And what a solo! Don's right foot pedals away on that bass drum like, not just "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida on 45rpm" but all the way up to 78rpm! Almost as good as Tommy Aldridge's drum solo on Black Oak Arkansas' "Raunch & Roll Live" LP (1973)! A concert staple that was a "highlight" of "Grand Funk Live Album" (and also subsequent live albums after that), the original studio version here is a lot crisper (and shorter) - and drum solo aside, it is in fact one of the musical highlights of this LP. Fadeouts are for squares, man!įinal track on side A is "T.N.U.C." the crypto-naughty tune (read title backwards) that is Grand Funk's entry into the drum-solo-song category along with such tunes as "Toad", "Moby Dick" and "Rat Salad." In other words, it's a funky fakejazz wankfest with perfunctory "Heyyy Womaaaan!!" lyrics and a 5 minute drum solo. Like many songs on the early Grand Funk LP's, this one ends with one of those BIIIG FINISHES! later perfected by White Snake and Spinal Tap where the guys in the band point there axes at the audience like phallic machine guns and mow everyone down with a flurry of strumming while the drummer bashes away at everything and kicks his kit off the riser. Track 4 "High On A Horse" is a derivative little 2:35 3-chord rocker with more trite lyrics (first line: "Ain't no doctor can help the way I feel!") But it is saved by some nice off-tempo fakejazz turnaround sections and some hot squallin' geetar licks. It begins with a cool guitar riff that makes you suspect ROCKING is about to commence, then it slides into a totally predictable I-IV-I-V-IV-I blues shuffle! Mark even plays a damn white-boy-blues harmonica solo! The only saving grace is some hilariously dated lyrics: "Say hey now baby do you wanna make the scene? /. Track 3 "Time Machine" was their first single, and kind of a hit at the time I guess, though I don't see why. Next track "Anybody's Answer" is some moralistic hippy nonsense - "No! You can't kill your brother / cuz you love each other," and then the second verse is about not committing suicide! Musically it alternates vaguely psychedelic guitar noodlin' breaks with a monotonous 2-chord power riff that doesn't get good until Mark unleashes the Rat Gut Distortomatic pedal towards the end. It's a sorta fist-pumping 3 minute nugget, with zen dumbass lyrics such as: "Are you ready? / Well then let me hear you say / that you're ready! / and the world will know it's right! / Yes, you're ready! / and I know it's outta site!" (PS: I am convinced that Royal Trux' "I'm Ready" (1999) is a direct answer to this song - listen to them back to back and see for yourself!)
The leadoff track is "Are You Ready?" which is also the leadoff track on the double live monstrosity "Grand Funk Live Album" (1971) - this studio version features more guitar jangle but is otherwise virtually identical to the live version. The real lowpoint on this LP however is Mark's screechy high-register "soul" vocals with overdone vibrato - he sounds like a hick American Ozzy who can't always stay in key, often made more unpleasant by just-as-bad overdubbed backup vocals (either Mark doubling himself or Don pitching in.) Their sound got better on the next 2 LP's - "Grand Funk" (also 1969?) where the bass sounds huge and the guitars are tinny (yeah baby!) and "Closer To Home" (1970) by which time they were working in fancier studios and getting a more "professional" mix. Don Brewer's drumming is competent, loud, and fast, though Mel Schacher's bass could have been mixed louder. The pleasingly economical prole-metal they developed on subsequent LP's is not all together yet, Mark Farner tending to do a lot more guitar overdubbage to fill in the nooks with jangly chords and bluesy licks that are here more stylisticly "psychedelic" than on latter platters. The debut LP by Grand Funk Railroad is not all that auspicious, but clearly these guys were onto something because they moved a few tons of vinyl at the dawn of the 1970's.
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