AMERICAN BAND STAND

RECENTLY, A PROLIFERATION of clips has appeared on YouTube in which young music fans document their reactions to hearing the music of Grand Funk Railroad for the first time. Their faces are braced with stunned, slack-jawed amazement as they listen. When the music stops and the talking begins, their assessments of the band are typically along the lines of, “Damn, those guys can really jam!” and “What did I just hear?!”

Asked if he’s familiar with the videos, Mark Farner lets out a robust laugh. “Hell yeah, I’ve seen them!” the former Grand Funk Railroad guitarist exclaims. “My friends send me those clips, and I just love watching them. I think it’s so cool seeing these young guys getting off to the music we made 50 years ago. What touched people’s hearts back then still moves them today. We were fierce. We were big and loud, like we were busting out of the chute. And I was riding the bull, man. You can’t fake that kind of excitement. It’s either real or it’s not.” He chuckles, then adds nostalgically, “It sure was a fun time.”

For the better part of their career, which lasted from 1969 to 1976, the Flint, Michigan–based Grand Funk Railroad specialized in high-energy, meat-and-potatoes, blues-based hard rock. Consisting originally of guitarist and lead vocalist Farner, drummer and occasional lead singer Don Brewer and bassist Mel Schacher, Grand Funk Railroad formed after the breakup of a local outfit called Terry Knight & the Pack. The trio barnstormed its way through Michigan, performing on bills with fellow Midwestern acts like the Stooges, the MC5 and the Amboy Dukes., which included the epic hit song “I’m Your Captain/Closer to Home,” the group was all but unstoppable.