« Two sticky situations? Let's go for the hat trick | Main | What is the world coming to when we can't rust a man with 40 wives and 60 kids anymore? »

Grand Funk once stole the show in Texas

September 27, 2007

This is a re-run of a blog I wrote back in May, but with Grand Funk Railroad coming to town in two days, I thought it was timely.

-----

When I saw who is coming to FallsFest this year, my first reaction was:
“Are they still alive?�

I first heard Grand Funk Railroad in my hippy days -- at the Texas International Pop Festival in 1969.
It was a Woodstock-like event at a race track in Lewisville that was put on just two weeks after Woodstock.
The headliners were Janis Joplin and a virtually unknown British band named Led Zeppelin.
They were paid the most -- $10,000 each.
Santana. B.B. King, Chicago Transit Authority, Ten Years After, B.B. King and others were paid a whole lot less.
A band from Michigan calling itself Grand Funk Railroad got nothing.
But the people putting on the festival told them they could perform if they did it for free and paid their own expenses.

They stole the show.
They were better than Joplin.
A heck of a lot better than Zeppelin.

Not long after Texas, the rest of the world discovered Grand Funk Railroad.
Although never a favorite of the critics who called them “the loudest rock and rock band in the world,� Grand Funk Railroad sold more than 25 million records and played to sold-out arenas all over the world.
In 1971, they sold out Shea Stadium in New York in less than 72 hours -- breaking the Beatles’ record.

I last saw them in 1970 or 1971 in Houston, doing a tour with Bloodrock.

And now all of you get to see them again, right here in Hooterville Falls.
This is a pretty big deal because the band now only does about 30 concerts a year and still plays to crowds of 20,000-plus.

Two original band members -- Don Brewer (vocals; drums) and Mel Schacher (bass) -- are still there. And they have added former Kiss led guitarist Bruce Kulick; former .38 Special vocalist Max Carl and keyboard player Timothy Cashion.

Saturday night at Lucy Park won't be like Lewisville in 1969.
But having Grand Funk here in Hooterville Falls is still pretty damn cool.

Posted by at 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

---

Comments

The first concert at the Tarrant County Convention Center was Grand Funk Railroad, Bloodrock and Shiva's Head Band. Where the heck is Mark Farner? Last I heard he was a Christian singer.

Posted by: ben | October 4, 2007 9:34 PM

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)