Grand Funk Railroad’s legions of followers helped make them one in every of America’s biggest-selling rock bands of the primary half of the Seventies. Halfway via the last decade, they’d one other likelihood to expertise the band’s on-stage vitality on disc. Caught In The Act, GFR’s second stay album, made its US chart debut on September 13, 1975.
The band had launched their first in-concert disc as early as 1970, when the Capitol set merely referred to as Stay Album appeared after the success of the studio titles On Time and Grand Funk. The brand new album, a double, was recorded on tour within the early a part of 1975 and featured some 80 minutes’ value of Grand Funk’s stay extravaganza, which included their backing singers the Funkettes.
The set checklist included each of GFR’s No.1 hit singles of 1973, “We’re An American Band” and their remake of “The Loco-motion,” together with the 1972 hit “Footstompin’ Music” and earlier favourites akin to “Heartbreaker” and “Closer To Home.”
Grand Funk sing the Stones
The disc concluded with Grand Funk’s stay variations of the Animals’ “Inside Looking Out” and the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter.” The latter track was a longtime function of their live shows, which they’d beforehand recorded within the studio, for 1971’s Survival album.
As ever, the discharge was greeted with a definite lack of enthusiasm by many US rock critics, however Billboard’s assessment of the stay album was a extra rounded abstract. “Production is good throughout,” wrote the journal, “with the instruments, particularly Mark Farner’s guitar and Craig Frost’s keyboards, standing out. Voices come over well, and the addition of the Funkettes backup adds some fun to the project. Excellent duplication here of a Grand Funk concert which displays a professionalism not found on earlier live efforts.”
The album reached No.21 on the US chart in a ten-week run, and as Billboard’s overview concluded: “The critics may rant, but, for what they set out to do, Grand Funk are close to the best.” Their followers wholeheartedly agreed.
Purchase or stream Caught In The Act.
