Posted on 03/23/2021 6:13:18 PM PDT by Old Yeller
Excellent.
September of freshman year of college.
Those were the days.
about the same age as you, sounds like
Saw them in an open-air concert, summer of '71 while stationed in Germany, great 3 man group! Farner could rock that guitar. Also had some group named The Who there too. đ
One of my favorites from back in the day.
My father taught Mark Farner how to fly. My dad was a tough, crew cut, ex-Navy and NASA jet pilot who, after moving back home to Michigan taught flight lessons on the side. He didnât think much of Farner when he first met him â Farner being the exact opposite in the â70s from my father. But after teaching Mark, he grew to like him, and it changed his opinion of those âsmelly flea-bitten hippiesâ.
I loved the 70s - those were great days.
LOL, after he sings “I’m Getting Closer to My Home” for about the tenth time, I’m thinking, “Would you just get home, already!”
And Don Brewer rocked that greatest White ‘Fro, ever.
No kidding, he was one animated drummer too, lots of energy all around.
GFR blew Led Zeppelin off the stage, which is why Peter Grant physically threatened GFR’s manager and forced them off the tour with them.
Check out the early ‘70’s GFR rocker, ‘Foot Stompin Music’ (recorded live) video on YouTube. Great stuff! I’d forgotten how hard these guys rocked it back then!
Great song!!
I’m a ferry boat captain on an alpine lake up in the Sierra NF, NW of Fresno, CA. My coworkers and I unwind at the end of the day by taking turns playing music videos off of YouTube.
This is my go-to pick almost every single time. Mississippi Queen, by Mountain is my other go-to pick.
Grand Funk Railroad - I’m Your Captain - Shea Stadium 1971
3,048,085 viewsâ˘May 29, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_t59To7Snk
Grand Funk Railroad - I’m Your Captain (Live 1971)
This video was shown at Shea Stadium the entire last year before Shea closed. This July 9th 1971 concert still holds the ticket sales record, breaking the record set by The Beatles.
Wow, never knew that.
One thing I always appreciated about GFR is they were anti-drug and were called upon to do several anti-drug ad spots.
Was it '71 or'72 that they were the hottest group in America; you may remember they sold out Shea stadium faster than the Beatles!
“GFR blew Led Zeppelin off the stage, which is why Peter Grant physically threatened GFRâs manager and forced them off the tour with them.”
I remember that account. I saw GFR several times. They were an intense enjoyable high energy band. But I can see why Grant would want someone else for an opener. Just like the Monkees did not have Hendrix as an opener for very long. Openers can’t steal too much thunder from the headliners you know. :-)
I also never found LZ to be that great a band live. Their magic lay in Page’s ability to write and layer guitars in the studio. It was hard to perform that stuff live and Page was loaded and sloppy with way too much ego to live up to. The LZ 2007 reunion concert was pretty good. They were all sober.
Having said that we know how those bands have fared over the decades. LZ is well regarded and GFR is almost forgotten which is a bit of a shame.
Closer to Home was a well written song. I always enjoyed that one. The rest of their songs were great live but less exciting to listen via the original recordings.
Frank Zappa produced one of GFR’s albums.
He had been diagnosed with prostrate cancer and Baba Wawa asked him if he intended to quit smoking. He slyly replied; "No, I consider tobacco my favorite vegetable." (Para-phrased)
One of the worst songs I’ve ever heard.
“I’m getting closer to my hooooome” for seemingly 20 annoying minutes. I’m presuming they were doing drugs and could only remember one line.
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