Grand Funk Railroad

Essential Albums

  • We're An American Band (Expanded Edition / Remastered 2002)
    We're An American Band (Expanded Edition / Remastered 2002)
    We're An American Band (Expanded Edition / Remastered 2002)

    Michigan power trio Grand Funk Railroad, after huge successes that included headlining Shea Stadium despite relatively little airplay, entered a second career phase in 1973. Hiring a fourth member in keyboardist Craig Frost and enlisting Todd Rundgren to produce We’re an American Band, their seventh studio album, the group topped itself with a number-one single in the title track. Though the catchy ode to rock life was just polished enough to reel in a whole new fan base, the album cannily strutted between the toughness of earlier discs — few groups of the era were as macho as these guys — and prog-rock textures that allowed Frost to shine without putting guitarist Mark Farner in the back seat. Despite the patriotic bent of “American Band,” Grand Funk’s antiestablishment leanings were hardly damped down: “Creepin’” suggested grass-roots action, perhaps of a violent nature, to “take . . . in hand” ecological villains, while “Loneliest Rider” mourned U.S. exploitation of Native Americans. This remastered edition includes an acoustic version of “Stop Lookin’ Back.”

Artist Playlists

Singles & EPs

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Compilations

About Grand Funk Railroad

Of all the pioneers of hard rock, perhaps no band walk the tightrope between heavy riffage and pop irresistibility as well as Grand Funk Railroad. Formed in Flint, Michigan in 1968, the power trio dropped their debut album, On Time, that same year, but the rock ‘n’ roll train really started picking up steam a few months later with Grand Funk; its lean, wild, and bluesy tunes earned the band their first of four Gold records in 1970. In the 14 years between their debut and their final studio album, 1983’s What’s Funk?, Grand Funk Railroad worked at an astounding clip, pumping out stadium-rocking jams that would become all-time classics, like 1970’s soaring “I’m Your Captain (Closer to Home),” 1973’s raucous, country-tinted “We’re an American Band,” and 1974’s gospel-indebted celebration of love “Some Kind of Wonderful.” During this creative peak, they toured extensively, famously selling out New York’s Shea Stadium in 1971 faster than The Beatles did in 1965. They headed out again in 2019 on the “Celebrating 50 Years of Funk” tour, proving they are, indeed, an eternally road-ready American band.

ORIGIN
Flint, MI, United States
FORMED
1969
GENRE
Rock

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