Customer Reviews

Capitol Collectors Series: Grand Funk Railroad

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Grand Funk Railroad's ham-fisted approach to rock 'n' roll left music critics appalled, but they sold millions of records and even broke the Beatles' record for selling out Shea Stadium. During the band's tenure at Capitol Records (1969-1976), they hit the Hot 100 singles chart more than a dozen times. Mark Farner--the band's underrated guitar player and usual lead singer--wrote much of the group's material. However their two No. 1 singles, "We're an American Band" and "The Loco-Motion," were written by drummer Don Brewer and Goffin & King respectively.

Nothing succeeds like success, and Grand Funk was undeniably one of the biggest bands of the era. They were a no-nonsense party band, and if you're looking for a single CD to provide you with all of their best moments--this is it. For maximum effect, play this LOUD! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

This is one of my favourite GFRR albums, because it is one of their more diverse and well-rounded albums. It is so rootsy, yet so progressive. GFR lays all its influences out for people to see, going from blues to ballads, hard rock to psychedelic, and yet its all-original material--an unusual thing for a group's debut album. If you like Cream's first album, "Fresh Cream" from 1966, it is almost entirely patterned after that album, from the three guys on the cover with the dark backdrop, to the very similar drum solo songs ( Cream's "Toad" vs. GFR's "T.N.U.C"), To Mark Farner trying to play his best "woman tone" on his guitar and trying to work it into a feedback frenzy at the same time (a la Eric Clapton), to the way both albums veer wildly from style to style. Mark Farner was at his best on this record. He played his most beautifully delicate guitar on "Heartbreaker" and could still rip away with the best of them, with a chainsaw-sounding fuzz-guitar slicing through tracks like "Can't be too long" and "Anybody's Answer." And the songs! Their most expressive songwriting was on this album, and their feelings about life. If "Anybody's Answer" was released today, it would be a hit for Alice In Chains and Creed--that's how mind-blowing and forward thinking that song was for 1969! "Into the Sun" IS RHYTHM, period. Sly Stone or James Brown couldn't have done it any better without a horn section! Okay, the sound quality wasn't so "hot"--you can barely hear the bass, and that was an intregal part of the GFR sound, what made them "tick" on later albums. But the engineering end of it tried to make up for it, with really cool studio effects that you don't hear on albums anymore, like the speaker-to-speaker effects on "Anybody's Answer" and "Can't Be Too Long" and the way make Mark's fuzz rhythm guitar zoom from speaker-to-speaker--far out!! This is by far their most overlooked and underrated albums. People just look at it and pick out the "hits" like "Time Machine" and "Are You Ready?" They ignore the so-called "filler", but the "filler" is the best parts of this album. It deserves a first-or second listen by everybody.

During the time of the Grand Funk Railroad's greatest success, they were breaking concert attendance records set by bands like the Beatles and all their records were selling millions. Despite this success, the band were whipping boys for the rock press. Their music was panned for it's lack of artistic value, but that's not what the band was all about. As the title of the song "Footstompin' Music" says, they were all about make good time, have fun music. Admittingly, their albums do contain some forgettable songs, but songs like "We're An American Band", "Bad Time", "Some Kind Of Wonderful" and "Shinin' On" are catchy and just plain fun. Throw in the band's best song, the majestic "I'm Your Captain" and you have yourself a great collection.

Okay, let's get one thing straight. Grand Funk Railroad, that bunch of garage band bashers from the idyllic berg of Flint, Michigan, should never be confused with Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Traffic, etc, etc, etc. In other words, they were not Prog Rock, Punk Rock, Message Rock or any other kind of rock designed to appeal to the critics. In fact, let's say it loud and proud: GRAND FUNK RAILROAD WAS A PARTY BAND!!!!That's party, party! spelled P-A-R-T-E-E-E-E-E-EOWWWWW!!! In other words, music the critics didn't like because they don't always know how to have a good time. Really, the band should be known as GRAND FUN, because they were all about getting loose and having a good time. Which did not stop them, by the way, from performing excellent covers of message songs, like, say the Rolling Stones "Gimme Shelter" or the Animals/Ledbelly classic, "Inside Looking Out". (Both are which are represented on this excellent collection; the extended version of "Inside" is particularly fine, with first rate vocals by guitarist Mark Farner.) Most of the collection holds up very well to this day, with "Heartbreaker," "I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home" (a particular favorite of drummer Don Brewer and represented here in glorious fullness without radio edits.) and Dave Mason's much-covered "Feelin' Alright" emerging as the best cuts from the early albums, and "Loco-Motion," "Rock and Roll Soul," and "Bad Time" proving to be the best tracks from their later, more commercial albums. (Some fans may not like these commercial, obviously R-and-B-influenced tracks; these people should read a recent interview by Brewer on the Grand Funk website in which he admits that R-and-B and Motown, not blues, was the band's primary influence.) Note: If you are trying to decide whether to buy this collection or the one entitled Classic Masters, please note that each compilation has just one track that the other doesn't have, and therefore, the question comes down to this: Do you prefer "Take Me" (Classic Masters) or "Inside Looking Out" (Capitol Collectors Series)? (You will have to answer this question yourself, of course, but just let me remind you of one thing: That glorious cover of "Inside" is awfully fine!!) Farner, of course, sings most of the lead vocals, but fine drummer Brewer is also well represented here, with "Shinin' On," "Gimme Shelter," and that most wonderful party anthem "We're An American Band." Meanwhile, bassist Mel Schacher was creating the fabulous, droning bass lines on "Shelter," and late addition (but former Pack mate) Craig Frost was adding the fun and funky organ work that added extra soul to "Footstompin' Music". OUTASITE!!! So, if you want some hard-rockin tunes to liven up your next party, Grab Capitol Collectors Series today! Trust me: It puts the Fun in Grand Funk bigtime!!!

