Grand Funk was essential American rock and roll

The Red Album! The cover, the image, the sound... MAMA MIA!

Mark Farner is probably the most underrated rock guitarist ever. Don and Mel were great too. They had a bunch of great albums. Lots of people don't know GFRR, but they should.

@That_Guy_Says_Hi

19 күн бұрын

"Aimless Lady" is a strange and lovely shuffle-sort of swing tempo. But as a drummer, I must say that, overall, their stickman left me a little cold.

@dklang

19 күн бұрын

@@That_Guy_Says_Hi Really? I thought Don Brewer was one of the best ever.

@boomer3150

17 күн бұрын

@@dklang As a drummer since 1970, I can tell you he IS one of the best ever.

@willo8794

13 күн бұрын

Years ago we used to charter a bus to go see Mark & his brother Rick & their band. It was fun

@That_Guy_Says_Hi

12 күн бұрын

@@willo8794 I'm an intuitive empath, among other things, but I got such a rush reading about a chartered bus to go see the fave band just now. I'll bet a Duinkin' Donuts large regular that willo8794 has not been able to duplicate the purity of joy created with a bunch of buddies on a chartered bus going to rock and roll.

Zappa’s production was miles ahead. He brought the best out of Grand Funk, the sound was spontaneous, crisp and punchy, something that the band had, at times, lacked. The album sounds “heavy” without ever being loud and unsubtle.

Thank you! For the tip about FZ playing on "OUT TO GET YOU" by GFRR. A tip of the deerstalker to a Brit who talks rock 'n' roll like a Yank from my youth. To quote the late, great Mel Brooks from Blazing Saddles, "Mongo IMPRESSED!"

@funkster007

3 күн бұрын

Mel's still around though. 👍

My buddy was a Zappa fan who turned me on to this record

It's a great album

I heard Zappa really liked these guys because they'd fart on each other.

@McMurphyKirby

17 күн бұрын

Adams Music Box toooooooooooooooooooo! Let one rip for boomer 3150 the paid digital troll

@McMurphyKirby

16 күн бұрын

and rip another for @bobturnley2787

I love E pluribus funk.

I have that Album produced by Frank Zappa for Grand Funk.

@richardtaylor8595

17 күн бұрын

i have all their albums. Every lp is great.

Very astute commentary good luck with your channel getting a bunch of subscribers that you deserve

@AdamsMusicBox

20 күн бұрын

Thanks

@McMurphyKirby

17 күн бұрын

@@AdamsMusicBox other than GFR for your benefit!

Great video!!!

@AdamsMusicBox

2 күн бұрын

Thank you!

My personal favourite track on the album is "Just Couldn't Wait". In some ways, I think it was like a sequel to "Heartbreaker"--a song Mark wrote for their 1969 debut album. "I miss her face---the girl of 7 years ago". Well---do the math---1969 plus 7 is 1976. The girl of 7 years ago broke his heart, but as the saying goes--"distance makes the heart grow fonder", and now he misses her and yearns for. Full of regret and nostalgia, and Craig Frost's electric piano pounding like a heartbeat adds to the sentimentality of the track---much like Queen's "You're My Best Friend". Just a wonderfully melancholy love song

Zappa's solos on Out to Get You make it one of Grand Funk's best tracks and one of the best solos Zappa ever recorded. Grand Funk's first five Power Trio albums were some of the best Hard Rock of the era. But there were plenty of highlights in the albums that came later. Their weakest albums are Phoenix and Shinin' On. All the Girls in the World Beware and Born to Die have a lot of great tracks.

@McMurphyKirby

17 күн бұрын

all is weak and lacking any hint of talent.... coverband of a coverband

@bobturnley2787

17 күн бұрын

@@McMurphyKirby That's a comment with absolutely no clue.

@McMurphyKirby

17 күн бұрын

@@bobturnley2787 go do the LOCOMOTION without me... that's a big clue!

@bobturnley2787

17 күн бұрын

@@McMurphyKirby Here's a CLUE. The Beatles AND The Stones did TWICE as many covers as Grand Funk. And if you want a band with no talent, just listen to AC/DC, The Ramones, or The Clash.

