Chuck Nessa Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 (edited) Not necessarily true. Back in the day it was hard for some folks to see a difference between Miles and Grand Funk. That link was desired by Miles and Clive Davis and they wanted to exploit it. Some folks are still parsing the details. Edited February 16, 2011 by Chuck Nessa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 Larry Coryell wasn't playing "rock" in 1967 either. But what he WAS playing differed enough from the accepted conventions of "what jazz is" (aren't we still debating that?) that they had to call it something. His generation grew up with both jazz and rock, it was just a natural evolution for them. Same for many of the younger cats Miles ended up jamming with during that era. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 (edited) True on both counts, Chuck and Shawn. I'd forgotten that the marketing was probably trying to target much of the same audience, even if the music wasn't quite as stylistically similar (technically) as it perhaps purported to be (advertising-wise). (Easy for me to forget, having been born a scant 6 months before Bitches Brew was recorded. ) As Shawn points out, they felt they had to call it something, when it would've been safer to "Call it Anything". Edited February 17, 2011 by Rooster_Ties Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 They should have called it Death Of The Cool. That's what they should call any sort of a Lost Quintet box set they should ever come out with - Death Of The Cool. Because those were some BOISTEROUS motherfuckers! (and please tell me I'm not supposed to have any "understanding" in anything resembling a sympathetic matter anybody on either side who couldn't tell the difference between Miles & Grand Funk!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 Are you saying you are "some folks"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 Maybe I phrased it awkwardly, but am I supposed to have "sympathy" for people who couldn't tell the difference between Miles And Grand Funk? Please tell me I'm not! There, that's more sytaxtically to the point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 Don't think I said anything like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 Didn't think that you did but just wanted to make sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertrand Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 My $8 copy is on the way from Borders'. I believe it shipped before the bankruptcy announcement, so I should still get it. Looking forward to hearing the ultimate use of 'space' by Wayne Shorter. If they had had cell phones back then, he might have been able to call from the traffic jam and they would have switched the sets around. I'll never understand why the sets are so short at Newport. Bertrand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHILLYQ Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 Bertrand, I went to some Newport in NY events way back when, and I recall having a bill of 5/6 acts and about 3 hours to present it all! Everybody had to play a short set to fit in, perhaps it's something along the same lines. I went to a guitar thing in the 70s and in the middle was Roy Buchanan, who tore the roof off the joint. Despite a rabid reaction he got no encore because there was no time for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 Looking forward to hearing the ultimate use of 'space' by Wayne Shorter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregK Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 My $8 copy is on the way from Borders'. I believe it shipped before the bankruptcy announcement, so I should still get it. I got mine from Borders.com. No problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felser Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 Maybe I phrased it awkwardly, but am I supposed to have "sympathy" for people who couldn't tell the difference between Miles And Grand Funk? Please tell me I'm not! There, that's more sytaxtically to the point. Everybody sing along with Jim "I'm getting cloooooser to my hoooooome"! I actually enjoyed 'em quite a bit in the early, Terry Knight days, but you definitely "had to be there". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 I was there...never had a feel for them...in fact, when they became "the big thing" in my circle after The Beatles broke up, that hacked me off so much that I made a conscious attempt to find new music that didn't suck like GFR did...made a quick trip to The Mothers Of Invention, then found jazz. "Closer To My Home" did have appeal to me as a single, but it was too little too late by then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JETman Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 I was there...never had a feel for them...in fact, when they became "the big thing" in my circle after The Beatles broke up, that hacked me off so much that I made a conscious attempt to find new music that didn't suck like GFR did...made a quick trip to The Mothers Of Invention, then found jazz. "Closer To My Home" did have appeal to me as a single, but it was too little too late by then. I didn't think they were the big thing in ANYBODY'S circle! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 Dude - they were HUGE from about 1969-1972. