![]() All of a sudden everybody was playing Grand Funk Railroad again.” … Then we put it to rest for a while until classic rock radio popped up in the ’90s. We got back together briefly in the early ’80s. “We did two albums a year and two tours a year for six and a half years and it just got to be too much, so we disbanded. “We kind of got burned out,” Brewer said. The group disbanded in 1976 before reuniting in the 1980s. Most guys can relate to, ‘I must have picked a bad time to be in love.’ Mark Farner’s lyric for that song was right on. “It really doesn’t sound much like Grand Funk, to be honest with you, but it’s a love song. It also featured the hit song “Bad Time,” which reached No. … One day our manager said, ‘You should cut that song!'” “That’s a song that we’d do in the back of the limousine as we went from the hotel to the venue as our warm-up. “In Flint, Michigan, we had a local R&B radio station, WAMM, that played the Soul Brothers Six version of ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’ all the time,” Brewer said. Their next album, “All the Girls in the World Beware!!!” (1974), featured arguably their most iconic song “Some Kind of Wonderful,” which reached No. We were going after the same feeling The Beach Boys had with ‘Barbara Ann.’ It sounded like a party in the studio.” We had Todd Rundgren in the studio with us, he did his magic with all of his sounds on the board and, boy, it was just great. “Grand Funk Railroad doing ‘The Loco-Motion’ was a silly idea, so we tried it. Their next album “Shinin’ On” (1974) featured a catchy cover of “The Loco-Motion,” written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin for Little Eva in 1962. You had to change all of your seven-minute songs … to be three or four-minutes, so I came up with this idea: ‘We’re coming to your town, we’ll help you party it down.’ That was the first lyric.” “We needed to make a transition from FM underground radio to the new FM hit radio format in 1972. “It really just sounds like a hit record, doesn’t it?” Brewer said. The title track of their next album, “We’re An American Band” (1973), was their first No. They were signed by Capitol Records for the album “On Time” (1969), followed by a string of platinum sellers, “Grand Funk” (1969), “Closer to Home” (1970), “Survival” (1971) and “E Pluribus Funk” (1971), as well as a sixth album, “Phoenix” (1972), that went gold. As music changed in the late ’60s from being a pop AM format, it became heavy rock with Jimi Hendrix, Cream and Blue Cheer, those three-piece power trios were happening, so we decided to make that change as well. “We experimented with some different things. “We had been several bands before Grand Funk,” Brewer said. We’ve been touring with this band for 22 years.”įormed in Flint, Michigan in 1969, Grand Funk Railroad was formed as a trio of Brewer (drums, vocals), Schacher (bass) and Mark Farner (guitar, keys, harmonica, vocals). 38 Special is playing guitar and singing lead, Bruce Kulick from Kiss is playing guitar, Tim Cashion from Bob Seger’s band is playing keyboards and singing backup. “We’re joined by some great people: Max Carl from. “Me and Mel Schacher are the original founding members of Grand Funk,” Brewer said. Here we go!”īrewer and bass player Mel Schacher are the two remaining original members. We were very fortunate to kick off this new ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’ tour, which was postponed in 2019. “It was a long year and a half sitting at home waiting and wondering whether we’d be able to get back to some kind of normal touring again. “We got going again around the beginning of July,” Founding Drummer Don Brewer told WTOP. The classic rock band rolls into Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races on Friday. Grand Funk Railroad is still chugging, coming to your town to help you party it down. Listen to the full conversation on my podcast “Beyond the Fame.” WTOP's Jason Fraley chats with Grand Funk Railroad (Part 1) Business & Finance Click to expand menu. ![]()
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