Grand Funk Railroad

Grand Funk Railroad (also known as Grand Funk) is an American blues rock band that was highly popular during the 1970s, touring extensively and playing to packed arenas worldwide. David Fricke of Rolling Stone magazine once said, "You cannot talk about rock in the 1970s without talking about Grand Funk Railroad!" Known for their crowd-pleasing arena rock style, the band was well-regarded by audiences despite a relative lack of critical acclaim. The band's name is a play on words of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad, a railroad line that ran through the band's home town of Flint, Michigan.

History

Formation (1969)

Originally a trio, the band was formed in 1969 by Mark Farner (guitar, vocals) and Don Brewer (drums, vocals) from Terry Knight and the Pack, and Mel Schacher (bass) from Question Mark & the Mysterians; Knight soon became the band's manager, as well as naming the band as a play on words for the Grand Trunk Western Railroad, a well-known rail line in Michigan. First achieving recognition at the 1969 Atlanta Pop Festival, the band was signed by Capitol Records. After a raucous, well-received set on the first day of the festival, the group was asked back to play at the Second Atlanta Pop Festival the following year. Patterned after hard rock power trios such as Cream, the band, with Terry Knight's marketing savvy, developed its own popular style. In August 1969 the band released its first album titled On Time, which sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold record in 1970.

Inside-Looking Out

"Inside-Looking Out", often written "Inside Looking Out", is a 1966 single by The Animals. It was a substantial hit in their native land, reaching number 12 on the UK Singles Chart, number 21 in Canada, and number 34 in the United States on the U.S. pop singles chart. The song is very loosely based on a prison work chant entitled "Rosie," attributed to C. B. and Axe Gang, that was collected by musicologist Alan Lomax and released in his album Popular Songbook.

In 1969 it was covered by Grand Funk Railroad, who on their album Grand Funk added some marijuana references to the lyrics such as changing the original's "rebirth" to "reefer" and "canvas bags" to "nickel bags" ("burlap bags" in later reissues). A reworking of portions of the song was also recorded by the Austrian band Novak's Kapelle in 1969 as "Hypodermic Needle". It was later covered by doom metal band The Obsessed, released on their 1999 compilation album, Incarnate and again by The Greenhornes on their 2001 self-titled second album. In 2001, Eric Burdon released a live cover on Official Live Bootleg 2000.

Looking Out

Looking Out is an album by the jazz pianist McCoy Tyner released on the Columbia label in 1982. It has performances by Tyner with Carlos Santana, Stanley Clarke, Gary Bartz, vocalist Phyllis Hyman and a string section.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow states "the music is quite forgettable. Tyner plays well and with as much passion as usual but one can clearly sense that not all of the musicians were recording the music at the same time for they rarely react to each other's presence. One of the great pianist's weaker efforts".

Track listing

Personnel

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid- to late 1960s when African American musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of soul music, jazz, and rhythm and blues (R&B). Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground. Funk songs are often based on an extended vamp on a single chord, distinguishing them from R&B and soul songs, which are built on complex chord progressions. Funk uses the same extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, or dominant seventh chords with altered ninths.

Like much African-inspired music, funk typically consists of a complex groove with rhythm instruments such as electric guitar, electric bass, Hammond organ, and drums playing interlocking rhythms. Funk bands sometimes have a horn section of several saxophones, trumpets, and in some cases, a trombone, which plays rhythmic "hits". Funk originated in the mid-1960s, with James Brown's development of a signature groove that emphasized the downbeat—with heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure, funky bass lines, drum patterns, and syncopated guitar riffs. Other musical groups, including Sly & the Family Stone and Parliament-Funkadelic, soon began to adopt and develop Brown's innovations. While much of the written history of funk focuses on men, there have been notable funk women, including Chaka Khan, Labelle, Brides of Funkenstein, Klymaxx, Mother's Finest, and Betty Davis.

Grand

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