AMERICAN BANDSTAND

They sold out Shea Stadium faster than The Beatles. In the early 70s, no American hard rock band was bigger than Grand Funk Railroad. Singer/guitarist Mark Farner looks back

- Joe Bosso

Recently, a proliferation of clips has appeared on YouTube in which young music fans document their reactions to hearing the music of Grand Funk Railroad for the first time. Their faces are braced with stunned, slack-jawed amazement as they listen. When the music stops and the talking begins, their assessments of the band are typically along the lines of: "Damn, those guys can really jam!" and "What did I just hear?!" Asked if he's familiar with the videos, Mark Farner lets out a robust laugh. "Hell yeah, I've seen them!" the former Grand Funk Railroad guitarist exclaims. "My friends send me those clips, and I just love watching them. I think it's so cool seeing these young guys getting off to the music we made fifty years ago. What touched people's hearts back then still moves them today. We were fierce. We were big and loud, like we were busting out of the chute. And I was riding the bull, man. You can't fake that kind of excitement. It's either real or it's not." He chuckles, then adds nostalgically: "It sure was a fun time." For the better part of their career, which lasted from 1969 to 1976, the Flint, Michigan-based Grand Funk Railroad specialised in high-energy, meat-and-potatoes, blues-based hard rock.