The Giant Panther

I'm sure to catch hell from The Giant Panther with this post, but I can't do a Guilty Pleasures feature without embarrassing someone (ultimately me) right? One of the funniest things I've seen on The Simpsons (a show I still love to this day) was a scene from an ancient episode called Homerpalooza where Homer is playing the car radio while shuttling some neighborhood kids around and they balk at his music, particularly Grand Funk's "American Band." Homer is indignant and shocked, essentially saying what about the "wild, shirtless lyrics of Mark Farner?, the bong rattling base of Mel Schacher?, the competent drumming of Don Brewer?...oh man!" It is actually funnier if you were a fan of the band, as I was, back in the early 70's. Some bands wind up being caricatures of their former selves and I think, to a degree, that is what happened to the venerable Grand Funk Railroad.

First of, no name changes...ever! Chopping off the Railroad was a move I didn't particularly care for. Apparently there is a Grand Trunk Western Railroad running through their home town of Flint, MI and they decided to use a play on words as the name of their band. Great job. It was a very memorable name until they butchered it. Grand Funk Railroad was a power trio fashioned after bands like Eric Clapton's Cream. The critics hated 'em, but the fans loved 'em. Reminds me of the ascent of Kiss; another band I enjoyed the heck out in the 70's. I heard "Cold Gin" at the gym today on my Sony iPod like device and it still sounds great to me. Beginning in August 1969 with On Time, Grand Funk Railroad began making records that were sort of Rock & Soul. Their style was distinctly American, but it was still rock music at its core. There was a rumor going around that Grand Funk Railroad intentionally recorded their early music with the bass guitar seemingly out in front and allegedly louder than the lead guitar. There was a school of thought that bassist Mel Schacher was the best musician of the three so they decided to accent the positive. I guess I never noticed it if that is true, but I just love the sound of 1970's Closer To Home. Always have. 1969's On Time had "Heartbreaker" and 1970's Grand Funk has "Mr Limousine Driver," but Closer To Home, their third LP, was a very good record. Side two had three songs and all of them were great. "I Don't Have To Sing The Blues, Hooked On Love, and I'm Your Captain (Closer To Home)" made a perfect album side clocking in just shy of 22 minutes. I still love to play these three tracks to this day.

By 1972 Grand Funk Railroad was kind of sputtering along. They had released three more records called Survival, E-Pluribus Funk and Phoenix, but sales were mediocre at best. There was at least one good song on each record; namely their covers of Dave Mason's "Feelin' Alright" and of The Glimmer Twins "Gimme Shelter" on Survival, "Footstompin' Music" on E Pluribus Funk and "Rock & Roll Soul" from Phoenix, but they had reached a bit of a crossroads. They were brawling with their manager, Terry Knight, and had decided to bring on a keyboard player named Craig Frost after failing to entice Peter Frampton to potentially join the group. The resulting sound seemed to alienate their fan base to a degree. It was around this time they started going by the protracted name of Grand Funk and hired one Todd Rundgren (there's that man again) to produce their new record. By this time Knight was out and they were posing half naked on the inside jacket of 1973's We're An American Band. We're An American Band was a terrific record even as sick as you all are of hearing the title cut. Grand Funk Railroad, as I like to call them, never sounded so consistent on one album. There were eight definitive Grand Funk tracks and only "Walk Like a Man" got any airplay other than "We're An American Band." Nevertheless, anyone who bought that record and played the piss out of it like I did knows every note and lyric. I'm going to go with "The Railroad" and "The Loneliest Rider" as my personal favorites, but I love "Stop Lookin' Back, Creepin' or Ain't Got Nobody" as well.

This is about where Grand Funk Railroad kind of went off the rails to coin a phrase. 1974's Shinin' On had a couple of decent tracks, but the Funk became ultra popular for their cover of Carole King's & Geffrey Goffin's "Locomotion" originally made famous by Little Eva. I hate to admit this out loud, that is what this column is for I guess, but my friends & I lip synched and faked playing the instruments to this song on stage at some faux talent show in 8th grade if memory serves. Uggh. "We're An American Band" and "Locomotion" were their only Number One singles according to Wikipedia. Their next record, December 1974's All The Girls in The World Beware, had two more top ten singles in "Bad Time" and "Some Kind of Wonderful" plus a lesser known hit called "Responsibility," but the once mighty Railroad was now a pop band. An awful lot of people loved them as a result, but I became much less interested. I think the band did too because less than two years later it was over for all intents and purposes.

I know I'll get laughed at or whatever, but I still get a charge out of some the early GFR. Call them Rhythm & Blues, Soul or Pop, but no one can say they weren't mega successful. I'm posting their perfect album side tonight because I'm in a good mood. It was nearly 40 years ago now, but I don't care. Tell everybody you know; you've got some Rock & Roll Soul!