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Gonna be a while (all day, likely) before I get all those Opeth links up, there are SO many of them, coupled with the fact that I had a computer crash, but I figured why not tredge on, we'll get everything caught up soon....and ya wouldn't wanna wait anudder day for some goodies from Homer Simpson's favorite band, FUCKIN GRANDFUNK RAILROAD......guitarist/singer Mark Farner, bassist Mel Schacher, and drummer Don Brewer!
OK, let's get this out in the open, Grand Funk were sloppy, amatuerish, and often unintentionally hilarious......and when me and my circle were 10-13 years old, we would slip these on in between the Sabbath and the Zeppelin and the Deep Purple......my fave, personally, was the "Red Album", simply called "Grand Funk".....looking at my vinyl copy, there is a note scribbled on it: "Call me and you can fuck me-Debbie xoxox", with her number! I don't remember Debbie, nor do I remember if I called her, nor, did I rememeber the half-smoked joint that came falling out of the sleeve.....1973-4-whenever was quite a little while ago......anyway, I listened to the vinyl copy of this (NOT included here) and literally could not stop laughing at songs like "Paranoid". So, if any relatives of the band are reading this, I enjoyed these albums earlier in life, and I enjoy them in a different way now......LOTS of enjoyable rock is not exactly "technically proficient", it is NOT an insult to refer to the sloppy amatuerism or the dated humor of the music, as I have done before, and wrinkled a few feathers, with my comments about Steppenwolf, and of course the infamous Seeds post........
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So, posting the original studio albums, well, let's not......they had some decent singles ("We're an American Band""I'm Your Captain", a few others) so if you were really gaga over these guys a "Greatest Hits" package would maybe suffice, but I don't seem to have one of those, and it'd be too much effort to put up the (honestly, awful) stuido albums like "E Plurrbis Funk" and "Phoenix"....you either have em, or don't want to sift through them to get to the especially humorous parts.....I think the best thing to do, here, is put up the following live efforts, we can get the REAL feeling of what the band was all about....loud, sloppy, sweaty, pot-smoking demi-Gods to those of us lucky enough to be 13-14 during those years......give these a listen, it is 1973 again, and Debbie, if you still got the same phone number 40 years on, LOOK OUT Baybeeeee, coz here I cummmmmmmm!
OK, first up an unreleased live set from 1971, unsure of the locale, but with loud, long, sweaty versions of "Footstompin Music", "Paranoid""I'm Your Captain", fun covers of "Gimme Shelter" and "Inside Lookin Out", and a stuff-of-legend, 17 minute version of "T.N.U.C."......for what more could you ask?
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Also from 71, this one in Hawaii, a shorter set (not sure if it's complete or not), not as great as the previous, but still "Paranoid" never fails to elicit a laugh from me. A pair of sets from 1974 round this out, one from Los Angeles ("We're an American Band" hit and is featured, as is perhaps the most vomit inducing single in the history of the universe "The Loco Motion".....perhaps your brain has erased your memory of this "song", of just how horrifically awful it is, but listen up.....it is THAT bad and worse, and LIVE? Oh, my ("A Chug-a-chug-a-motion-like a railroad train"........listen on an empty stomach, please.....((Literally) featured in the hilarious book "The Fifty Worst Rock n Roll Records of All Time", if you can scrape up a copy, it's great, features 50 albums AND 50 singles, as well as an "Enemies List" and more.....If I had it in digital I'd put i up for you guys, any blog friends have an EBook version of that classic to share? Don't know if it was ever released digitally I think it came out in about 1991-92)
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I think I understand that GFR "mastermind" Mark Farner eventually got religion.....I would assume that in reunion gigs, then, that he refrains from performing "T.N.U.C."? Inquiring minds wanna KNOW!
1971 UNRELEASED LIVE-01 Intro (Also Sprach Zarathustra)/02 Are You Ready/03 Footstompin Music/04 Paranoid/05 I'm Your Captain/06 Hooked On Love/07 Get It Together/08 TNUC/09 Inside LookingOut/10 Gimme Shelter/11 Into the Sun
1971 HAWAII-01 Are You Ready/02 Paranoid/03 In Need/04 Mean Mistreater/05 I'm Your Captain/06 Hooked on Love/07 Get It Together
1974 LOS ANGELES (6/2/74)-01 Footstompin Music/02 Rock N Roll Soul/03 Heartbreaker/04 Shinin On/05 The Loco-Motion/06 We're an American Band/07 TNUC/08 Inside Looking Out
Comments? Anyone for more of the great 1970's, say, like some Uriah Heep, or some Slade? Play nice or don't think I won't do it!