The first time that I saw Grand Funk Railroad was in July 1969 shortly after they formed. They had just played at the Atlanta Pop Festival where their performance earned them a record deal and a place on the bill of the next big festival in August called “Woodstock.” The show that night was at the newly re-opened Eastown theater in Detroit, Michigan and the band was from Flint, Michigan so they were on hometown turf. However, the venue was sparsely filled and people weren’t paying that much attention to the music that Friday night. A couple of years later, Grand Funk Railroad was selling out Shea Stadium in New York and had a string of hits. Their career produced fourteen studio albums and over twenty-five million records sold.
The original band was a power trio made up of frontman/lead guitarist/singer/songwriter Mark Farner, drummer, and vocalist Don Brewer, and bass guitarist Mel Schacher. Over the decades the band broke up and then reformed going through a number of changes and by the beginning of the twenty-first century, it was completely reconfigured minus Mark Farner. On October 14th, “Grand Funk Railroad” was playing at the Elsinore theater just a few miles from my house so I attended the show.
There was no opening act so Grand Funk Railroad took the stage at 7:30 PM and opened with “Rock & Roll Soul” from 1972’s Phoenix album followed by “Footstompin’ Music” from 1971’s E Pluribus Funk both written by Farner along with Shinin’ On the title song from the 1974 album that Don Brewer penned. They used this trio of songs to warm up on and then dove into “Heartbreaker” a hit from On Time their first album in 1969.
The twenty-first-century version of “Grand Funk Railroad” like “Fleetwood Mac” and “Creedence Clearwater Revival” retained its rhythm section while losing its singer/songwriter/lead guitarist/frontmen for entirely different reasons. Today the band is a quintet but the core is comprised of Drummer/vocalist Don Brewer and bass guitarist Mel Schacher. Bruce Kulik fills the lead guitar position beautifully with a rich history culminating in a twelve-year stint with KISS when he replaced Ace Frehley as lead guitarist before joining the band twenty years ago. Max Carl is the lead singer/frontman who also intermittently plays rhythm guitar and harmonica along with Tim Cashion on keyboards.
“Heartbreaker” had the group singing harmony as Kulik performed the first of many amazing guitar solos. The hit from On Time, their first album in 1969, took it to another level and brought down the house. “Locomotion” was a radio hit by Little Eva that was written by Carol King in 1962 but twelve years later “Grand Funk Railroad” made it a hit once more when it was released on Shinin’ On. The audience rose to their feet as Max put down his guitar and Kulik dove into another wild solo as the crowd danced and clapped in time. Don Brewer sang “Walk Like a Man” that he co-wrote with Farner for 1973’s We’re An American Band and Kulik performed another killer guitar solo.
“Sky High” is a more recent release from 2004 as a single on Spotify that was written by Don Brewer. It began with a stellar guitar intro by Kulik until the entire band joined in and jammed. “Second Chance” was written by Max Carl and recorded by “38 Special” at the time he was in the band in 1989 when it became their biggest hit.
At this point, the entire band put down their instruments and everyone picked up a drum of some kind and began beating them in time with each one doing a solo. Max led everything and alternated between his harmonica and beating on a bass drum as the deafening sound filled the air. Then he began explaining the history of musical instruments until the harmonica was the subject, which he explained came from Germany. Kulik was absent but after about five minutes he came on stage shaking a tambourine and the drums beat more intensely.
Kulik picked up his guitar and began playing the “Star Spangled Banner” ala Jimi Hendrix style as the audience stood on its feet and as the song concluded they emphatically repeated the line “Land of the free” over and over. “Inside Looking Out” came from Grand Funk AKA the Red Album their second album released in 1969. It was an “Animals” cover and displayed Mel Schacher’s unique bass guitar sound as Brewer beat out time like a madman. Max played his harmonica and walked to the right side of the stage behind Tim Cashion playing keyboards as the band jammed. This was the intro to “Some Kind of Wonderful” that appeared on All the Girls in the World Beware in 1974 that was written by John Ellison and originally recorded by the “Soul Brothers Six” in 1967. The song began with Brewer coming forward hitting two drumsticks together as he sang until Max took the next verse and then Brewer again until he went back to his drum kit.
“I’m Your Captain – Closer to Home” was written by Mark Farner and is probably the most enduring of all the Grand Funk Railroad songs. It appeared on their third album Closer to Home released in 1970. The song began with a keyboard intro by Cashion until the rest of the band joined in and then Schacher did his thing on bass as Brewer pounded out the rhythm to the lyrics “I’m you’re captain…” The audience was captivated as they sang the refrain repeatedly “I’m getting closer to my home” The final song of the night is the second most recognizable song by Grand Funk Railroad, We’re an American Band which was the title song of the 1973 release. It was written by Don Brewer who put on an oversized Uncle Sam hat on and announced “God Bless America” as he waved an American flag while Kulik played an American flag guitar to the eighty minute show’s dramatic conclusion. There was no encore.