1977 · Behind the Songs
A celebration built on a bass line.
If “Easy” was the whisper, “Brick House” was the shout. Released in 1977, the song is a full-throated funk celebration built on a bass line that hits like a strut. The “brick house” of the title is a compliment — a woman put together so solidly she might as well be architecture — and the band plays it like they mean every word.
The track showed what the Commodores could do when they let the rhythm section off the leash. Walter Orange’s drums and Ronald LaPread’s bass lock into a groove that never lets up, and the horns punch through like exclamation points. It remains one of the great party records of the funk era — all muscle, all joy.