06. Grand Funk Railroad Grand Funk 1969 (Capitol)
Blues Rock-Hard Rock
Keep on jamming you bastards! Part.2
Overview
Straight after the huge success of their debut album also released the same year and positioned at no.8 on this list. Grand Funk Railroad released their highly impressive sophomore set aka 'The Red Album' which again focused on excessive volume. The band on this set would aim to steer away from the excessive jamming of the debut in favour of tighter song writing, as the excessive jamming had been something that had gained them critical derision from some quarters. The jamming would still be there of course especially on the B-side, as Grand Funk Railroad without jamming just wouldn't work. Mel Schacher's bass which had been dominant on the debut was also pushed back in the mix and Mark Farner's guitar became a lot more dominant in turn. Despite the tighter song structures featured on this album, the band still pushed out another album touching in around almost 50 minutes. Also the band around this time, were on the verge of becoming one of the biggest box office draws in the USA.
Mark Farner- Guitar/Vocals
Mel Schacher- Bass
Don Brewer- Drums
Production- Terry Knight
Album
Got This Thing on the Move- Perfectly sets out the tone for the rest of the album and Mark Farner sounds even more self assured than on the debut.
Please Don't Worry- One of my all favourite songs by the band, a great tune.
High Falootin' Woman- The blues influences in this band were always very strong and this is a great example of that.
Mr.Limousine Driver- Blues based track that is an absolute killer and sticks in yer head, a song that I still hum to after all these years.
In Need- The band revert to old habits here and put out one of their great jamming tracks which clocks in at almost 8 mins, love it baby!
Winter and My Soul- Starts off with various sound effects before moving into one of the band's most harmonious efforts again a winning track.
Paranoid- No not the Sabbath song, but an excellent track and great vocals by Mark Farner and one of those great overlong songs.
Inside Looking Out- The closing track is a cover of an Animals song and unsurprisingly they chose to cover one of the longest songs that the Animals ever put out.
Verdict
With its tighter song structures wrapped up in their already trademark jamming sound. The Michigan based band probably released their strongest ever studio effort in this set, even though 1973's
We're An American Band could give it a run for its money. Mark Farner sounds great on this album and his two compadres were on the top of their game as well. What's great about this album is the combination of melody, raunch and jamming which unlike the debut album, is achieved without sacrificing song structure for the most part. As impressive as that is, the real strength of this album though, actually lies in its catchy melodic tunes which are littered throughout the album and play around in your head long after you've finished listening to them. I was actually amazed several years ago, when I read just how influential this album was on various bands in the 1970s and 1980s, I never realized that so many reputable artists dug GFR. The album features some great boogie blues that pre-dates those great 70s efforts by ZZ Top but ZZ were never quite this heavy though. On a footnote, anybody not liking their heavy music with such a blues influence should give this album a wide berth.