Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
IF YOU GET ONE GFR CD, GET THIS ONE, August 1, 2002
At first glance you may think Classic Masters is just another Grand Funk Railroad Hits CD, and it is that. But it is also a 24 BIT fully remastered Hits CD and it sounds absolutely wonderful. If you have Capitol Collectors Series, Great Grand Funk, More Of The Best, Super Best, etc., there all good, but this CDs sound simply blow's all those CDs away. You can hear the Lyrics so clearly, listen to We're An American Band and you can hear Don sing "Up all night, with Freddie King, I got to tell you Poker is his thing." And Listen to Time Machine and you can hear what Mark says right before he goes into his lick. I won't say it hear to influence anyone, you all go listen and see what he says? Its clear as a bell. The Music is so clean and I can't hear tape hiss over my speakers (have not listened with earphones yet). Every instrument is balanced and mixed well, and clean to the ears. This CD rocks. I hope everyone that has Capitol Collectors Series will replace it with this CD. BUT I think the liner notes in Capitol Collectors Series are better then the liner notes in Classic Masters, but who cares its the sound that maters. I like the sepia tone photos on the cover and back of the CD. The one on the Back was used for the photo on the back of GFRs picture sleeve for Locomotion/Destitute and losin 45. The front picture is the picture used for the art work on the cover of E Pluribus Funk. This Classic Masters CD has a good representation of Grand Funk Railroad's career at Capitol (69-76) from Time Machine and Mean Misterater, to I'm Your Captian/Closer To Home (There Magus Opus), to We're An American Band (there biggest Hit) Walk Like A Man and Shinin On (Both Big its), to Take me and Bad Time (there two last Radio hits whit Bad Time being the most played song on the radio in 76). This is a MUST Have for any Grand Funk Railroad Fan; A Must have for anyone who gets hits CDs of the bands they like; and a must have for anyone who want's to try Grand Funk Railroad out.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
They're An American Band, February 3, 2003
Grand Funk Railroad's ham-fisted approach to rock 'n' roll left music critics appalled, but they sold twenty million 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.Despite the non-stop criticism from the rock press, nothing succeeds like success, and Grand Funk was undeniably one of the biggest bands of the era. I do, however, have a few issues with this remastered collection: *It's nice to see that they added the 1976 hit "Take Me" (No. 53), not found on the 1991 Collectors Series compilation. But with a running time of only 71 minutes why did they also delete "Inside Looking Out" from 1970 which was the only UK hit of their career? [These are the only two track listing changes that differentiate between Collectors Series and Classic Masters.] *Three other singles are missing: "Upsetter" (No. 73) from E PLURIBUS FUNK, "Sally" (No. 69) from BORN TO DIE, and "Can You Do It" (No. 45) from the Frank Zappa-produced album GOOD SINGIN' GOOD PLAYIN'. *Also, the track sequencing on Classic Masters is not chronological, which hurts the continuity.
All told, this is a great artifact from one of the great power trios of the era. GFR was 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, crank this up to ten, and roll down the windows. LOUD! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Better sound than Capital Collectors Series, October 4, 2002
As an old fan of GFR from back in their heyday, I wanted a "best of" CD to remember them by. A few months ago, I purchased the Capital Collectors Series disc, and I found the sound quality to be quite unsatisfactory. I later found this Classic Masters disc in the closeout bin of a record shop. The Classic Masters disc claimed to be "24-bit remastered", so I figured the sound quality might be better. And the price was cheap enough that I figured what-the-heck.
The songs contained on these two discs are the same, except for one song on each: the Capital Collectors Series includes "Inside Looking Out"; and the Classic Masters disc includes "Take Me". Neither of these songs are among the bands's best IMHO, so it shouldn't be a deciding factor.
I compared the sound quality of both CDs quite carefully on a high-end CD player listening through high-end headphones, switching back and forth multiple times for each song, and the Classic Masters CD sounds noticeably better: overall dynamic range is better, which makes the vocals cleaner; and high notes, particularly cymbals and violins, are much less distorted than on the Capital Collectors Series CD. Both discs still exhibit plenty of distortion at times, but that is to be expected from 30+ year old master tapes.
I find the sound qualtiy on the Classic Masters to be acceptable, so I think I'll keep it.
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