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Rating: Flint, Michigan, a bedroom community developed fifty years ago following the Ford boom but today reduced to a ghost town, with its decaying houses inhabited only by a few elderly families and a handful of desperate people. Around here, the emerging hard rock of the sixties/seventies had to contend with the prevailing rhythm'n'blues. Detroit and the glorious Tamla Motown label were just a stone’s throw across the river; local radios were blasting the new rock gospel but especially black music 24 hours a day, with the biggest black stars coming nearby to record and hold highly attended concerts.
The Grand Funk Railroad grew up in Flint, loved Cream and Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding, and so, however bombastic and raucous their rock was intended and in reality, the warmth and soul of black music always coursed through it, making it unique and unrepeatable, scandalously underrated by many fans who only remember the later part of their career, more commercial and watered-down.
However, in this 1970 live album, rhythm'n'blues is kept to a minimum, and there's certainly no trace of dilution! Grand Funk are young, at the start of their career, in front of the massive crowd at the Atlanta Pop Festival, and they really kick it. It's a live album like they used to publish in the past, with the audience rightly loud in the mix, few uncertainties, and many flubs left plainly visible and not corrected in the studio. The result: insane drive, energy at atomic levels, more than adequate instrumental skill totally devoted to making the crowd in front of them go wild. They succeeded perfectly.
They're just three making all that noise: Mark Farner is the leader, singer, and guitarist, a mixed-race (Native American and blonde!) with hair down to his butt and a high, penetrating voice full of soul, he hits his guitar like a blacksmith (fully metallic, camouflage green, and with a built-in distortion pedal, gloriously displayed today in a Hard Rock Café), but he learned to sing from his black brothers, and you can hear and enjoy it. His voice is alive, violent, and soulful, off-notes included. Supporting him is the loudest bassist ever, Mel Schacher uses a distortion pedal to get a sound where calling it robust is an understatement, it's genuinely fat, thick, bison-like, his genius and repetitive riffs uphold the pieces and make the speakers shake. Drummer Don Brewer helps Farner with the vocals but mainly keeps the rhythm going, with excellent technique and speed.
It’s eighty minutes of hell, from the initial Are You Ready drowned mostly by the audience's enthusiasm, to the encore Into The Sun, with only two breaks to catch their breath, the blues Heartbreaker and the piano-driven Mean Mistreater.
Curiously, both double and single versions of the CD are available on the market (the 1970 LP is double). Grand Funk still perform concerts in the USA today (without Mark Farner, who tours with his own group). They are billionaires but don't put on airs, just Brewer who plays golf and the stock market, Schacher breeds and protects wild deer in the forests of Michigan, Farner is very active with Greenpeace and initiatives in support of Native Americans. People with guts, the rough ones are others. They are in the history of rock.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Paranoid (07:17)
Did you ever have that feeling in your life, that someone was watching you?
He don't have no reason, that's right. But, still he's there watching you.
Someone is waiting just outside the door, to take you away.
Everybody knows just what he's there for, to take you away.
But, you don't know why he's been waiting.
But, you don't know why he's been waiting.
Spent too much time anticipating.
Spent too much time anticipating.
Did you ever think it could be you, that's just outside the door?
There's just one way to find out if it's true. So, what you waiting for?
Oh, get yourself together now, my friend, and step outside the pad.
If there's no one waiting for you there, my friend, I think you should be glad.
But, who wasn't there that you should look out for?
But, who wasn't there that you should look out for?
Get back inside your wall, and shut the door.
Get back inside your wall, and shut the door.
You don't have nobody, don't need nobody, can't love nobody,
You're better off by yourself.
You ain't feelin' too bad, you're driving me mad, and say you're bad,
You're better off by yourself.
You don't have nobody, don't need nobody, can't love nobody,
You're better off by yourself.
You ain't feelin' too bad, you're driving me mad, and say you're bad,
You're better off by yourself.
Ahhhhh ...
04 In Need (10:32)
Hey, hey, mama; mama, what you tryin' to do?
You keep on talkin' to me, 'till your face turns blue.
Well, do you think I'm a young boy, yet to make up my mind?
Well, I'm just castin' all my toys, I'm gonna' leave what's behind me, behind.
I'm gonna' leave what's behind me, behind.
I saw an old high school friend, just the other day,
He didn't ask me how I'd been, he asked me "how was my pay?"
