Erucu (edit)

from the 12” single, Tamla Records, 1976



Layered with thick, steamy jungles of percussion and a bassline so phat you might gain weight, this burner from Jackson brother Jermaine ably demonstrates that, without a doubt, there was still plenty of talent to go around in their family beyond just Michael and Janet. Frankly, this track was put together in such a deeply innovative way that I feel possessed and consumed by the funk, the intermingling of no less than a Moog, a Hammond B-3, Jermaine’s bass, & a veritable blizzard of all sorts of earthy-sounding percussive instruments leaves the listener ablaze in tribal fire. Suddenly, about four minutes into the track, out of the funk maelstrom comes the voices of children reflecting on the concept of God, good and evil, and it makes for a super trippy finale to an astoundingly excellent track, “…I think that, um, um, there are more people that are bad than there are good, and um, if you’re good you’ll live forever, and if you’re bad, you’ll die when you die…”