Thoughts On Grand Funk Railroad
 

In my opinion they were one of the best bands of their era. They seemed to ride that brotherly love train right into the station. Great singing and playing took place on most of their albums from what I could see............:afro:

They had some moments but they could be annoying as fuck. I saw Billy Preston open for 'em about '73 and his band blew 'em away

Could you elaborate on the annoying as **** comment. What did they do to deserve this observation? There were a few songs that missed the mark, but to be honest I saw them as a pretty solid band................

Personally I love em'. I reviewed On Time, Grand Funk and We're an American Band their best three studio album in my journal. Also I covered their first live album as well as Caught in the Act.

They're an acquired taste really as you really have to be into the 'jamming rock' style especially on their earlier stuff and thanks to Todd Rundgren they really refined their song writing on some of their later albums.:afro:

I think that Todd's production style and song choices that they made at the time made them more radio friendly. :beer:

Grand Funk Railroad wore thin pretty quickly because Mark Farner had neither the playing skills on guitar or the vocal talent to carry a power trio.

In the early 70's Farner simply lacked the chops to compete with master guitarists like Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck.

I saw Grand Funk once and they were a great party band that knew how to work a live audience but their musical limitations became sadly apparent about three songs into the show. Their opening act, the James Gang, with the ferocious Joe Walsh on lead guitar, simply blew Grand Funk off the stage.

I don't think Grand Funk ever represented presented themselves as something as grand as Pink Floyd or even Led Zeppelin for that matter. Their ability to play their instruments was in line with the music they were playing. As far as Mark Farner's vocal ability I would highly disagree with your opinion.

:hphones:

"I'm getting closer to my home..." going on for what seems like 30 minutes is pretty annoying.

But I like them alright.

Actually I think that's one of their better early songs.

At around the 3 minute mark, maybe the least interesting nearly 7 minute drum solo ever recorded.