by Cousin Geoff

I’ve talked before about Detroit psych/funk artist Fugi, and his unreleased 1968 Chess LP that was reissued on Tuff City.  As what usually happens when we’re digging something, more stuff sort of turns up.  So I wasn’t too suprised when his promo copy of Red Moon Part 1 and 2 on Grand Junction came out of recent collection, but I was excited.

Fugi is backed by Detroit funk-rock group Black Merda (play on black murder) on these cuts.  The history of the connection between Fugi (real name Ellington Jordan) and Black Merda is shakey.  Some people say that they were a part of the same band, others say that Fugi was the front man on this and the other 45s he put out, which were backed by Merda.  Others say that Fugi wanted to join Black Merda but they turned him down but backed him on the stuff he wrote.  I’ve also heard that Fugi was a promoter for Chess and helped sign other Detroit talent, and this may have played a factor in Fugi getting them to play with him.  Whatever the relationship was, it was Fugi who wrote this psychadelic brand of funk-rock that was considered too out-there at the time to sell to the masses.

Fugi had problems with drugs and legend has it that he wrote the song Red Moon as he drove around Detroit at night while high.  Max described Fugi’s music as “dark, doom funk.” In Detroit in the late 60s, with all that was going on, it’s no wonder that music was produced like this.  It’s quite the opposite from the happy, feel-good Motown sound, but it’s perhaps a more accurate picture of the gritty, grimy, racially tense city.

Red Moon, Part 1:

Part 2: