GRAND FUNK LIVES! WELCOME TO THE GREAT WHITE NOISE, EH ?
If Blue Cheer built the heavy metal colosseum, and Iron Butterfly opened it to the public, then it was Grand Funk Railroad who filled it to capacity night after night after night. Called everything from the Great White Noise to the World’s Largest AM Car Radio, Grand Funk encompassed everything that’s good and bad about heavy metal—and won acclaim from hordes of screaming fans, no matter which way they leaned.
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GRAND FUNK LIVES! WELCOME TO THE GREAT WHITE NOISE, EH ?
Jeffrey Morgan
If Blue Cheer built the heavy metal colosseum, and Iron Butterfly opened it to the public, then it was Grand Funk Railroad who filled it to capacity night after night after night.
Called everything from the Great White Noise to the World’s Largest AM Car Radio, Grand Funk encompassed everything that’s good and bad about heavy metal—and won acclaim from hordes of screaming fans, no matter which way they leaned.
In the early days, however, they were so bad they were good. Visually and aurally, Grand Funk was the mega-death power trio of the early 70s. With their wigged-out Afros, bassist Mel Schacher and drummer Don Brewer were the two guys responsible for maintaining one of the most minimalistic rhythm sections in the history of rock while Funkmeister Supreme Mark Farner, dressed in armbands, a jumpsuit disguised as a pair of overalls, and waist-length hair, splattered out kinetijerk guitar solos, while jumping around like an electro-shock victim.
Albums like On Time, Grand Funk, and Closer To Home thudded their way into millions of homes, but the essential Grand Funk experience wasn’t captured and preserved forever in all its glory until the release of Live Album—a two album set which outranked even Kiss Alivel for out and out party aesthetics.
Live Album was hated by everyone (exceptthe millions of kids who bought it), and subsequent follow-ups like Survival, E Pluribus Funk and Phoenix only helped to widen the gap between the love ’em-orhate ’em factions.
This would be the end of the Grand Funk story and their place in the heavy metal pantheon, were it not for the astounding musical about-face they showed with the release of We’re An American Band. From the opening drum beat of the title track to the final seconds of “Loneliest Rider,” Were An American Band not only showed Grand Funk to be a musical force to be reckoned with, it rewarded all of the early fans who had to put up with tons of “critical” abuse, only to see their heroes, newly-reincarnated, tearing up the singles and album charts like they’d never done before.
Gone were the early prehistoric days, replaced by a musical adeptness that was so advanced, it*was scary (although, to be honest, an air raid siren probably has more musical versatility than the first four Grand Funk albums, combined).
Other successes followed (most notably Shinin’ On and All The Girls In The World Beware) before the band packed in it.
A comeback was recently staged, and a new album released, the aptly named Grand Funk Lives! (for further details, see my review in the February 1982 CREEM).
Why Grand Funk? Easy: they were, at the beginning, the ultimate loud party band to listen to, regardless whether you were rolling a joint or rolling around in your parent’s bedroom.
Lots of thud and noise and good times, that’s why. A lotta laffs, too—and if they cleaned up their act and managed to mature beyond their early stages...well, I won’t hold it against them if you won’t.
