the entire country.
