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WaywardSon View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Grand Funk Railroad
    Posted: September 06 2006 at 13:35
I was listening to "Caught in the act" one (the only Grand Funk album I have) of my all time favourite live albums and was wondering about the rest of their discography. I have heard some songs off their "Live" album too.
 
What are the key albums that I should try?
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2006 at 13:40
The albums are quite scarce where I'm based but I have a best of which seems to cover most of the bases.
 
I love their epic 'I'm Your Captain/Closer To Home'- a beautiful piece that's quite moving and was adopted as an anthem by the US soldiers in Vietnam.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2006 at 13:52
I think that their best albums were those recorded between 1969 and 1972. They became more commercial with their "We Are an American Band" album from 1973. It is curious that thier best albums were recorded during their period with producer / manager Terry Knight. It seems that they fired him because they didn`t earn in money what they deserved, but the quality of their music became less interesting for me after they left Knight and became a quartet.
 
I think that their best albums are: "Closer to Home" (from 1970, which has the song "I`m Your Captain", a.k.a. "Closer to Home"; it is a very good song with feeling and orchestral arrangements), "E Pluribus Funk" (1971, with very good anti-war songs and another very good song with orchestral arrangements called "Loneliness"), "Grand Funk" (from 1969 or maybe 1970, a heavy album which includes "Inside Looking Out", a song previously recorded by The Animals) and "Live Album" (1970).
 
Grand Funk had very good musicians in the trio line-up: Mark Farner, Mel Schacher and Don Brewer. Farner wasn`t a great lead guitarist, but he sang very well and composed very good songs. Schacher was a very good bassist in the style of John Entwistle. Brewer played the drums very well, with energy and feeling. A very good band.
 
Their albums are not as scarce as they were for years, because some 4-5 years ago their labels (Capitol and Warner) released remastered versions of  most of their albums.For more details, look for their official website (sorry, I don`t have the addres of this website now).
 
There was (or maybe still is) a Grand Funk line-up with Brewer, Schacher and other musicians. It seems that they do tours in the U.S. and in other countries in a similar way to Creedence Clearwater Revisited and Kansas: the band without their main songwriter (Farner in the case of Grand Funk).
 


Edited by Guillermo - September 06 2006 at 13:59
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2006 at 13:58
Thumbs UpThumbs Up Two Thumbs Up for Caught in the Act!
 
That's the only one I have as well.  I feel that the live album Caught in the Act is the only one you really need to have (I emphazie NEED).  They are hot as balls on this live record and frankly, don't seem to capture the same intensity with the studio versions.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2006 at 14:58
A band  that did not make it in the UK, and those few who had heard them at the time, largely treated their music as a joke.  I bought Caught In The Act on vinyl in the early 70's, and liked most of it - Captain Of Your Ship in particular has been guaranteed regular play for 30 years (Sal, never know the Vietnam War relationship) and meant I got a CD replacement in part hoping that the fade at the end of the track (because it is the last track on a side of an LP), would run through to the next tune without fade on the CD (NOPE, false hope). Subsequent to the CITA LP purchase  I bought Live and will admit that it has so few plays (the brashness??? relative crude playing/ arrangements??? didn't appeal) that I still effectivley have  a mint copy on vinyl. Recently I was tempted to get hold of the 30 year 3 CD retrospective, to review my ideas about the band - and perhaps the best thing is at last hearing the studio version of  Captain (some will recall it sparked  off my thread on mainstream early America prog).
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2006 at 15:32
Caught in the act is a really feel good album which is packed with a lot of "soul". Another example of rock with soul would be "In Concert" by James Gang. I can´t really think of a British band that had a lot of soul (correct me if I´m wrong)
 
Their cover of Little Eva´s "Locomotion" was great, complete with the backing female vocals (I remember how Kylie Minogue butchered that song)
The drumming is also great, the way you can hear Brewers crisp sounding high hat on Rock n Roll Soul.
 
 


Edited by WaywardSon - September 06 2006 at 15:33
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2006 at 15:47
For me the first two albums are their best.
 
