Unknown Soldier

Overview
Grand Funk Railroad were amongst the ‘real pioneers’ when it came to heavy music and they’ve featured heavily on my yearly lists, before going off the radar a couple of years ago! Their first two albums On Time and Grand Funk were two stellar hard rock jamming efforts which featured on my 1969 list, their third album Closer to Home had featured on the albums that missed the cut section for 1970 and their superb live album simply called Live Album was the first ever featured live album in this journal. Since then they had maintained themselves as one of America’s foremost hard rock acts, selling a bucketload of albums and maintaining their status as a big concert draw throughout the USA, but music wise the band had seriously gone stale! They had fallen into the age old habit of producing bland albums loaded up with rudimentary rockers, which they knew were going to sell and at first it seemed they were loath to change that habit, especially after seeing so many of their more experimental American counterparts falling by the wayside! Albums like Survival and E Pluribus Funk were perfect examples of this, but then on the release of their sixth album Phoenix, the creative element of the band seemed to re-awaken itself and the album was seen as something of a rebirth, as a greater diversity was brought into their sound and most importantly they ended their relationship with long-time producer Terry Knight, and added a keyboardist in Craig Frost to achieve a new sound. Sadly though, Phoenix would end up being no better quality wise than the proceeding couple of albums and the band found themselves back to square one again! But in 1973 their prayers were answered and the rebirth that they sought arrived in the shape of Todd Rundgren, already an acclaimed music artist in his own right just check out Something/Anything? He was also one of the most creative producers around and had already produced a real mixed bag of artists over the years, including the legendary New York Dolls debut also released in 1973 and to be featured in my hard and heavy section for this year. So what did Todd Rundgren add to We’re An American Band? For one he got the band to work on songcraft, made the compositions generally tighter and the musical sections more accomplished overall. He then made three bold moves in adding drummer Don Brewer as an additional vocalist, to take the burden away from journeyman vocalist Mark Farner. Secondly he pointed the band in a heavier direction, thus allowing the band to re-stamp their hard rock credentials and finally he got the band to trim down their name to a more manageable Grand Funk!

Mark Farner- Guitar/Vocals
Don Brewer- Drums/Vocals
Mel Schacher- Bass
Craig Frost- Keyboards

Production- Todd Rundgren

Album
We’re An American Band- With its percussion intro the song starts off like a driving rock tune that Mott the Hoople could’ve done, but with Don Brewer on vocals this is essentially a real American effort here, the song is featured on VH1’s 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs! Stop Lookin’ Back- With its tight musical opening section, Don Brewer starts hollering away and we’re treated to another wholesome effort from the band, the track is fleshed out with some very nice keyboards. Creepin’- After the power of the opening two tracks, the album leads into the more gentle and soulful Creepin’ and superbly sung by Mark Farner. Black Licorice- Starts off with a “Whoo weeee” and quickly moves into a hard driving sound, this is basically a track that relies on raw energy and power and is superbly fleshed out by Craig Frost on keyboards. The Railroad- A slow burning track that displays some great songcraft throughout and it gradually moves into some real pounding sections later on. Ain’t Got Nobody- with some neat sounding crunchy guitar, the song moves into a more basic straight forward sound, still a decent song from beginning to end though. Walk Like a Man (You Can Call Me Your Man)- Another strong soulful effort by the band and the song is lent some real weight yet again by Don Brewer on vocals and it keeps the tempo up throughout the song. Loneliest Rider- Mark Farner singing on one of his more politically motivated tracks here, a song more about lyrical content than musical content and closes off the album to a steady beat.

Verdict
The overall result of We’re An American Band is that of a tight and sonically accomplished album, an album that only six months prior Grand Funk Railroad (as they would’ve been called) would have never dreamed of being able to put together. Overall Don Brewer’s wholesome vocals would give an extra dimension to proceedings and gave the band a real boost and provided a contrast to Mark Farner’s more wailing style! Also the addition of Don Brewer, seems to have made Mark Farner more conscious of giving us one of his best vocal performances so far. Don Brewer also featured far more often on the song credits as well and this really showed on his contribution to the album. Without doubt, both he and Todd Rundgren were the two essential ingredients that made We’re An American Band such a great album. The opening track “We’re An American Band” is one of those early driving hard rock classics and without a doubt Don Brewer’s wholesome vocals give the song from start to finish, a boost for a real band rebirth and also his screaming vocals really highlight the energetic workout of a song like “Black Licorice” and even some of the more typical Grand Funk material is done really well here. There is the gentle melody and beats of “Creepin” and the plodding power of “The Railroad” two songs which see Mark Farner at his very best, and you can also see Todd Rundgren’s work on these tracks, especially when you consider these tracks run for more than six and seven minutes apiece! We’re An American Band is the perfect example of when Todd Rundgren got things right in the production room and the songs just flow so well. He especially made use of Craig Frost’s keyboards to great effect and they were so well used to flesh out several of the tracks on the album and his work on “Black Licorice” might be the pick of his keyboard work here. I think what is remarkable about We’re An American Band, is that Todd Rundgren revitalized the band without actually providing them with any songs or actually co-writing any of the songs with the band. I’m guessing he did a superb job advising and editing on what the band already had. Whilst the band’s first two albums were great hard rock jamming efforts and also the best place to start with this band, We’re An American Band probably just nicks it from those two in terms of quality and does stand as the band’s finest ever studio album.

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