Footstompin' music (Grand Funk Railroad) (LP 2639 - 2640)

Grand Funk Railroad  Greatest Hits/ Live: The 1971 Tour (CD/ DVD, Capitol Records, 2007) ****  

Grand Funk  We're An American Band (Vinyl, Capitol Records, 1973) ***  

Genre: Rock 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records; Real Groovy.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: We're An American Band

Gear costume: Some Kind Of Wonderful; TNUC (Live)

Active compensatory factors: I wasn't much of a Grand Funk Railroad fan back in their heyday of the early seventies. They seemed a bit of a blunt instrument, murky, and brainless to my teenage brain.

But then, We're An American Band (the song) hit the airwaves in 1973 and Todd Rundgren produced the album of the same name (their seventh) and gave the band some focus and clarity. 

It's still an album dominated by that big hit, and Walk Like A Man on side 2 (both sung by drummer Don Brewer) and it hasn't aged too well as an album. Definitely one of the albums of 1973 though.

The Greatest Hits/ Live album combo is probably all curious listeners need to have. It's a double CD, 1 DVD package. 

The Greatest Hits CD compiles the big hitters like the two already mentioned plus Some Kind Of Wonderful and The Locomotion - two successful cover versions.

The Live in 1971 CD is actually much more like it than the Greatest Hits (none appear on the Live CD). The band sound tight, in their element and play really well! TNUC is a long one - over 17 minutes because of the drum solo, but it's a great example of what I'm talking about. Have a go if you think you're brave enough!

Where do they all belong? Interestingly, Keegan has become much more of a fan of the band than I've ever been. I'm not sure what the appeal is for him because he was born in 1984. Many years after the Funk were doing their thing. Maybe it's that unpretentious earthy dumbness he appreciates.

Last night in Little Rock put me in a haze (Grand Funk Railroad) #121

Grand Funk Railroad We're An American Band/ Creepin (Capitol, F 3660, 1973)

Grand Funk Railroad are one of my eldest son's favourite bands. I'm surmising but I think it's the unpretentious earthy dumbness he appreciates.

Somehow this bluesy Cream style trio of boys from Flint Michigan were huge in the late sixties, early seventies.

By the time We're An American Band went to the top of the charts the band had added a fourth member and became more pop rock oriented. Having Todd Rundgren producing didn't hurt as this and the next single both went to number 1.

Hidden gem: Creepin is a longish track from the album (elsewhere The Railroad, also on the parent album, was used). It's quite tasteful - a mid tempo bluesy song with some nice organ - the antithesis of the A side's bluster.