Re: THE Ultimate Showman?
Date: May 18, 2011 07:30AM
Well....once again I will date myself for you 'youguns'...back around the time hard/heavy rock all started,there was a litle ol' band here in the US from Flint.Michigan called Grand Funk Railroad. The power trio was lead by one Mark Farner,who not only had the longest hair of the time (it was a new phenom to have extremely long hair then). But this cat ran around the stage constantly,sang incredible lead vocals,and played a mean dirty blues guitar! He also played some pretty fine keys on occasion AND harmonica. The guy was pure electricity and I'm quite sure his band still hold some attendance records for crowds here in The States. They sold out Shea Stadium way faster than The Beatles back when. Farner is one of the key performers in rock history and pretty much inspired me to be a lead singer and how to entertain a crowd. Oddly enough, I've been told by those who saw the tour prior to their E Pluribus Funk record,that the opening band upstaged them. That would be their band labelmates (Capitol) Bloodrock,from Fort Worth,Texas. Unfortunately, I was a tad young yet and didn't see that tour. Bloodrock was sort of the US vesrion of Deep Purple. Not that they had the same vibe,but they were a great hard rockin' outfit with guitar/keyboard interplay and obviously knew how to incite the crowd live. I'd suggest checking out any of their first 4 albums (s/t,II,III,or USA,respectively). Some of the very best early hard rock from back in the day! :-) T