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JETman Posted February 19, 2011 Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 Dude - they were HUGE from about 1969-1972. Dude, I was there too. Calling them HUGE is a gross overstatement of fact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjzee Posted February 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 I'm siding with Jim on this one. They were huge. Fueled mostly on hype, to be sure, but boy they sold a lot of records. I was there...never had a feel for them...in fact, when they became "the big thing" in my circle after The Beatles broke up, that hacked me off so much that I made a conscious attempt to find new music that didn't suck like GFR did...made a quick trip to The Mothers Of Invention, then found jazz. I think GFR did the same thing: Produced by Frank Zappa! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JETman Posted February 19, 2011 Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 I'm siding with Jim on this one. They were huge. Fueled mostly on hype, to be sure, but boy they sold a lot of records. I was there...never had a feel for them...in fact, when they became "the big thing" in my circle after The Beatles broke up, that hacked me off so much that I made a conscious attempt to find new music that didn't suck like GFR did...made a quick trip to The Mothers Of Invention, then found jazz. I think GFR did the same thing: Produced by Frank Zappa! Jim said they sucked. So did I. We only disagree on how big they were. None of my circle of friends who were able to discern good music from bad never considered GFR more than a badly placed ink blot on the musical canvas. They were hacks who could barely play 2 chords well, let alone three. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjzee Posted February 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 Trust me, I agree with both of you regarding GFR's pervasive suckiness. I merely pointed out that they were huge as regards sales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B. Clugston Posted February 21, 2011 Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 Ritchie Blackmore on Grand Funk: "America is so vast that I think people buy records mainly of groups they've seen, and I imagine that they must have seen Grand Funk all over America, they buy their records. At the same time though, I have never met one person who likes Grand Funk." http://www.thehighwaystar.com/interviews/blackmore/rb1973xxxx.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Ptah Posted February 21, 2011 Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 (edited) For what it is worth, Grand Funk was "the" cool group to like in my high school (1970-74). Many students genuinely loved their music. They were extremely popular. If you didn't like them you kept it to yourself, so that you did not get bothered by the other students for being a weirdo. If there was a school activity involving a long group bus trip, you could count on Grand Funk being blasted on the bus from someone's portable cassette player. There was an often stated feeling by many students that Grand Funk was "their music", just as their older brothers and sisters had their music years earlier, like the Beatles, etc. I must say, I find it odd to think that even old people would hear Miles Davis' early 1970s electric music as anything similar to Grand Funk. Both were loud, but Grand Funk was so simplistic and vocal dominated compared to what Miles was releasing. Edited February 21, 2011 by Hot Ptah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted February 21, 2011 Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 Grand Funk Railroad never made much impression in the UK. We tended to lap up much of what came out of America but for some reason they were neither cool nor popular. I recall the very first Melody Maker I bought had a front page item about them. A bit like groups like Foreigner and Rush later on. Never really translated over here. Maybe we had more than enough of our own plodding blues-rock and larger than life bands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjzee Posted February 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 Ritchie Blackmore on Grand Funk: "America is so vast that I think people buy records mainly of groups they've seen, and I imagine that they must have seen Grand Funk all over America, they buy their records. At the same time though, I have never met one person who likes Grand Funk." http://www.thehighwaystar.com/interviews/blackmore/rb1973xxxx.html Wait, wait, wait... Deep Purple criticizing Grand Funk for their musical quality?!?!? Hmmm...but then there's that Frank Zappa connection again! "Smoke on the water, fire in the sky..." Maybe he was responsible for all this?!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quincy Posted February 21, 2011 Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 Grand Funk Railroad never made much impression in the UK. We tended to lap up much of what came out of America but for some reason they were neither cool nor popular. I recall the very first Melody Maker I bought had a front page item about them. With the cultural exchanges when visiting Ulster cousins in the early '70s they were amazed I wasn't familiar with T. Rex. Other than "Bang A Gong (Get It On)" there wasn't much radio play where I grew up in the Midwest. Meanwhile I couldn't figure out how they hadn't heard of of Grand Funk. Perhaps "We're An American Band" had something to do with it? Yeah, so what? Perhaps Slade took GFR's place in the UK, as I recall hearing them often while visiting. One of the earliest 45s I bought was GFR's cover of "The Loco-Motion." My cousins' influence won out as I'll still play The Slider but own no Grand Funk outside of my 45. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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