@McMurphyKirby

16 күн бұрын

@@bobturnley2787 My bands are original and never thought of doing covers so please don't harass me any more OK Sherlock and take those childhood GFR posters off your bedroom wall and throw them into the garbage with your KIZZ collection...

Saw Grand Funk at the Forum in Inglewood as a lead up band for Ten Years After. Nobody knew who they were and they completely stole the show.

@McMurphyKirby

22 күн бұрын

bs

@musicairplanes4884

22 күн бұрын

@@McMurphyKirby so why would you say "bs"?

@McMurphyKirby

22 күн бұрын

@@musicairplanes4884 because it is BS Your heroes HAD no talent ever.... nobody knows who they were today, yesterday or tomorrow. They were not even a flash in the pan. A commercial failure... They rented Times Square billboards to advertise 'Look at us, we suck but here is our commercial in your face. A naive teenage band...Ten Years After got the show stole by the MONKEES TOOOOOOOOO!

@boomer3150

17 күн бұрын

@@musicairplanes4884 Trolls are funny that way. Alone in momma's basement without a friend.

@musicairplanes4884

17 күн бұрын

@@boomer3150 LOL!! I am 73 and that did happen along with plenty of other concert stories along the way.

7:07 GRAND FUNK RAILROAD ON TIME IS MY FAVORITE 7:07

@impalaman9707

16 сағат бұрын

Certainly, one of my favourite debut albums of all time---if not my favourite. A rare debut album with all original material---no covers---written and arranged by a young man just barely out of his teens--Mark Farner. To me--that was quite an accomplishment. And those were ALL great songs on "On Time", some of the best he ever wrote!

GFR was the continuation of Terry Knight and the Pack. I lived in Flint during their early years.

@impalaman9707

16 сағат бұрын

No more than Led Zeppelin was the continuation of the Yardbirds or Humble Pie was a continuation of the Small Faces or Cactus was a continuation of the Vanilla Fudge. It was the same bands repackaged and stripped down for a new heavier generation as the 60s moved into the 70s.

Thank you for pronouncing 'bona fide' correctly.

I much prefer Frank Zappa's production to Todd Rundgren's production of GFR albums. Todd was all wrong for GFR. When he produces his "clients" (his words---he doesn't call them "friends") whether its XTC, The Tubes or Cheap Trick, he tries to make every album sound like his band Utopia or a Todd Rundgren solo album. And Frank's attitude was "guys---just be yourselves, and I will help you be the best selves you can be"! And the results are phenomenal

And they all met the man behind the camera…Norman Seeff!

A fair evaluation. I was never a fan -- I think I didn't care for their songwriting. It says something that the one song I did like was the Goffin/King number, "Locomotion". They did have something, though.

@McMurphyKirby

22 күн бұрын

'something' like no talent!

@boomer3150

17 күн бұрын

@@McMurphyKirby Says the troll.

@McMurphyKirby

17 күн бұрын

@@boomer3150 says the real deaf troll

Zappa story starts about 3:50

@boomer3150

17 күн бұрын

No need to rush there, however.

I've always been under the impression that GFR, were not well received across the pond. Yes. No. Maybe?

@ClubLeyo

25 күн бұрын

Maybe not in general in the netherlands but me and a friend had a lot of good times with the live album.

@AdamsMusicBox

24 күн бұрын

They didn't get the record label support in Europe that they did in the US

@boomer3150

17 күн бұрын

@@AdamsMusicBox Terry Knight was their corrupt manager, murdered later by his daughter's boyfriend. He managed two other great bands, The Beatles and Bloodrock. I was kidding about The Beatles, lol.

@McMurphyKirby

17 күн бұрын

@@boomer3150 and Bloodrock was DOA

Really, really like their earliest stuff. My interest did dwindle when they became too "polished" if that's the correct term to use.

@aquatarkus2022

Ай бұрын

It's been said by critics, they evolved into boring competence. I agree, the early stuff was more exciting.

