ZZ Top Goes to Egypt: The Listen-Grand Funk

Grand Funk Railroad
Grand Funk (1969)

gripped at:
Antone's, 9*30*10

I have maybe never hard an album that fucked around less. Except some punk albums, probably, and black metal and noise and stuff. But for classic rock? Forget about it. There are enough guitar solos for at least two or three albums on here, and just as many cool riffs, but no time is wasted. Everything here is direct and huge. This is why they called these kinds of bands power trios. Incredible, absurd stuff.

Remember when you were like 14 and first heard about the MC5 and heard the phrase "kick out the jams mother fucker" and expected them to be the most blazin', powerful band on the planet earth? Their reputation implied burning amplifiers cranking out an endless guitar solo, but then you found out it wasn't their sound that caused that riot. Anyway, this album is what you expected the MC5 to be. Or it was for me anyway. It really IS that pure distilled rock essence that you always hoped was out there. But you don't hear a lot of Grand Funk out in the wild. This (earlier) shit is way too heavy for radio, but way too cool for your friends in high school (and probably college) to listen to. There is a reason your dad has these records.

The bass is what really sets this thing off. That incredible low end attack. It grooves, but is way too heavy to be groovy. Mel Schacher doesn't need twelve Sunn stacks and a cloak to unleash the beast. It's all there in his monolithic bass, sunglasses and polka dot shirt on the cover. Bass was invented for this guy to slay, and they wisely thrust it out front in the mix. Why couldn't Phil Lynott get this treatment? Nothing can touch the bass work on this album.

That said, I don't think the guitars are loud enough on this thing. Mark Farner tears the fretboard up (in the best, sort-of-clownish way), but it could use more punch in the mix. I guess it's kind of like how when you're a kid playing with an equalizer (which is on your Wal-Mart stereo for some reason), and they all sound good so you turn them all up all the way. The people making this record were probably smart enough to know you can't put everything at the top of the mix. But my ears are excitable enough to know that I want it all up there. I probably need to get the live album.

The band is dynamic, but this album doesn't have a lot of dynamics. It doesn't need to. This has that same energy as hardcore. On every song they do as much as they can as hard as they can for exactly as long as they need to and then they get out. The only real shift during the whole album (and I mean that, really. The album is 0 to 60 in about 3 seconds) comes on the third song, High Falootin' Woman, which is the same thing but bloozey. It's not as good as the other songs, but the album would probably collapse under its own weight without it.

Fave track honors probably go to Paranoid, which is nothing like the Sabbath song which would come in a cuple years, but is just as killer. It gets everything right in a mighty way. The solos kill, the bass is all there. It has some cool guitar effects. It's hard to say what sets it apart, but I knew it when I heard it.

In Need, the (ridiculous) closer of Side 1, by far has the best drums on here. There is cool syncopation in that metal way, and I think a little double kick. The drums are solid on the whole album, but sound really inspired here. I wish they were like that on the whole album. Louder drums, louder guitar. The album would explode under that pressure. It comes pretty close, anyway, and in that it is amazing. Totally, totally recommended. Better than I expected, and I was expecting good things.

How I went through this all without saying "choogle" is beyond me. Cuz that's what it does, and hard.

Below are the notes I made while playing the album.