Customer Reviews

An American Band: The Story of Grand Funk Railroad

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When I received this book in the mail, I tore it out andstarted reading it and didn't put it down. Couldn't put it down.I've been a Funk fan for almost 30 years having grown up with their music. I was really looking forward to this book when I heard it was coming out, and it didn't let me down. Well written, lots of facts with some great quotes I've heard and some I haven't heard from all the band members. It was interesting reading about their early days, and how they felt during all that since TK didn't really let them talk at all except (with a fight it sounded like) through their music. Billy James (AKA Ant Bee) is obviously a Funk fan, but this didn't shy him away from putting in the bad press and reviews the band received over the years, which if memory serves me right were most of the reviews they received, but this didn't stop them from going gold on their albums and selling out arenas. It is written mostly it seems from articles and interviews given by the band over the years with some correction from Don Brewer and Mel Schacher. It has an extensive bookmark section from where these articles and interviews came from. Very little dirt if that's what you're looking for, but a few amusing stories. Some good pictures too. I highly recommend this to any Grand Funk fan. It's a must!

An American Band, The Story of Grand Funk Railroad is a wonderful new book by Billy James that covers the History of the American Band Grand Funk Railroad (1969-1999).

An American Band covers GFRs Meteoric rise to Rock N roll Superstardom; there fall (due to the break up with there manager and the ensuing lawsuits) and there rebirth and reunions. The Book Goes through an album by album and tour by tour synopsis. It also covers Mark Farner's, Don Brewer's and Mel Shcacher's personal lives and solo careers. An American Band covers the origins of GFR (Bossman, ? and the Mysterians, Pack and Jazz master Days), The critical disdain and loyal fan support, The break Ups, The 80s reunion and the current reunion (96-98). It also covers GFR on the Internet and has a list of all the fan based sites.

Grand Funk Railroad formed in 1968 and released there first album, "On Time," in 1969. It was a first in a series of huge selling records ("On Time", "Grand Funk", "Closer To Home", "Live," "Survival," "E Pluribus Funk," "Mark, Don and Mel," "Phoenix," "We're An American Band," "Shinin' On," and "All The Girls in the world Beware"). GFR was an underground FM type band and received little airplay and nothing but negative media attention (if not outright hostility). Even with all that, Grand Funk Railroad with the support of a huge and loyal fan base, was the largest selling Rock group in the 1970s (1970-79); they sold twenty-five million albums in the United States and another 20 million more worldwide. They were the first band to sell 12 straight Gold Albums and 10 straight Platinum albums. They charted many times (With a switch to a more polished sound in 72 and the addition of a permeant keyboard player Craig Frost) with two songs reaching #1, "The Loco-Motion" and "We're An American; with also "Bad Time" and "Some Kind Of Wonderful" reaching the top 5. In 1975, GFR won the BMI award for having the most played song on the radio, which was "Bad Time". There were thrown off the Led Zeppelin tour in 69, cause Zeppelins manager could not stand the fact the GFR was the crowd pleaser (GFR blew the mighty Zep off the stage). They went on to tour on there own. They sold out Shea Stadium faster than the Beetles, and sold out in the US and in their worldwide tours breaking records where ever they went. All this is covered in An American band in detail and Billy makes great use of critics reviews (both good and bad) and also the reactions of Mark, Don and Mel, to show what they thought about all that was happening around them. Billy also goes on to detail GFRs later and solo albums "Caught in the Act," "Born To Die," "Good Singin Good Playin," "Flint" (Don Mel and Craig's band), and Mark Farner's solo albums "Mark Farner," No Frills," "Just Another Injustice," "Wake Up," "Some Kind Of Wonderful." And GFR's New efforts "Bosnia," A double Live CD with proceeds going to the Bosnia war orphans and refugee relief fund, and "Thirty Years Of funk-1969-99," a 3 CD set Anthology covering the band from the pack days to three brand new songs.

GFR has always been the "People's Band." If they had something to say they did it, Mark Farner was always very political and it came out in his songs. His Anti Vietnam sediments were shown in songs suck as "Closer To Home," & "People Lets Stop The War;" His worry about the environment issues was shown in songs such as "Save The Land," & "Ban The Man." Overpopulation and spiritual searching in songs such as "So You Wont have to die," & "Comfort Me." Mark who was always a Christian became a devout follower of Jesus in the 80s and Mark's God Rock albums are covered in Billy's Book as well. Back in the early 1970s, GFR took a stand against hard drugs by doing promotional ads urging their generation not to destroy their lives with drugs. This was not a popular thing to do, at that time, but they showed the caring necessary not to worry about record sales and do what was right. They also helped establish the Phoenix House, which started in New York City. Phoenix House worked mostly with teens who were drug dependent. Mark, Don, and Mel named an album after the Phoenix House, "Phoenix," in its honor and played concerts for free to raise money for that institution. They also did advertisements for the Red Cross to get young people to Give Blood. Billy does a great job showing all sides of the band.

