Limousine Driver’ and ‘Heartbreaker’ and the proto-grunge ‘Paranoid’ as well as their take on the Animals’ ‘Inside Looking Out, which became a regular showstopper. The second album, Grand Funk (also 1969) pushed even further on the hits ‘Mr. Working with producer and manager Terry Knight the trio kicked ass on ‘T.N.U.C’, the anthemic ‘Can’t Be Too Long’ and the psyche extravaganza ‘Into the Sun’. They wowed unsuspecting crowds at the Atlanta Pop Festival in 1969 and made their debut that same year, selling over a million copies of the aptly titled On Time. There’s also a deal of humour percolating beneath the riffs and rhythm carnage – Frank Zappa was a closet fan and so is Homer Simpson – and they have recently celebrated ’45 Years of Grand Funk’ with a spectacular tour.Ĭrashing out of Flint, Michigan in the late 1960s the original group, named after the Grand Trunk Western Railroad railway line, were the ultimate power trio with Mark Farner (guitar, vocals) Don Brewer (drums, vocals and Mel Schacher (bass) giving the Cream template an American slant. They are also responsible for dragging pre-metal rock onto FM radio thanks largely to the popularity of albums like On Time, E Pluribus Funk and We’re An American Band. For one thing, they blitzed the American heartland with a cocktail of rocking’ blues whose power couldn’t be denied yet they also shifted so many albums that they didn’t bother to read their reviews they simply weighed their royalties. Despite that monumental sounding name, and their ear-splitting decibel-defying brand of hard-core rock notwithstanding, the esteemed Grand Funk Railroad are a damn sight smarter than they’re given the credit for.
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