Grand Funk

Sound DNA

• Rock
• Hard Rock

• heavy
• driving
• southern

About

One thing that made Grand Funk great was how the early albums sounded as live as the band’s actual double-live set from 1970. You can all but see sweat drip from the band’s brows, the lithesome contraction of muscled limbs on the down strokes, and the tape machine meters bouncing in the red as they kick out the greater-Detroit jams. On the trio’s second album (self-titled but sometimes called <i>The Red Album</i>), Grand Funk simply pounded and grooved through any tempo mistakes and sour notes; the efforts sound spontaneous, alive, and real. An otherwise silly line such as “She’s a high-falootin’ woman/And she just can’t do no wrong” is as authentic as anything else released in 1969: not just because it’s propelled by gutsy rock ’n’ roll but because this band was heavily influenced by the factory-bred soul music that was drifting up from Detroit, 40 miles south of band’s working-class hometown of Flint, Mich. Hence, history has proven that “Inside Looking Out,” the eight-minute wah wah–led jam “Paranoid,” and this entire album are rock ’n’ roll classics.

via Apple Music

Tracklist

Credits