GRAND FUNK RAILROAD — Live Album (review)

GRAND FUNK RAILROAD — Live Album album cover

Live album · 1970 · Hard Rock

4.5/5 · 2017-01-05
Bmiler

When I was in my teens (circa 1989) I kept hearing how Grand Funk Railroad was the forefathers of heavy metal. From hearing "I'm Your Captain", I was thinking that song has as much metal going as your typical Crosby, Stills & Nash song. It's certainly a great song, and even the band's detractors tend to think fondly of it. It even resonated with my hippie spirit living as a small child in rural Oregon in the late '70s in a semi-hippie fashion (helped that there was a hippie commune at the time within walking distance, and my father owned an old, beat-up VW split window Microbus). Not to mention the nearest radio station (KZEL 96.1 FM, major Eugene rock station, still around) would play that song at that time. "We're An American Band" seems more like mainstream hard-ish rock, and "The Locomotion" and "Some Kind of Wonderful" were full-on R&B covers. Of course I didn't quite realize it's the songs not played on the radio, mostly concentrated in the Terry Knight-era (1969-71) that should be concern of people digging into the roots of metal, as many of them are quite heavy, especially "Sin's a Good Man's Brother" from Closer to Home (which is hard to believe is on the same album that has "I'm Your Captain").

Of anything Grand Funk had done to earn them the "forefathers of heavy metal", check out their 1970 Live Album! This appears to be their first album to include some extras, in this case, a poster (although my used copy included inner sleeves from the 1972 Mark, Don & Mel compilation album, which seems to go along with the poster, although it includes newpaper excerpts of Grand Funk after 1970, up to 1972, so obviously those sleeves weren't included when originally purchased, my copy is the original with the green Capitol label, the poster only obviously includes the events of Grand Funk up to 1970). It's so strange that Grand Funk would release a live album so early in their career. On Time and the Red Album had already came out, and Closer to Home barely came out in time for them to do a live version of "Mean Mistreater", included here. Let me tell you: Many of these songs really threaten to kick the life out of the studio originals, and many of them do. This album is everything the fans loved of the band, and everything the rock critics absolutely hated about them. "Are You Ready" isn't too terribly different from the original from On Time, but it makes sense, makes a great introductory song. They take on "Paranoid", which sticks mainly to the studio original. "In Need" is one of a handful of extended jams they do on this album, along with their cover of Eric Burdon & the Animals' "Inside Looking Out" (their first cover song, first appearing in studio form on the Red Album), "T.N.U.C." and "Into the Sun". The latter really clobbers the studio original, with this most loud, insane jam, with Mark Farner giving so much loud distortion and feedback on his guitar you can see why the rock critics hated this band. It's the kind of music certain to drive your neighbor up a wall, and it still can hold true to this day if that person is a Nicki Minaj or Justin Bieber fan, the average 14 year old today would probably recoil in horror, which is ironic, given in 1970 the average 14 year old was likely buying a GFR album. "T.N.U.C." is probably the weakest thing here, it's basically the same song with the drum solo extended twice as long, Don Brewer seemed to be repeating the same drum pattern again. I know the band probably had the likes of Cream's "Toad" in mind, but Don Brewer is obviously no Ginger Baker, nor did he ever think so. There is one song on this album available nowhere else and that's "Mark Says Alright", which is a great piece, could have easily fit on Closer to Home. As for that album, as mentioned "Mean Mistreater" is the only song represented, although I could imagine what they done to "Sin's a Good Man's Brother" (although as great as "I'm Your Captain" is, it would be seriously out of place on this album). I don't want to forget Mel Schacher who played bass like there was no tomorrow! In fact the whole band was playing like no tomorrow on this album.

If you want Grand Funk at their most raw and powerful, the kind of album to drive your neighbors crazy, this is a total must have!