Published on May 13, 2002
I got to thinking about how I became such a music junkie – and I
immediately have to blame my mother. She always had the radio tuned
into WLS-AM when I was a child, and I remember happily bopping
along to the tunes as we drove somewhere. She and my father got me
my first little turntable, complete with some old beat-up records
(nothing special – True Value specials, Ferrante & Teischer,
and the like), but when my mom made the mistake of joining a record
club when I was about five, she got me a copy of Grand Funk’s
We’re An American Band that I had begged for, having fell in
love with the title track when my aunt played it for me. (It’s a
day late for Mother’s Day, but… thanks, Mom.)
This all came to mind after getting my hands on
Thirty Years Of Funk 1969-1999, a three-disc compilation
covering the highs and lows of Mark Farner and company. If all you
know of this band is “We’re An American Band,” “Some Kind Of
Wonderful” and “The Loco-Motion,” then you’re in for some
surprises. And if you know the band inside and out, this set will
probably be a trip down memory lane.
Formed in Flint, Michigan, Grand Funk (alternately with the word
“Railroad” at the end of their name) were one of the three biggest
practicioners of “blue-collar rock” of Michigan (the other two
being Ted Nugent and Bob Seger). Originally guided by their
producer/manager Terry Knight, Grand Funk quickly became a popular
force in rock, though the band didn’t enjoy the commercial success
they might have hoped for. (Yes, they were charting albums left and
right, but they really didn’t have a hit single for the first
portion of their career.)
That first portion is covered on disc one, including three songs
from the pre-Grand Funk band The Pack. For the most part, this disc
is well put together, sorting through Grand Funk’s first three
studio albums and pulling the better material. If it’s been a while
since you dusted off your copies of albums like
On Time or
Closer To Home, then hearing tracks like “Mr. Limousine
Driver,” “Time Machine” and “Aimless Lady” may make you want to
head back up to the attic and give them another spin. Only the live
tracks seem to dip a bit – two of which are taken from
Live Album from 1970. The previously unreleased version of
“Inside Looking Out” sometimes feels like it’s stretched out far
too long.
Disc two starts off weakly with two cover tracks from
Survival, “Feelin’ Alright” and “Gimme Shelter”. Never mind
the fact that two of Grand Funk’s biggest hits would be cover
versions, these came at a time when guitarist/vocalist Farner,
bassist Mel Schacher and drummer/vocalist Don Brewer were trying to
keep up with the frantic pace of putting out an album every few
months – and Farner’s creative well ran dry. One admitted surprise,
though, is how good “Upsetter” – a track from
E Pluribus Funk – is. I remember ripping this album when I
reviewed it back in 1997; this track makes me want to give this
disc a second listen to see if I was indeed missing something.
Grand Funk’s superstar days came, of course, with
We’re An American Band and the production work of Todd
Rundgren. Three tracks, including the title song, are pulled from
this album – though I’ll admit I wish a fourth song, “Stop Lookin’
Back,” had been included as well. The outtakes from the
We’re An American Band sessions are also intriguing; one
wonders why these didn’t make the cut.
Disc three of
Thirty Years Of Funk 1969-1999 has some of the best
surprises, as well as some of the weakest material. I had forgotten
how great of a track “Shinin’ On” was, making me want to dig
that disc out of the Pierce Memorial Archives. And I have to
admit, with no small deal of embarrassment, that I wasn’t aware
Farner wrote and Grand Funk performed “Bad Time” – until you hear
it, you forget how good of a song it really is. The live tracks
pulled from
Caught In The Act are also enjoyable – now I know why the
band didn’t include the studio version of “Footstompin’ Music”.
Quite possibly their most forgotten album of the Seventies, the
three tracks taken from
Born To Die – “Take Me,” “Sally” and “Love Is Dyin'” – are
the most pleasant surprises. (Naturally, this is one of the two or
three Grand Funk albums I
don’t own… that’ll be changing soon.) But if these tracks
show one side of the coin, the songs taken from
Good Singin’ Good Playin’ (a disc I never was able to get
into) and
Grand Funk Lives (one of the two albums from the ’80s
reunion) show that the magic was dying. Even the live version of
“We Gotta Get Out Of This Place” from 1982 doesn’t really
impress.
The three new tracks demonstrate that Grand Funk is still a very
talented group of musicians, and if they were given a chance, they
could still rip it out with the best of them. (I am disappointed,
though, that no tracks were included from
Bosnia, the 1997 live reunion disc. I have yet to hear this
set, and it would have been nice to have been given a taste of
it.)
Thirty Years Of Funk 1969-1999 will remind you why Grand
Funk was so popular in their day, and it will also remind you at
times of how mercurial this band could be. Still, it’s a pleasant
enough way to spend an afternoon, and is a great primer of the band
for new generations of fans.