Born to Die [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Grand Funk Railroad | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 25, 2003)
• Original Release Date: 1976
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B00008BLB7
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,003 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

One of the great runs in '70s rock came to an end with Grand Funk's last album for Capitol, here reissued with unreleased live rehearsal takes of Bare Naked Woman and Genevieve .

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A GREAT and UNDERRATED ALBUM., December 19, 2003

By 

Richard D. Cappetto "RickDC" (Moodus, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Born to Die (Audio CD)

Born to Die is the most underrated GFR album by a long shot. After GFR went the way of the HIT RECORD with Locomotion, Bad Time, Some Kind Of Wonderful, Etc., they lost a lot of there core hard Rock fan base who neevr have Born to Die a chane. Also many of the newer fans were into the hits and expecting more HITS. With Born to Die instead of a pop type album we received a very sophisticated hard rock album; and one which may very well be GFRs best. This CD is 24 bit digitally remasterred and sounds fantastic, it is also the first time Born to Die has been released on CD (besides the pirated ones out of Russia) anywhere. The album great from start to finish. Born to die (the title track) is about Mark Farner's (Vocals, Guitar) cousin who died in a motorcycle accident. Dues is a Don Brewer (Vocals Drums) composition and he sings the lead about searching for things spiritual and finding hypocrites. Sally is a silly Love Song and attempted to be the HIT from this album, it really did not fit the theme of this album, but it is not a bad song. I Fell For Your Love another Don Brewer song is probably GFRs most sophisticated song in there History, it is about how the lifestyle of a "rock 'n' roll star" can only lead to half a love. Talk to the people another Mark Farner song is political in nature and features a fantastic Guitar/Saxaphone duel, with Jimmy Hall playing the Sax and of course Mark on the Guitar. Take me (a Don brewer Song) is a hard rocker in the vain of Shinin On and the songs on that album. Genevieve is a fantastic instrumental that gives all four funkers writing credit Farner, Brewer; Mel Schacher (Bass) and Craig Frost (Vocals and Keyboards). Next comes Love is Dyin; a lost love song sang wonderfully by Don Brewer (and maybe an indecation of the coming break up of GFR) and it has a great lead guitar solo by Mark Farner. Another political song called Politician is next and the album originally ended up with Good Things a Mark Farner song sang in Falsato. The CD also includes two bonus tracks, one is a rehearsal version of Genevieve and another is an unreleased song called Bear Naked Woman, which is an 8 bar blues song, recorded in rehearsal. Both bonus tracks rock. The CD has excellent liner notes and artwork and is a must have for very GFR fan.
RickDC

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DEFINITELY ONE OF THE BEST ALBUMS BY THE QUARTET FUNK, December 13, 2004

By 

TIM LUCERO "THE PSYCHODELIC ROCK" (Huntsville, Alabama United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Born to Die (Audio CD)

I will never understand why this album sold very poorly. It had excellent songs that were going along with the newer style of the 1970s rock and roll music. My only complaint is that I think CRAIG FROST should have played a grand acoustic piano instead of the newer type of pianos. MARK FARNERS' "TALK TO THE PEOPLE," "MR POLITICIAN," and the title track are my favorite songs with outstanding arrangements on this album. The fast paced "MR. POLITICIAN" has an excellent guitar and organ opening riffs and vocalsby MARK and the band, "TALK TO THE PEOPLE" has excellent piano riffs by CRAIG, sax by WET WILLIE'S singer JIMMY HALL, guitar riffs by MARK, and outstanding vocals by MARK and the band, and the title track (written about MARK'S cousin who died in a motorcycle accident) is an outstanding beginner with the piano intro, outstanding vocals by MARK and the band, organ and guitar riffs. On the other hand, it was a shame about MARK'S cousin who died in a motorcycle accident. Meanwhile, the arrangement of "DUES" with the guitar solos, clavinet and organ riffs, the bass guitar, and DON'S lead vocal and drum playing reminds me of PINK FLOYD'S "ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL PART 2." and the guitar solo on GOOD THINGS that features excellent vocals by MARK, piano riffs, and harmony vocals also reminds me of the signiture sound of PETER FRAMPTON'S guitar from "FRAMPTON COMES ALIVE". The arrangement of the soulful SALLY with MARK'S lead vocal, harmony vocals, the piano riffs, and harmonica by JIMMI HALL reminds me of either CHICAGO or JEFFERSON STARSHIP that later featured MICKEY THOMAS. The piano intro, drums, vocals, guitar, bass guitar, and organ riffs on DON'S TAKE ME are excellent, and so is his I FELL FOR YOUR LOVE that also features excellent vocals, guitar and organ riffs. At first, I thought that DON'S LOVE IS DYIN', also featuring excellent vocals, drums, bass guitar, guitar and piano riffs, was about the tentions developing between that band's main songwriters MARK and DON over what types of songs to write about. The group written instrumental GENEVIEVE (I have not listened to the live rehearsal version yet) is excellent too. Furthermore, the unreleased "BARE NAKED WOMAN" that is sung by MARK has some great rhythm and blues that recaptured the psychodelic days for the power trio GFR. I love this album a whole lot better than "GOOD SINGIN' GOOD PLAYIN'." Although a majority may or do not agree, I believe MARK wrote some excellent songs, if not outstanding, on this album like on "ALL THE GIRLS IN THE WORLD BEWARE."