@McMurphyKirby

22 күн бұрын

tarnished fits!

@boomer3150

17 күн бұрын

@@aquatarkus2022 It was, however there were some fine moments later on.

Didn't know this it seems to me that they were the kind of band Zappa would make fun of 🤔

@boomer3150

17 күн бұрын

He supposedly liked Black Sabbath as well.

@davecrowson448

3 күн бұрын

Zappa liked hard rock, and he probably appreciated the lack of pretension in these guys

@impalaman9707

16 сағат бұрын

@@davecrowson448 Whereas he didn't like the pretension in a lot of the prog rock most people think he would like---such as ELP!

you didn't play any of the music though!!!

Zappa and Grand Funk had a farting contest! And recorded it!

Too much padding with info we all know already.

Why do you tell us about what you want to talk about and then just talk about it? Why don’t you just talk about it thank you.

zappa fan since 1967. GFR fan never. the early stuff was not terrible, but waay over rated and i doubt if fank said that .

@AdamsMusicBox

12 күн бұрын

Frank liked them a lot

Grand Funk Railroad rented all the billboards in Times Square , that is why you heard of them. This post is fictional ...They also paid every DJ to play their garage garbage...It was never merit why you heard them it was PAY TO PLAY, and the Hippies still never heard even of them............If you had 100 hours of Zappa music you might get one REMARKABLE hour of music. In the record stores Zappa and The Mothers records were found in the comedy section!

@kikovazquez7277

5 күн бұрын

That's all quite funny, but quite fictional.

@McMurphyKirby

5 күн бұрын

@@kikovazquez7277 pay to play commercialism ...absolutely true youngster with poor taste...GFR was fiction!

@kikovazquez7277

4 күн бұрын

@@McMurphyKirby I am 71 - I was there and I was a a rock radio DJ.for a couple of years. The "hippies" who liked bands like CSN&Y and the Grateful Dead didn't particularly love GFR, but millions of kids in the midwest where I was situated at the time who grew up in urban and rural working class homes were nuts for GFR in the early 1970s. The shirt manufacturers and sellers were quite distraught with most of the raw rock bands coming out of the Detroit area.

@biserkasertic1208

4 күн бұрын

I can affirm they were popular in 1971. even in former Yugoslawia.I was only 15, and me and my friends menage to get On Time album, and GF live double album. (In 71. in Yugoslavia you couldn't buy such records in regular shops) I remember we were so crazy for "Inside Looking Out" - I recorded on the small tape recorder, and when I go into citty I use to carry this tape recorder with me playing this song all the way while I was walking.(It was no walkmans in 71) I remember I was fascinated with Mark Farner's vocal on "Hesrtbreaker".

@McMurphyKirby

4 күн бұрын

@@biserkasertic1208 toot toot

GFR had no talent!

@funkfan1751

18 күн бұрын

You wouldn't know good rock & roll if it hit you like a Mack Truck!

@McMurphyKirby

18 күн бұрын

@@funkfan1751 No talent .. very immature predictable music, teenage wasteland. A commercial failure. NOBODY KNOWS THEM! You embarrassed yourself! The sound of an idling Mack truck makes much better music than the Grand Funk train wreck. I guess my problem is I have good taste in that GOOD old rock and roll... Tiny Tim had more talent than them!

@funkfan1751

18 күн бұрын

@@McMurphyKirby Then go somewhere else and listen to what you like and stop being such an A-hole.

@boomer3150

17 күн бұрын

@@McMurphyKirby Of course you are in the minority, and no one takes you seriously. While you are entitled to your unpopular opinion, your pompous, narcissistic attitude belies your gradeschool status. There's no place for you in a serious music discussion. Mature adults do not insult one anothers' tastes. Go sit down.

@dennisholiday1868

15 күн бұрын

If you was a head line band you wouldn't want the train weak of GFR to start a show for you! Just ask Led Zeppelin!

They were a flash in the pan with older folks when they first appeared. I loved them for awhile, then got bored quickly.