Now, do you call this a friendship, judging from what he said?
If you do, I've a real tip: ain't nobody gonna' know about my bread.
Ain't nobody gonna' know about my bread.
If you got somebody, that you can trust to the very end,
I said if you do, I want to be like you, 'cause you sure got a real good friend.
You sure got a real good friend.
Friend ...
Friend ...
05 Heartbreaker (07:11)
Once I had a little girl,
Sometimes I think about her,
But, buddy, you know
She's not really there.
When memories do call,
I just, I just can't live without her
But tryin' all the time
Is so hard to bear.
Heartbreaker, can't take her,
Heartbreaker, bringing me down.
Heartbreaker, can't take her,
Heartbreaker, bringing me down.
I don't cry no more,
I live while I'm flying,
But I'll think back,
And you can hear me say:
Heartbreaker, can't take her,
Heartbreaker, bringing me down.
Heartbreaker, can't take her,
Heartbreaker, bringing me down.
Heartbreaker, can't take her,
Heartbreaker, bringing me down.
Heartbreaker, can't take her,
Heartbreaker, bringing me down.
Heartbreaker, can't take her,
Heartbreaker, bringing me down.
Heartbreaker, can't take her,
Heartbreaker, bringing me down.
Heartbreaker, can't take her,
Heartbreaker, bringing me down.
06 Inside Looking Out (12:53)
I'm sitting here lonely like a broken man.
I serve my time doin' the best I can.
Walls and bars they surround me.
But, I don't want no sympathy.
No baby, no baby,
All I need is some tender lovin'.
To keep me sane in this burning oven.
And, when my time is up, you'll be my reefer.
Life gets worse on God's green earth.
Be my reefer, got to keep smokin' that thing.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I said now baby ... baby ..., let me smoke it ... smoke it ...
Makes me feel good ... feel good, yes, I feel good ... ahhhhh ...
Yes, I feel alright ... feel alright ..., yes, I feel alright ... feel alright ...
Yes, I feel alright ... Ahhhhh ...
Ohhhhh ...
Ice cold water is runnin' through my veins.
They try and drag me back to work again.
Pain and blisters on my mind and hands.
I work all day making up burlap bags.
The oats they're feeding me are driving me wild.
I feel unhappy like a new born child.
Now, when my time is up, you wait and see.
These walls and bars won't keep that stuff from me.
No, no, baby,
Won't keep that stuff from me.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I need you right now mama.
I need you right now baby.
Right by my side, honey.
All night long.
Make me feel alright ...
Yes, all ..., yes, all ..., yes, all ... alright.
You better come on up and get down with me.
I'll make you feel real good, just you wait and see.
Make me feel alright ..., yes, I feel alright ...
Yes, all ..., yes, all ..., yes, alright.
07 Words of Wisdom (00:46)
Mark: We ... we have a new album out, it was released the fifteenth. It's called Closer To Home. We'd like to do one ... we'd like to do one from the album. Ah ..., but before we do, I feel that ah ..., I have to tell you something because I know that if you were in my place that you would do it for me.
Mark: Ah ... brothers and sisters, there are people out there that look just like you or maybe ah ..., your brother ah ..., but they're not. And, when they hand you something, don't take it -- don't take it, okay?
Mark: This is Mean Mistreater ...
08 Mean Mistreater (04:58)
Mean mistreater, you make me cry,
You lay around, and watch me die.
Mean mistreater, can't you see I'm real?
Are you satisfied, with the way you feel?
I've tried hard to live without you, in so many ways.
I just can't help myself from thinking of you, for the rest of my days.
Heartache is at my door step, won't leave me alone.
I just can't get used to it, now that I'm on my own.
I know all about you, your childhood days,
Your mom and dad, your pretty face.
Mean mistreater, if you need me,
I'm needin' you to set me free.
Mmmm ...
10 T.N.U.C. (11:05)
You won't find me, knockin' at your door.
I've known forever, you don't love me no more.
If you don't want to lay there, with your mouth shut tight,
I'm gettin' myself together, yes, I'm leavin' tonight
You ain't gonna' find nobody, to treat you like I do.
I been down on my knees, you treat me like a fool.
Now, I know what you're tryin' to do, awww, it ain't gonna' happen.
'Cause I just done got hip to you, I'm gonna' walk out laughin'.
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