The Greatest Live Act of the 1970's...

...But not a great record. Grand Funk's second live offering, many years after the legendary "Live Album", was recorded much better than the first, but that's where the improvement over the original stops. Still a good live set, but lacks the raw magic and energy of it's predecessor. This was Grand Funk after they got a taste of what it was like to be Top 40 Radio superstars. The slick production only made a great live act sound bloated and full of themselves. This was the cat that got fat. The end of the Vietnam war put an end to Mark Farner the protest songwriter. His later work seems tepid at best. But here Don Brewer comes into his own. The addition of Craig Frost to the line-up, although a great musician, only served to help turn a once powerful live band into just another arena pop act. The hunger, anger and power was gone, and it showed. It's funny what fame and fortune can do to talent such as this. What once was raw, powerful and simple, became lazy, radio-friendly, and over-produced. One only needs to listen to the title track of the studio album "All the girls in the World, Beware" to know when this band hit it's stride. I'm a HUGE Grand Funk Fan...but I have to be honest. This was not what I like to remember about the band who was the first to break the Beatles attendance record at Shea Stadium. Like I said, it's still a good live record...but It's not the Grand Funk that drew huge crowds and gave the fans what they came for, and gave the radio programmers and rock critics the middle finger. It's just another live record, like so many others of the period. Good, but nothing special. And it pains me to say that.

Yeh Yeh Do you want to party?

No we want to listen to some good heavy rock like what you used to play. I suppose when heavy rock bands plumb for commercial success they eventually end up taking off their shirts and prancing around in front of thousands of people singing "the Locomotion", thats what happened here anyway. Grand Funk were never technically in the forefront of rock music but Terry Knights production kept your mind off the fact that these boys were not necessarily the brightest on the block ( Mark Farners outlook seems to be near to those fundamentalist survivalists who end up living in the backwoods with two years worth supply of tinned food ) . And they had another advantage, they were home grown talent as opposed to certain British bands who seemed to be doing rather well at the time. Side two of the Red Album is still a classic heavy rock experience mainly due to the way Knight produced the drums and bass and Farners solo on Inside Looking Out which he changes for the worse on this recording. By this time though Knight and Funk had long since parted company unfortunately and big stadium blandness had set in, I guess it is why punk was invented.

I only ever went to one stadium concert and it was Grand Funk in Montreal circa 1973. I seem to remember the music being slighly harder and better than this but it was so hard trying to get involved with people who are dots on a stage over 100 yards away. Grand Funk did make some more ok studio recordings but for my money the big stadiums killed rock music. If you want to know how it should be done pick up a copy of Rory Gallaghers Irish Tour made around a year before this one in concert hall venues whose maximum capacity must have been around 2000-3000 people.

Grand Funk Railroad's Last Great Album

CAUGHT IN THE ACT is Grand Funk Railroad's last great album. It features songs from GFR's entire six-year history, and is just as good as their earlier LIVE ALBUM. The group would deteriorate severely with BORN TO DIE and GOOD SINGIN' GOOD PLAYIN', but here it seems as if they could go on forever. Of course, they did the smart thing a year later and split while they were still able to make at least some good music, but they'd be back for a couple of abysmal early-80s albums. In the meantime, get this one.