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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The last hurrah from a much underrated band., January 25, 2004
Most people would argue that Grand Funk Railroad never sold out. However, I noticed that shortly after Craig Frost joined them, there was a bit of a decline in the quality of their music. The bombastic rhythms, over-amped bass, and monstrous thrashing power-chords and riffs so prevalent in their ealier music began to disappear.E Pluribus Funk, the last album Grand Funk Railroad recorded as a trio (Mark Farner, Mel Schacher, and Don Brewer) is chock-full of all of these fine things. The maturity shown on albums like Closer to Home, as well as the brash, unrefined blues and hard rock of albums like On Time, came together perfectly on E Pluribus Funk. This was their fifth album, and I usually find myself placing their first two albums under one column, and their next two in another column. This one, however, falls right in the middle. The first track, "Footstompin' Music," is little more than a jam session with some words placed at the beginning. I think the last time the band would do that really well is on this album. It starts simply, but Don Brewer has barely hit two notes on his drum when Mel Schacher starts up on the bass in earnest, and doesn't let up. What happens next is a furious kaliedoscope of rhythm, as Mark Farner switches back and forth between the organ and the electric guitar. It's ballsy, with just the right splash of laid-back blues twang. The band then plays something a little more mature, an anti-Vietnam song ("People, Let's Stop the War") that might remind one a song from the album Closer to Home. From there, we go to "Upsetter," a classic Farner song about a lecherous woman. This, and the two songs that come after it ("I Come Tumblin'" and "Save the Land") move at a hectic pace. Farner writes some outstanding lyrics about peace, love and understanding, and at the same time writes some incredible music to go with it. The stamina of Don Brewer is awesome; I don't think he played the drums this well on any album that came later. Meanwhile, Farner is his usual nasty self on the guitar, exploding with rhythm one moment, tearing it up in a solo the next. His guitar playing here hearkens back to the days of Terry Knight and the Pack, but there's a gracefulness to his savagery, reflective of the years that have gone by. There's even a Schacher bass solo in the very long-winded (and scorchingly hot) jam session that "I Come Tumblin'" wraps up with. Finally, after they're assaulted our eardums to the point where they might explode, the band finishes with "Loneliness," a very touching melody that's melancholy in the same vein as "I'm Your Captain," but with a slight edge to it. However, I enjoy the fact that the remastered version wraps up with some live tracks that were rejected from Live: The 1971 Tour. These, more than anything, really help to sum up why this band is so underrated, and why it's a shame that most people only know them for radio tracks like "We're an American Band." All in all, this was, in my opinion, a very fitting swan song to the glory days of Grand Funk Railroad. It is a testament to their outstanding musicianship. The songs are full of energy, passion, joy, sadness, everything that their music began to lose in the later years.
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