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!, March 3, 2003

By 

s.ferber (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Born to Die (Audio CD)

"Born to Die" is the only record by the great Grand Funk Railroad that had inexplicably never been released on CD in this country before. That egregious oversight has thankfully now been rectified, as the Capitol GFR Remasters series has just finished releasing its entire catalog of this band in pristine-sounding editions. "Born to Die" is one of the best albums ever put out by the Grand Funk quartet. It consists of all-original tunes, and the playing is consistently fine throughout. Every one of the 10 tunes on this album is a gem of melody, lyric and playing. Mark Farner shines on guitar on every song, and especially--and somewhat ironically--on the Don Brewer compositions "Dues," "Take Me" and "Love Is Dyin'." It is strange that "Sally," which was released as a single, never reached higher than #69 on the Billboard charts; it's as happy, catchy and bouncy a tune as any teenybopper could want. On "Talk to the People," Farner and Wet Willie saxman Jimmy Hall trade licks in very impressive manner. The album also features the tune "Genevieve," one of GFR's very rare instrumentals, and another cooker. Farner's "Politician" (not to be confused with the Cream song of the same name) is as relevant today as when it first appeared in 1976. And then there's the album's title tune, which Farner wrote following the passing of his cousin in a biking accident. This one starts off stately and dirgelike, but soon builds to some more searing Farner guitarwork. But best of all--for me, anyway--is that "Dues" number. This is one of my favorite tunes in all of rockdom to blast the ____ out of; by the tune's end, multilayered Farner guitars are just exploding out of your speakers. I hate using that overused word, but the finale of "Dues" is just awesome in its intensity. This one song, I feel, is worth the price of the CD alone. So, all in all, we have an album with highly melodic songs--songs that, compared to the soulless and tuneless grunge of shlockmeisters such as Pearl Jam and Foo Fighters, are like Cole Porter--socially aware and at times witty lyrics, and superb playing. This new disc also comes with well-written liner notes and rare photos. PLUS, we get two never-before-heard tracks: "Bare-Naked Woman," a slow blues recorded live in the studio that tells of Mark's hatred of overly made-up women(!), and the live-in-the-studio rehearsal of that "Genevieve" number. This CD is a real winner, and certainly doesn't sound as if it's coming from a band on the verge of breaking up. But that breakup would come later in 1976, but only after GFR put out one more amazing collection, "Good Singin', Good Playin'," produced by Frank Zappa himself. And that album is perhaps even more kickass than this one!
Grand Funk Railroad is perhaps the most unjustly critically maligned band in the history of rock. Though extremely popular in their day, I doubt if 1 in a 100 people could now name a song other than "We're an American Band," "I'm Your Captain," "The Loco-Motion" or "Some Kind of Wonderful" from any of the band's 18 sterling albums. The Capitol Remasters series represents a great opportunity for all of us to acquaint ourselves or reacquaint ourselves with some of the finest rock and roll ever made. After 27 years, "Born to Die" has finally made it to CD! The world is a better place.