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Rating: Some arguments are really strange, especially nowadays!
Most of today’s youth in record stores always linger over those idiots from Children Of Bodom, listening only to that genre and hardly ever straying from it; you see these young people with t-shirts of those five idiots, going around flaunting themselves, but maybe they don't even wonder how that band came to be, why they came to be...! Let me just say that obviously, everyone has their own tastes and they can't be disputed, and I don't even deny that they are great musicians: BUT WHAT'S THE POINT IN LISTENING TO TWENTY SONGS ALL SO DAMN IDENTICAL????
Boh. The fact is that all these enthused youngsters today probably wouldn't exist without the contribution of these three gentlemen: Mark Farner, Mel Schacher, Don Brewer...AND WHO THE HELL ARE THEY? YOU MIGHT ASK...
In the mid-seventies, these young men annoyed the Led Zeppelin, contending with them for the role of the best band of the seventies! They were always a trio until 1973 when Craig Frost was brought in on keyboards, perhaps because Mark could no longer manage three things at once (Let it be clear, he's an extraordinary guitarist and let's not even talk about the voice..!) while behind a pair of snares, there was Don Brewer, a great drummer never remembered (check out his solos in T.N.U.C and we'll talk again!) and Mel Schacher, who together with the latter formed one of the best bass-drum combos ever! After breaking up in 1976 to continue solo paths, they reunited in 1981 for a new album, "Grand Funk Lives," from which two tracks were taken for the movie Heavy Metal, which came out that year. The fact is that after an extraordinary tour in the U.S.A, the Funk left for Japan in September '82, performing a Japanese tour during which this album was recorded; specifically, the date is 6/9/1982 at the Budokan Auditorium in Tokyo. But let's move on to the analysis of the record!
A voice announces them, and immediately, amid the screams of the audience, "Footstompin' Music" kicks off, the classic opening gem, performed very swiftly, with Farner's voice seeming not to have changed at all. At number two we find "Paranoid" from the glorious "Red Album" of '69, performed perfectly with the guitar solo highlighted about halfway through; it continues with the first of the two new pieces, namely "No Reason Why" sung by Brewer, always with his dark, hoarse voice, contrasted with Farner's; this new piece proves very enjoyable, but absolutely cannot compete with the group's classics that will follow. The second track of the new album is "Queen Bee", perhaps the most useless of the album, as it proves to be the classic radio pop song.
From here on, however, the album will no longer be the same, as all the classics of the band await us: the first is perhaps the greatest "Closer To Home", from the album of the same name, excellently played by the entire band, with lyrics that make one long for the old days; "Heartbreaker" is perhaps the best piece of the album, a ballad sung by Farner and Brewer, which after an extraordinary solo seems to stop only to become a hard-rock ride in the finale.. AMAZING! At number seven, we find another ballad, "Mean Mistreater" where Mark moves us with his sweet words accompanied by the organ, a truly astounding song. The last part of the show is also the most "Rocking" and is opened by the band’s signature song, "We're An American Band" in a somewhat brash version that nonetheless keeps its great depth in the chorus; Now it is Don who shines with his drum solo in T.N.U.C where he makes those who have always considered him a second-rate percussionist regret it. We continue with the other masterpiece of the Red Album, the magnificent "Inside Looking Out", a thirteen-minute track that leaves room for the group's improvisations, especially Farner who also ventures with the accordion at the center of the song: this too proves to be one of the most valid tracks of the album! Just when the concert seems to be over, the encores begin, and the first is "The Loco-Motion" which excites the constantly delirious audience, the second is their cover (and the best in my opinion...) of the Rolling Stones song, "Gimme Shelter", while the task of closing the album falls to another new track, "We Got To Get Out Of This Place" which adds nothing to the other two new songs!
The album is over and I am very satisfied, also because I considered Grand Funk a closed group after '76, yet they have shown to still have some new life, even in the 80s, having become, however, too commercial! You will find this album online, perhaps under the title "Locomotion '82" and I hope you manage to get it because, in my very humble opinion, it is really worth it!!
SEE YOU SOON, BYEEEE!!
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