In 1969 there were perhaps half a dozen cities in America with progressive rock on the radio . Top 40 radio on the AM dial was in its golden age , but as a 16-year old in Zanesville Ohio , even that was hard to find until after sunset when two Chicago AM stations hundreds of miles away, WLS and WCFL , legally were allowed to change their coverage patterns and boost their power , blanketing the otherwise media-starved Upper Midwest .
Had it not been for one intrepid radio host, Ron Brittain and his late Sunday night “Subterranean Circus” on WCFL , I might not be writing this today , for it was there , alone in my bedroom with a battery-powered pocket-sized transistor radio , that I first heard heretofore unknown musicians including Isaac Hayes with his epic cover of “Walk On By” . It was there also that I heard intriguing new music by bands with funny names including Jethro Tull and Ten Years After . But the band with the funniest name of all also had one of the most memorable sounds to my hormone-saturated ears : Grand Funk Railroad .
There soon were inevitable comparisons to other 3-piece bands such as Cream , but that English trio was much artier , at times with an almost Continental feel , due in part to Jack Bruce‘s jazz background plus Pete Brown‘s high-minded lyrics . And while the rock ‘n’ soul in much of Grand Funk’s music could be compared to other American bands such as Vanilla Fudge and fellow Michiganders Rare Earth , much of the material by those latter two bands consisted of covers of Motown hits . Trust me , that second Grand Funk album with the fire- engine- red cover was in equal rotation on neighbor Mark Lazar’s parents’ Magnavox console stereo along with Blind Faith , Jimi Hendrix Smash Hits , and Led Zeppelin 1 . Grand Funk was our first “road trip” concert ever in Fall 1970 in Columbus OH .
Ironic then that this “underground radio” raw , gritty , electrified three-man army would six years later be labeled a Top 40 singles band , but amidst bad reviews ( which I believe had more to do with the way in which they were managed than anything ) , the irrefutable fact remains that Grand Funk sold out New York City’s massive Shea Stadium in 48 hours - ten times faster than The Beatles .
-Redbeard