It seems that we are all going to have to come to terms with Grand Funk. They may well be the most popular band in the world, in spite of the fact that they've been almost universally panned by the rock press and other supposed molders of taste. And the group is apparently so sensitive about that that they now refuse to see writers.It would be too easy to say that Grand Funk's stupefying ascendence is the direct result of their unacceptability to the elite (or elitists), but it's clear that the band does have a very special relationship. People once said that the Rolling Stones were great not only for their music, but because they were representative of the initial audience of working-class mods they came from and spoke to and for. Or, as a friend put it at one of their first American concerts, "The Beatles are so Olympian, but you could really imagine sitting down and blowing pot with the Stones." That was never really strictly true for them, of course, though it could have been for forebears the likes of Eddie Cochran and Richie Valens, who never forgot his Pachuko roots.
Grand Funk are one of the very few groups rising recently that do reflect the aspirations and attitudes of their audience in the most basic way. And they've achieved that vast consensus not only through hype but because they are that audience, are the rallying point for any sense of mass identity and community in Teenage America circa 1971 (and Black Sabbath that community's freaked out flip side).
In spite of all that (and if there is one thing that would make you yearn to like Grand Funk it is that), the fact remains that their first four albums were almost uniformly awful. It was not just that they were simplistic and unmelodic -- the sound was plain muddy, and with a few notable exceptions like "I'm Your Captain" it was a real challenge to remember most of the songs even after the third or fourth hearing. Survival is something else again. All of the songs, visceral urgency aside, are interesting as compositions and performances.
The playing and singing is remarkably free of past sloppiness, and even if the pace drags a bit at times, the singing at least has definition and resonance, and the guitar work is a real surprise: clean and clear and even subtle at times. Another interesting thing about it is that it is the first Grand Funk album to be structured around a sort of theme. Just look at the song titles: "Comfort Me," "I Want Freedom," and even "Gimme Shelter." That theme in all of its several variations has a great deal to do both with Grand Funk's rejection by the pop culture "establishment" and their sense of unity with their audience.
If Black Sabbath's music is about disjuncture and disorientation, Grand Funk's is a direct expression of warmth, reaching for the vast befuddled teen audience and saying: "Look, our confusions and yearnings are the same, and we need you as much as you need us." They do it by invoking the specter of the draft in "Country Road," by direct appeal in the beautiful "Comfort Me" ("I was lost in a world of madness/Please take me from all of this sadness/ Comfort me/ In whatever I do/Comfort me/And I'll comfort you too...") And in "All You've Got Is Money," Grand Funk, millionaires all, even manage to invoke their audience's sympathy over the attenuated personal relationships that come with vast fortunes.
This is one band whose success sparks not the slightest trace of envious resentment in their fans. Like them or not, and with this album I do very much, it's been a long time since anybody has won that kind of devotion.
by Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone, 6/10/71.
Tracks
1. Country Road - 4:22
2. All You've Got Is Money - 5:16
3. Comfort Me - 6:48
4. Feelin' Alright (Dave Mason) - 4:27
5. I Want Freedom - 6:19
6. I Can Feel Him In The Morning (Don Brewer, Farner) - 7:15
7. Gimme Shelter (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) - 6:29
Grand Funk
Mark Farner - Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica, Keyboards
Mel Schacher - Bass
Don Bewer - Vocals, Drums
[ Rip and Scans by MARIOS ]
CODE: 52581
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