Does Grand Funk Railroad Belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Grand Funk Railroad was the first "annoy your parents" band I got hooked on. Finding music that would annoy my dad wasn't so easy; he liked Dylan, The Dead, The Stones, even Jimi Hendrix, but early Grand Funk Railroad was not to his liking.

They were loud, distorted and attacked their music without pretense of pursuing high art; they meant every note of it, without qualification or apology. They didn't even understand that they were playing Heavy Metal; they were in the process of inventing it, using a musical vocabulary and new set of rules that Jimi Hendrix wrote, but without sophistication, psychedelics or mysticism, just playing the blues, sincerely, artlessly, and in a way that somehow connected with their young audience.

Their musicianship was mediocre and competent at best, and the critics never tired of attacking them for it. Yet the voice of the market spoke louder. They connected with their audience, and delivered what was demanded of them in pure form. Technical virtuosity alone cannot make that vital connection to the listener's soul.

The three loudest, heaviest early Grand Funk Albums are the ones that matter to me, the self titled album also known as "The Red Album," "Closer to Home," and "Survival" are proto-metal classics. While their later, more refined and pop-oriented work ("We're an American Band," etc...) may be better known to today's audience, the old, loud, distorted "drive your parents crazy" Grand Funk Railroad is the band that deserves the recognition.

Their cover of the Stones's "Gimme Shelter"(originally composed by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger) is pure metal, "Paranoid," (not to be confused with a Black Sabbath song by with the same name) used the fuzz-tone and wah-pedal with a complete lack of restraint, "Winter and my Soul" ventured into the realm of fusion jazz.

Thirty-seven years later, I still need to hear these songs. They are too loud, long and pure for the radio, and I spend time late at night on the internet seeking them out, for reasons I can't quite define. This band had something that I really needed. The music apparently still does, and there is a feeling of solitude and defiance about it that nothing else quite delivers.

A petition is circulating on the net, and I added my name to it. If you agree with me, add yours. Grand Funk Railroad belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

www.youtube.com/watch Gimme Shelter

Sign the Petition! www.petitiononline.com/GFRMDM/petition.html

CREDITS:

"Gimme Shelter" Richards and Jagger, -1969, Decca Records

"Paranoid," "Winter and My Soul" Mark Farner, from self-titled "Red Album" -1969 Capitol Records

Closer to Home, Grand Funk Railroad, -1970, Capitol Records

Survival, Grand Funk Railroad,-1971 Capitol Records