Grand Funk Railroad Capitol Collectors Series; Is a Hits CD and it has a good selection of song's from GFRs great rock n roll career; Most of the Hits are hear We're An American Band, Shinin' On, Walk Like a Man and their cover of Gimme Shelter all sang by GFRs great Drummer and Vocalists Don Brewer all rock. Rock N Roll Soul, Bad Time, and GFRs cover of Locomotion Sang by GFRs great lead vocalists And Guitar player Mark Farner and fine pop songs. And there cover of Some Kind Of Wonderful in which Mark and Don trade off vocals is very cool. The CD also includes concert mainstays such as Footstompin Music, Time Machine, Heartbreaker, There cover of Inside Looking Out, Their cover of Locomotion, and there magus opus I'm Your Captain / Closer to Home (all Sang by Mark) one of Rock N Roll's most beautiful songs. GFR was the most popular hard rock band in the early 70s and every hard rock fan owes it to themselves to check them out.

GRAND FUNK RAILROAD-CAPITOL COLLECTORS SERIES: For FUNK fans interested in a dynamic overview of Mark, Don & Mel, giving equal time to both their early underground classics and their subsequent Top 40 run of pop-rock smashes, listen no further. The Capitol collection touches on all the right bases, chronologically encapsulating milestones from the bloozey HEARTBREAKER (head honcho Mark Farner says it's the first song he ever wrote) to their last biggie, the blue-eyed soul singalong BAD TIME. In between, there's the beautifully rendered CLOSER TO HOME/I'M YOUR CAPTAIN, the slam-jam speaker shredder SHININ' ON, and autobiographical party-boy anthem WE'RE AN AMERICAN BAND. Tastefully selected cover tunes, always a GF staple, include Eric Burdon's INSIDE LOOKING OUT, RNB nugget SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL, and their mega-watt reconstruction of THE LOCOMOTION. Critics always hated the Funk, and fans always didn't...and though I am both, I certainly know real ROCK & ROLL SOUL when I hear it!

RATING: FIVE BARE CHESTS

This compilation captures the success of Grand Funk Railroad pretty well. Songwise, it doesn't put any one period of their career in front of the other, but instead, it gives us a fairly accurate taste of each of their albums. This is very convenient for the newcomers, because this Capitol Collectors CD is a perfect way to introduce the band, and to choose the albums worth buying, depending on the listener's personal preferences. If there's one thing to complain about, it's the one-sided view on the band, that this collection might give you. Most of the songs here were successful chart-busting singles of their time, and being such, they are mostly made around an accessible melodic line with loud arena-rock styled performance. To me it seems not very appropriate, because in their early years Grand Funk Railroad recorded a number of excellent groovy blues-based tracks with some impressive jamming instrumentals. I think that replacing a couple of later pop-songs with some early raw material would only have done the band justice. But that's just me.

Recommendations: for those who are looking for a convenient way to introduce themselves to Grand Funk Railroad, and for those who do not want to buy full albums (or those who are like me and don't want to buy commercial stuff, but already own all GFR's early material), but rather prefer to have all their famous songs on one CD.

Back in the bad ol' 1970s, Grand Funk was one of the heaviest (and most popular) bands around. Along with Bachman Turner Overdrive, they defined the sweaty, blue-collar hard rock sound that was the antithesis of such egg-headed contemporaries as Yes and Emmerson, Lake and Palmer. This single disc collection gathers just about all the Funk worth hearing in one economically priced package.

The disc includes all of the Funk standards, the anthemic "We're an American Band," "Mean Mistreater," "Shining On," the bowlderdized covers of Traffic's "Feelin' Alright," the Stones's "Gimmie Shelter," Little Eva's "The Loco-Motion" and the reworking of "Walk Like a Man." This collection gets bonus points for containing the full length (over ten minute) "I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home" and the last big funk single, "Some Kind of Wonderful," that was left off of most earlier Funk anthologies.

Overall, a fine representative collection from a band that virtually defines the term 70's nostalgia.

The songs on this compilation pretty well tell the story of Grand Funk, from the hard, raw sound of "Inside Looking Out" to the now-silly posturing of "We're an American Band," to the emptiness of their biggest hits, "Some Kind of Wonderful" and "The Locomotion." The best bands of the 60s and 70s had rock-solid rhythm sections, and on that score GF more than qualified--Don Brewer and and Mel Schacher were right up there with Bonzo and John Paul Jones. Mark Farner was no Hendrix, but how many people were in those days?

"Paranoid," from the early days, is the only glaring omission. I find it interesting that whereas I really liked "Walk Like a Man" when the "American Band" album first came out, I can barely tolerate it now. The song I keep listening to is "Rock & Roll Soul," which encapsulates much of what was good about rock music in the 70s.

Thank goodness for this wonderful, American rock band. You will be amazed how many songs you recognize from this great band when you listen to this Capitol Collectors Series CD. It's actually a perfect greatest hits collection. Everything you've ever wanted from Grand Funk Railroad can be found here. All the radio hits, plus a few lesser known tunes. The entire running time of the disc clocks in to something like 75 minutes. You also get the long version of "Closer to Home/I'm Your Captain". It's music that will never grow old and will instantly take you back to the 70's. The rock and roll actually rocks, and sounds like good old fashioned dirty, raw blues rock.