G is for Grand Funk Railroad

Not the most respected of the heavy bands from the late '60's.  They were very popular with the Jr. High set at the time.

Grand Funk came from Detroit rising out the ashes of Terry Knight and The Pack.  Besides the Motown output, Michigan spawned a lot of great bands.  The Stooges, The MC5, The Amboy Dukes and Mitch Ryder come to mind.

For their fifth album, they made the cover like a coin

Grand Funk Railroad - E Pluribus Funk  (Capitol 1971)

So here we got Mark, Don and Mel on the head of a coin.  No denomination is given.  I often saw this for 50 cents in the used bins.  I thought it would be fun to buy one with a Kennedy half dollar - just as a private performance art piece.

On the back it's supposed to be Shea Stadium where Grand Funk Railroad broke The Beatles sales record for the venue.  They were huge.

And we get a round inner sleeve as well.  Everything about this record is round.  Even the new round Capitol logo.

As far as I can tell, this is one of the (if not the) earliest instances of a custom label.  As the '70's progressed these became more common for prestige releases - especially for prog bands.

How is the music you ask?  I've always considered Grand Funk Railroad to be big dumb fun.  I still get a smile when I put it on.  Very heavy on the bass and drums.  Very simple playing.  Very simple lyrics

If we had a president that did just what he said
The country would be just alright and no one would be dead

A musician friend of mine described a drum solo he witnessed at one of their shows.  The drummer appeared to bang his head on his drums to make a loud crashing sound,  In reality he was playing his bass drum and high hat foot pedals when his head got near the drum kit.  The middle school kids thought it was the coolest thing ever.

I had this at time of release. When purging uncool records in high school, this was one of the first to go.  I felt I had outgrown it.  I found it in a used bin many years later and repurchased it.

I have long since had a policy of not purging.  I may file some things away from the main collection, but no longer purge.