Unknown Soldier

Let's put that funky smell right up in the air.

Just two years ago the superb We’re An American Band along with a slight name change and a certain Todd Rundgren on board, had all helped to re-establish Grand Funk at the top-rung of commercial appeal within their native America. Their two albums since Shinin’ On and All the Girls in the World Beware!!! had also maintained them throughout 1974 and thus in 1975 they would give us their second live album Caught in the Act. This album came five years after their previous live album effort, the simply called Live Album back in 1970 and interestingly it was the first live album that I featured in this journal. First and foremost Grand Funk which they were of course now called, were a live band first and a studio band second, even though Todd Rundgren had addressed this to a degree on We’re An American Band. The previous Live Album had basically just been about a young band capturing their energetic sound in a live environment and original producer Terry Knight had done an admirable job regarding this. Caught in the Act though is a very different type of live album, in that it’s the work of a mature band and with current producer Jimmy Lenner who had taken over from Todd Rundgren, the band put out one of the best and also most calculated live double albums of the decade. It was calculated in that the band used production techniques and kept clarity of sound, whilst still keeping their barnstorming approach relatively intact, but the real strength of Caught in the Act surely lies in its song selection! Instead of using a lot of the better known and existing concert favourites, the band used a real mixed bag of material here and actually garnered a lot of material from some of their weaker studio albums, which in itself would be something of a risk. The end result though, saw a bunch of average studio songs boosted up with power, vitality and atmosphere, which in turn practically made these songs unrecognizable from their original studio versions! The band then combined these songs with some of their better material and then gave us an unforgettable live album. Caught in the Act doesn’t seem to get too much credit but believe me it’s one of the best live offerings of the decade and proof of how a live environment with a bit of polishing can make a band look a million dollars. The name Caught in the Act would also be used by Styx, for their own live double album that came out in the early 1980s.

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

Production- Jimmy Lenner
Various US locations 1975

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