(Grand Funk Railroad, LP, MCA 2216, August 9, 1976)
Produced by Frank Zappa
Basic tracks recorded at The Swamp; engineered by Frank
Zappa
Vocals recorded at The Record Plant, L.A.; engineered by Michael
Braunstein & Davy Moire
Re-mix at The Record Plant, L.A.; engineered by Frank
Zappa
Photography: Gary Heery/Norman
Seeff
Design: Norman Seeff
Mark Farner
vocals, guitar, piano on "Don't Let 'Em Take Your Gun"
Don Brewer vocals, drums, percussion
Mel Schacher bass, background
vocals
Craig Frost keyboards, background
vocals
Frank Zappa guitar on "Out To Get
You," background vocals on "Rubberneck"
I don't know much about this album other than I guess it was enough of a flop for Grand Funk to pretty much seal the fate of their career. Also, the solo on "Out To Get You" is nearly my favorite recorded Zappa solo. Go figure. The only clue I've got as to how this unlikely team-up occurred is that Don Brewer played bongos on "Lemme Take You The Beach." Beyond that, I wish I knew how these two camps hooked up.
In some of my own research on the "Good Singin' Good Playin'" album, I found that the album is by and large considered Grand Funk's best and most consistent album from front to back. The reason for its flop was less due to the quality of the music and more due to the fact that disco and dance music had taken a larger part of the market share in pop music.
Additionally, the band had been pegged as a singles band from their two albums with Rundgren and one very pop-oriented studio album with Jimmy Ienner which sounded like the Raspberries or something. The album itself is a pretty good snapshot of what the band sounded like and Zappa's production made the band sound very intense. For the time period, the album is somewhat of an abberation and it doesn't sound like anybody involved was interested in compromising to satisfy the disco monster.
Did FZ ever comment on the production of this record by Grand Funk?
"All I did was in a documentary way make a record which tells you exactly what they really sound like. For the first time on record you can hear Grand Funk Railroad...and they're fantastic, fan-tastic with an F three times taller than you!"--FZ
Why, then, did Zappa produce the next Grand Funk album, "Good Singin', Good Playin' "?
"Because they're great ------- singers. They liked the way I produce. They heard 'One Size Fits
All' and called me up."The album, due in August, is straight, driving rock and roll "with balls," Frank says, and added he would produce them again in a minute.
"They're the great undiscovered band in the world. They're really good people. They've got a great sense of humor. In fact, they're about the only rock and roll people in the industry I enjoy hanging out with."
A few years ago I called Mark Farner on a radio show and asked him about working with Frank. He said FZ never stopped drinking coffee and NEVER stopped smoking the whole time they worked with him.
Grand Funk's getting back together. [...] They asked me to produce their next album and [...] I'm not gonna do it and about the guitar solo, on the Grand Funk album, I produced before, I didn't want to play on it but I was trapped into doing it because of just circumstances that occurred during the production. Mark Farner had already gone back to his ranch or farm or whatever it is in Michigan and the tune that I played on was a song that was written by the piano player and it was just a track and he didn't have anything on the album and they took something out that had already had vocals on it just so he could have a tune on the album and it was unfinished and we were already in the process of mixing by the time that changeover was made, so they asked me to fill in this blank that was in that song and I didn't want to do it, but I did it and so it's on there. I mean I enjoyed working with them and they're nice guys and I think that the album was a good album, but they broke up right after that album was made. They were supposed to go and tour to promote it, but they broke up.
They released a live double cd a few month ago. Some kind of reunion, the concert was recorded last year in Bosnia, at least that's the title of the disc...
BP79 says that on Jan.12 1999 Good Singin' Good Playin' by Grand Funk Railroad will be released on cd. For those who don't know: FZ produced it and plays guitar on one track.
The Frank Zappa Produced Grand Funk Railroad Album, Good Singin Good Playin (names by Frank) (1976) was finally released on CD on January 12th. Frank Plays lead Guitar on the song Ought To Get You, and he sings some backing Vocals on the song Rubberneck. This song was left off the album, but now is included on the CD. It's total Zappa meets GFR. The CD is on Hippo and the CD number is Hippo 40144.
John Austin, from MCA, has uncovered the original photo session portfolio, and has included several previously unpublished photos in the booklet to be included with the cd. While no promotion is planned, the entertainment buyer for both the K-Mart and Walmart chains is very enthusiastic about this release, and plans to both feature, and stock, this cd heavily in all of their stores.
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