Grand Funk (album)

Grand Funk is Grand Funk Railroad's second studio album and was released in January 1970 by Capitol Records. It was produced by Terry Knight and engineered by Ken Hamann. This release (aka "The Red Album") was certified by RIAA with a gold record award, the first for the group. It includes a cover of The Animals' "Inside Looking Out" which is still a cornerstone of the band's live concerts today. Other key tracks include "Got This Thing On The Move", "In Need", and "Paranoid". The inside spread photograph of the trio, for the original album release, was used for the now infamous, $100,000, block-long and several stories high, New York City's Times Square billboard ad for the album Closer To Home (1970). The producers sought to achieve a concentration on Mark Farner's guitar, in response to the imbalance the band achieved in On Time with the prominence of Mel Schacher's bass. This led to the unofficial name of "The Red Album", as the guitar track, red in the studio, was turned up. This was reflected on the red cover art (see opposite).

Grand Funk Railroad

Grand Funk Railroad (also known as Grand Funk) is an American blues rock band that was highly popular during the 1970s, touring extensively and playing to packed arenas worldwide. David Fricke of Rolling Stone magazine once said, "You cannot talk about rock in the 1970s without talking about Grand Funk Railroad!" 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 railroad line that ran through the band's home town of Flint, Michigan.

History

Formation (1969)

Originally a trio, the band was formed in 1969 by Mark Farner (guitar, vocals) and Don Brewer (drums, vocals) from Terry Knight and the Pack, and Mel Schacher (bass) from Question Mark & the Mysterians; Knight soon became the band's manager, as well as naming the band as a play on words for the Grand Trunk Western Railroad, a well-known rail line in Michigan. First achieving recognition at the 1969 Atlanta Pop Festival, the band was signed by Capitol Records. After a raucous, well-received set on the first day of the festival, the group was asked back to play at the Second Atlanta Pop Festival the following year. Patterned after hard rock power trios such as Cream, the band, with Terry Knight's marketing savvy, developed its own popular style. In August 1969 the band released its first album titled On Time, which sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold record in 1970.