Grand Funk Railroad hadn’t had a lot success heading into 1973. Nicely, that’s not a completely truthful remark, as a result of 1970’s Nearer To Dwelling album offered properly sufficient for the band to be taking part in – and packing out – venues like New York’s Madison Sq. Backyard and Shea Stadium.
So actually, Grand Funk had skilled success, but it surely wasn’t the kind of world-straddling success the Flint, Michigan, trio sought. Proof of that was that they had been in debt, primarily due to their supervisor/ producer Terry Knight. Singer/drummer Don Brewer shakes his head, telling Traditional Rock: “We had been being sued by Terry, and we knew that radio had modified.”
Grand Funk had logged a minor hit with Rock & Roll Soul, which peaked at No.29 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 – but it surely wasn’t sufficient. “We would have liked successful,” Brewer says. “You couldn’t are available and make seven-minute songs, so we knew we wanted to put in writing a three-minute tune that will get radio play.”
The preliminary ruminations on what would change into 1973’s We’re An American Band, which stormed radio airwaves and turntables alike, had been roadblocked by Terry Knight’s vendetta towards Grand Funk. “He’d taken all our cash, and we had been broke,” Brewer says.
Grand Funk’s solely possibility was to tour. And it was throughout these reveals that Brewer got here up with We’re An American Band’s iconic line: ‘We’re coming to your city, we’ll enable you social gathering it down.’ Wanting again on it, Brewer says: “That was the thought I had in my thoughts. I put all these snippets of issues happening from the street, all these tales, grabbed my guitar, and added the chord modifications, which was the beginning.”
However he didn’t have a title. “I didn’t have a tagline. However at some point, I used to be practising the tune, and thought:‘We’re an American band…’ I sang it, and it sounded nice. It sounded adequate to me that it caught.”
Brewer’s shot at the hours of darkness at successful tune proved to be on the cash. However on the time, Grand Funk’s major author, frontman Mark Farner, didn’t agree. It’s been mentioned that Farner didn’t recognize Brewer’s treading on his turf, however Brewer remembers it in a different way. “We had been all brothers in arms,” he insists. “We had a typical aim: to return by this, to sink or swim.”
Brewer says that the method between him and Farner went one thing like: “Anyone acquired any nice concepts?” And that they’d every “convey issues in”, and this was “mainly the best way we had been doing issues at that time”.
As a lot as Brewer – and Farner – preferred We’re An American Band, the drummer admits that when Grand Funk went into the studio to file it they’d no inclination that they’d hit paydirt.
Brewer and Farner may not have, however producer Todd Rundgren did.
“With Todd engaged on that album, the folks on the file label, Capitol, had been chomping on the bit,” Brewer says. “They wished us to supply product instantly. Todd performed them what we had been engaged on, and the fellows from Capitol had been leaping up and down [laughs]. We performed them We’re An American Band, they usually had been screaming and yelling, like: ‘Oh my god, that’s nice. It’s nice!’ I mentioned: ‘Actually? You guys actually prefer it?’”
On the time, Brewer thought We’re An American Band was “simply one other tune”, however says that Rundgren and the executives at Capitol Data knew higher. “They had been yelling: ‘That’s successful! they usually wished it launched instantly.”
So it was. Grand Funk’s album We’re An American Band was launched in July 1973. With its gold foil cowl and anthemic title monitor (which might hit No.2), it took off like a rocket, going gold within the US inside a month.
“It marched proper as much as Quantity One,” Brewer says, smiling. “It was simply that form of tune. I didn’t realise it at first, however after driving residence from my home one night time it got here on the radio, and I simply couldn’t imagine how good it sounded. Not simply good, it was the sound of successful file.”
Grand Funk might need had successful, however all wasn’t properly. Farner wasn’t pleased with Rundgren’s slick manufacturing, nor was he liking that Brewer had stolen his thunder. He additionally hated that the band’s power-trio dynamic had been damaged up by newcomer Hammond organist Craig Frost – who by the best way was throughout We’re An American Band. “It didn’t matter,” Brewer mentioned. “We would have liked to make a transition. We made six data, and it hadn’t labored.”
Based on Brewer, although, Farner’s ego wasn’t as bruised as some say. “All people was gung-ho,” he says. “We had been on the identical web page. At the moment, there was no: ‘Oh, Don’s singing too many songs’, or ‘He’s writing too many songs.’”
Regardless of Brewer’s recollection, Farner didn’t stick round for for much longer. He didn’t agree with deviating from the power-trio format, and didn’t take to being regarded as something lower than the motor that drove the proverbial engine.
We’re An American Band took Grand Funk to the subsequent stage, but it surely was the start of the tip, resulting in their disbandment in 1976, simply three years after the album took the world by storm. However on the time, it meant the world. “It was our peak,” Brewer says. “It was precisely what we wanted.”
Past We’re An American Band’s standing as a basic rock radio staple, and the celebrity and fortune it offered, when Brewer appears to be like again, the private that means stands out most. “Once I wrote that tune, I wasn’t attempting to wave a flag. The tune simply has power. I’m pleased with that.”
A sheepish smile creeps throughout Brewer’s face earlier than he admits: “All people has nice reminiscences relating to that tune, ? I look again, and if we’d stayed the place we had been as a trio, or not performed what we’d performed, we wouldn’t have made it. With out We’re An American Band we wouldn’t have continued and wouldn’t nonetheless be promoting out audiences at this time. So I’m very pleased with that.”
