I was attracted to rhythm, and I think the guys in Cream were too. It wasn’t about playing long solos it was about getting people to dance. That’s what we wanted to do that’s what I wanted to do as a guitarist. We took that British influence, but we weren’t literally trying to be Cream. How did you distill that sound into something of your own? You’ve said the original trio was patterned after Cream. We hit heights nobody could have imagined. It’s sad how things went down, but I’m thankful for all we achieved. I wanted to keep the emphasis on being a guitar band. I voted against getting a keyboard player. “A lot of people didn’t like us being so poppy,” says Farner, who these days performs with Mark Farner’s American Band. When the group couldn’t replicate its chart success, it flamed out following the release of 1976’s Frank Zappa–produced Good Singin’, Good Playin’. While such moves attracted a new legion of fans, the band’s original admirers grew disgruntled. My whole approach was, How can I reach the people in the back row with my guitar?ĭuring the last few years of their ’70s run, Grand Funk Railroad (later known simply as Grand Funk) became a quartet with the addition of keyboardist Craig Frost and defanged their sledgehammer sound, resulting in AM-friendly smashes like “We’re an American Band” and a cover of Little Eva’s “The Loco-Motion,” both produced by Todd Rundgren. I didn’t play nearly as fast as the other guitarists back then. So if it was simple, but it got the point across, that’s what I did.” He thinks, then adds, “That’s what I still try to do now, though I think I’m a little more mature with the notes I pick.” “My whole approach was, How can I reach the people in the back row with my guitar? I wanted to accentuate the visual image of me onstage with what I played. “I didn’t play nearly as fast as the other guitarists back then,” he says. Much of Grand Funk Railroad’s raucous sound was driven by Farner’s unbridled guitar playing, an exuberant mix of tight, power-chord rhythms and fuzzed-out, throat-grabbing leads. That kind of message resounds with people.” It was the Vietnam era, and I was writing songs like ‘People, Let’s Stop the War.’ That song is as relevant today as it was back then. We were honest in how we played, and we were honest in what we sang about. “We sold out Shea Stadium faster than the Beatles, and that was before we had Number One singles on AM radio. film RADIO, and also in the swashbuckler SAHARA starring Matthew McConaughey.“We were the people’s band,” Farner says. We’re An American Band was featured in the Cuba Gooding Jr. The huge hit was featured in a General Motors national TV ad campaign and in Disney’s animated feature film The Country Bears. We’re An American Band has received notoriety in recent years being used in movie soundtracks and in television/radio advertising. Mega-hits We’re An American Band, I’m Your Captain/Closer To Home, Locomotion, and Some Kind Of Wonderful still receive continuous airplay on Classic Rock radio. The fact that Grand Funk’s legacy still reigns over the Classic Rock landscape fifty years after its 1969 birth in Flint, Michigan is a testament to the group’s influence and staying power. Grand Funk laid the groundwork for such bands as Foreigner, Journey, Van Halen, and Bon Jovi with its signature hard-driving sound, soulful vocals, muscular instrumentation, and forceful pop melodies. Grand Funk Railroad, sometimes shortened as Grand Funk, is an American hard rock band popular during the 1970s, which toured extensively and played to packed arenas worldwide. Known for their crowd-pleasing arena rock style, the band was well-regarded by audiences despite a relative lack of critical acclaim. The band’s name is a play on words of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad, a line that runs through the band’s home town of Flint, Michigan.
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