An American Band is the most documented and complete History that can be found on the great American Band, Grand Funk Railroad. Billy does a great job showing there whole history the good with the bad, the book is excellent and a must have for every GFR Fan. Billy also documents how the band was ripped of by the Manager Terry knight, and for this section alone, every young inspiring musician sound read this book. Its on SAF publishing and its ISBN is 0 946719 26 8

Rick Cappetto

This book documents the history of the legendary American rock group - Grand Funk Railroad. It tells of their early rise to fame; from a garage band from Flint, MI. to selling out Shea Stadium faster than the Beatles. From a $6,000,000 lawsuit with their former manager to ten consecutive gold records. It tells of the groups demise in 1976 to it's rebirth in 1996; still packing stadiums like they did 20 years previous! With the help of Grand Funk band members Don Brewer and Mel Schacher, 'An American Band - the Story Of Grand Funk Railroad' is the definitive source for the history of one of the world's greatest rock and roll groups! As a bonus, Don Brewer has written the forward to the book as well!

it's a good read, i love grand funk and it's nice to learn about their history,lots of pre funk info and lots of info about the albums, i was a big early funk fan and it was good to learn about the later success, the author did a good job, but thier needed to be more input from the band about the songs and albums and more insight into the writing and recording. i did like learning about the influence knight had early and the different producers later. it's a must read for all the funk fans who defied the idiot writers who dogged them thier whole career.

I'm a professional writer. I have conversed with Yvonne and Rick Cappetto and they are fine folk. But I couldn't disagree more with them.

I bought my first GFR record in January 1970, after hearing "Got This Thing On The Move" on the radio, when I was babysitting. It blew right outta that cheap radio and into my..well..you get it. Three months later I sang " In Need " and "Inside Looking Out" for a band needing a singer. I was hired on the spot, and have bought every GFR record since, first on vinyl, later on CD, and I now own some of their records 4-5 different forms and releases. I have interviewed Mark and Don at least three times and written extensively about them for my college paper in the 70's and my first weekly paper,later. Simply put, next to The Beatles, GFR were my favorite band of the 70's. I know a lot more about them than the casual fan. That doesn't make me any better or smarter, it simply means that as classic rock bands go, GFR are one I spent a lot of time getting to know.

The band is super, the music is terrific, and their history is definitely interesting. But Billy James book isn't. The grammar is lousy, the spelling appalling, and sometimes the narrative wanders off into detail that seems irrelevant, while more essential history is left to the imagination. He totally misses how polarized this band left people. I think it safe to say that no band of the 70's had more intense fans and more die-hard "haters" than Grand Funk did. I don't think anyone has ever said " Grand Funk is OK. I can take them or leave them."

In short, this reads like a high school journalism project. It's amateurish construction aside, it just doesn't give listeners a sense of how unprepared America was for these guys with their sound. They were a trio of backwater Michigan goofballs ( that's an affectionate term, not an insulting one, folks ) with cheap gear, no shirts and zero musical training. They played one trashy, but exhilarating, blues based blow out after another and wedged in a bristling, moaning ballad here and there. No one sounded like these guys at all, and radio had no idea what to do with them, except do their damndest to ignore them and hope they go away. Radio programmers soon found out that they had grossly miscalculated and just the opposite took place. Ever since, critics have been going out of their way to mock, demean and dismember the first band in U.S. history to have 11 consecutive gold and 10 consecutive platinum albums. They were the first band to ever have an album "ship" platinum and still hold the record for the fastest sell out of Japan's legendary Budokan Hall. Even jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, notorious for his blunt criticism of rock bands, said " I don't know a damned thing about those guys, but I know that I'd close up shop if they were playing in the same town as me. I've heard they are one hell of a live act. "

GFR has a great story to tell, but Billy James was "In Need" of some serious skill upgrades before he got aboard this railroad

If your a GFR fan or collector then I recommend this book for collection purposes only. The book is totally pro Don Brewer only. It bashes Mark Farner several times, at one point saying Brewer is a more prolific writer of the bands songs. That is not even remotely correct. Mark wrote 90% of the songs. I recommend From Grand Funk to Grace which is an authorized biography that doesn't contain any put downs. Mark admits his flaws. This was just too one sided for me. I give it 2 stars because it does have some good info & pictures but I wish it was more a biography then a contest of whose better. It took all 3 (sometimes 4) of them to make the band, not just 1.

Not a promising beginning, though I am looking forward to reading this as GFR has been one of my favorite bands. There is a typo on the very first page of the book (Don Brewer's forward) and when I couldn't find the listing of the show I attended, I discovered that it was listed as Binghampton, VT instead of Binghamton, NY. Oh well. Will amend upon further reading....