Their live album is plagued by a horrible sound; but is held in high regards by fans.
 
Their studio output remains good until American band, after that it is diluted.
let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter
keep our sand-castle virtues
content to be a doer
as well as a thinker,
prefer lifting our pen
rather than un-sheath our sword
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2006 at 16:11
I must say that from their best of, the more commercial songs like 'Locomotion' and 'We're An American Band' appealed far less than the heavier, more adventurous numbers- I remember a scorching heavy blues number called 'Heartbreaker' being very impressive on that collection.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2006 at 21:42
http://www.grandfunkrailroad.com/ Just checked out their website and they still seem to be at it after all these years!
 
Youré right about that salmacis, Heartbreaker is amazing!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 07 2006 at 11:05
Thanks for the reminder of Little Eva's Locomotion - I'm sure I've read that a now famous prog musician or jazz rock musician was part of that session. Who I can't remember??
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 08 2006 at 07:19

There's a great Grand Funk album which seems to be a little overlooked: "Good Singin' Good Playin'", produced by Frank Zappa. Look out for this, you'll probably like it. I'd like to recommend "Bosnia" too: a great live recording taken from benefit concerts in 1996 by GFR's original line-up. CD 2 was recorded with an orchestra, adding some new elements to "Loneliness", "Mean Mistreater" and "I'm your captain" (yes, this one was already orchestrated - but this new version is better).

This is aimed to people who complains of "Live Album" - try "Live: The 1971 Tour" - it's far better than that album.

"He's a man of the past and one of the present"
PETER HAMMILL
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 08 2006 at 12:06
One thing that I liked from the old bands of the sixties and seventies (like Grand Funk, The Who, The Beatles, etc.) was the energy, the "raw" sound, playing with feeling on stage and in the studio. I have talked about it with relatives and friends, and they agree with me. Now music is mainly done with Pro Tools and other computer softwares. Even the persons who can`t sing or don`t know  nothing about musical theory or how to play an instrument can make they own "music".Confused One example of this are the "musical samplers musicians" who create  "new songs" taking the recorded parts of other known songs.

Edited by Guillermo - September 08 2006 at 12:13
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 08 2006 at 14:36
Yes 'Caught in the act' is great indeed.
For further listening E pluribus funk would be my pick.
A few years ago I became a big fan of them from borrowing We are an American band(and bought most of their stuff there after).Yes the title track is their biggest hit,but the rest of the cd is not really that commercial.It is a continuation from what they had done up to that point.Even Phoenix is a great album with only a few klonkers on.
I like all their cds except All the girls in the world beware.Born to die is a little bit back to WAAAB.
Great band wich I would have loved to see,though I saw Mark Farner Band a while ago which was great.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 09 2006 at 12:09
Originally posted by M. B. Zapelini M. B. Zapelini wrote:

There's a great Grand Funk album which seems to be a little overlooked: "Good Singin' Good Playin'", produced by Frank Zappa. Look out for this, you'll probably like it. I'd like to recommend "Bosnia" too: a great live recording taken from benefit concerts in 1996 by GFR's original line-up. CD 2 was recorded with an orchestra, adding some new elements to "Loneliness", "Mean Mistreater" and "I'm your captain" (yes, this one was already orchestrated - but this new version is better).

This is aimed to people who complains of "Live Album" - try "Live: The 1971 Tour" - it's far better than that album.

 
That album was their last album for the seventies (1976). It was recorded for a new label, MCA Records, after they finished their contract with Capitol with their album "Born to Die" (1975 or 1976).  "Good Singin`..." was out of print for a long time until being released on CD for the first time 5 or 6 years ago (by MCA again).
 
In the early eighties there was a line-up of Grand Funk with Farner, Brewer and a bassist called Dennis Bellinger  or something like that. They recorded two albums for WEA: "Grand Funk Lives!" (1981) and "What`s Funk"? (I can`t remember well now if this is the correct title of this 1983 album). I never have listened to "Good Singin`..", and to these eighties albums.
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