Grand Funk rolls into the ’70s

 Story By Gloria Reynolds

 Posted on Friday, June 28 @ 04:35:02 EDT (275 reads)

The 1970s will be back for one loud night on Sunday when Grand Funk Railroad steams into town for a Stampede performance.

The group known for stuck-in-your-brain hits like “We’re an American Band” and “Locomotion” will open for Styx. Sandwiched between the Beatles era and disco, Grand Funk Railroad was one of the top grossing acts of the 1970s and scored multiple platinum records from 1969-1977.

This incarnation of Grand Funk began performing in December 2000. It did about 35 shows last year and plans to do 50 in 2002. Two original members — vocalist Don Brewer and bassist Mel Schacher — are part of the group that has grown from the original power trio to five.

The new Grand Funk also includes Max Carl, formerly of .38 Special; lead guitarist Bruce Kulick, who spent 12 years with KISS; and Tim Cashion, a former keyboardist with Bob Seger and Robert Palmer.

“It’s a high-energy show — up in your face kind of stuff,” Brewer said from his Fort Lauderdale, Fla., home. “I can’t really say it’s like it was when we were 20, but it’s pretty close.”

Keeping up that pace requires almost daily trips to the gym, Brewer admitted. “It takes a lot of aerobic exercise.”

Brewer describes band members as weekend warriors. Gone is the decade of being on the road for 40 days at a time, as they sang in the 1973 hit “We’re an American Band.” All-night poker, tearing down hotels and hooking up with female groupies — subjects of the song — are things of the past, too.

But the chorus still rings true. “We’re coming to your town, we’ll help you party it down. We’re an American band.”

Brewer said the Greeley show will be a “hot, sweaty, happy rock ’n’ roll show.” You’ll forget about your problems, he said.

“It’s loud, but it’s not like it used to be,” Brewer said, recalling the days when Grand Funk was known for being the loudest band in the business, cranking it so loud they blew up equipment. “We always have to remind ourselves that the audiences aren’t as stoned anymore.”

Maybe it’s the Mary Jane that makes it hard for people to remember exactly what they were doing when Grand Funk was hot stuff.

People recall the music. They know there’s an album in a pile somewhere and they can sing a few lines off-key. But details are scarce.

Bill Hokenson, bass player and vocalist with Hot Beef Combo — a Greeley band that’s been around for 15 years — is an exception.

Hokenson, 49, saw Grand Funk in 1970 at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison. “They were awesome. They rocked. They weren’t even the headliner. I don’t remember who the headliner was.”

He’d just graduated from high school. “I was definitely a long haired hippie type. But this time I think I’ll take my wife and my 18 year-old daughter,” Hokenson said.

“I was a Mel fan because he had a real grungy sounding bass. He was my hero. At the time I could imitate him,” he said. Hot Beef Combo does a cover of “We’re an American Band.” Yeah, Hokenson said, it sounds a lot like Grand Funk.

Aims Community College chemistry professor Tom Pentecost doesn’t recall much Grand Funk beyond “We’re an American Band,” but he does remember the band is Homer Simpson’s favorite.

“He said something like rock reached its highest point of evolution with Grand Funk Railroad,” Pentecost said. Simpson waxed on: “The wild, shirtless lyrics of Mark Farner. The bone-rattling bass of Mel Schacher. The competent drum work of Don Brewer.”

Brewer said he couldn’t believe it. Homer Simpson is the perfect Grand Funk spokesman.

“That’s how we’ve always liked to think of ourselves — the working man’s band — Joe Schmoe,” Brewer said.

“We’re like the band you heard practicing in the garage down the street — but we made it.”

Brewer grew up listening to Motown and Memphis sounds — both of which influenced Grand Funk. The band’s 1974 No. 3 hit, “Some Kind of Wonderful,” was a remake of a Soul Brothers Six song from seven years earlier.

“We’d sing it a cappella in the car on the way to shows,” Brewer said. They had so much fun with it, they decided to record it. He still likes the tune, he said, breaking into song. “I don’t need a whole lots of money,” came out of the phone like someone turned on the radio.

The bluesy sound of Jimi Hendrix and bands like Cream also influenced Grand Funk. “They were doing blues but they were cranking the volume,” Brewer said. “So we tried it.”

But when disco came around — that was trouble. “We just couldn’t be viable in that kind of a mess,” Brewer said. “We weren’t going there.”

Band members decided to consider themselves lucky for their eight-year run and move on, Brewer said.

He never imagined Grand Funk would be touring 25 years later. The emergence of classic rock radio and compact disks helped keep them alive, he said. Many record companies re-released albums in compact disk form, drawing a second round of attention to classic hits.

“That Grand Funk would be classic rock — nobody had any vision of that,” Brewer said. “Grand Funk was just a straight forward rock band. If everybody liked it — great.”

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