The moribund Survival<\/i>, Grand Funk\u2019s weakest album up to that point, was an end of the road of sorts for the original Grand Funk Railroad. The Michigan trio had worked with manager and producer Terry Knight since before they were a band \u2013 touring as Terry Knight & The Pack at the time \u2013 but after an acrimonious split with Knight they were left somewhat rudderless. Although they had several hits and were quite popular at the time and they were selling out stadiums, it didn\u2019t help that Survival <\/i>and E Pluribus Funk <\/i>were not really great albums. The plodding GFR formula was starting to sound stale.<\/p>\n
So, the trio picked up the pieces and started making some changes. First, they hired Craig Frost on keyboards, adding a necessary dimension to the sound (he is credited here as a sideman, but he quickly became the fourth member). Second, \u201cRailroad\u201d was dropped from the band name. Third, the songwriting became a little leaner and nimbler, with slightly more emphasis on texture than on crude rhythms that translated far better in concert.<\/p>\n
The end result was an album that, while still far from the band\u2019s best, was an important step in their evolution. Going from Survival <\/i>to We\u2019re An American Band <\/i>seems like listening to a different band, but with this stepping stone inserted, the transition makes more sense. Problem is, transitional albums are rarely career highlights. While Phoenix <\/i>is of interest to fans, there\u2019s little to keep the listener coming back for more.<\/p>\n
The decision to self-produce means the disc is still somewhat waterlogged in sound, and remastering doesn\u2019t help the issue. But the bigger issue is the lack of great songs or ambitious epics. Instead, we get songs that spin their wheels (the repetitive \u201cRain Keeps Fallin\u2019,\u201d the mediocre \u201cSomeone,\u201d) and songs that seem content to rewrite standard GFR but Now With Keyboard! (\u201cI Just Gotta Know,\u201d \u201cTrying To Get Away,\u201d \u201cShe Got To Move Me\u201d). And while Mark Farner had not shied away from social concerns on previous discs, he goes all-out here on his favorite theme of overpopulation, even stating on the schizophrenic and embarrassing \u201cSo You Won\u2019t Have To Die\u201d that Jesus told him how much of a problem overpopulation was. Yes, Jesus used to talk to rock stars from Flint, okay? Just go with it. Oh, and there\u2019s \u201cFreedom Is For Children,\u201d six minutes of Farner nonsense that makes \u201cLoneliness\u201d look like the picture of subtlety. Skip both of these songs, please.<\/p>\n
Opening instrumental \u201cFlight Of The Phoenix\u201d is more compelling, eschewing Farner\u2019s wailing vocals and showing that this now-quartet could be nimble but still rock. The song fades out just as the \u201cwoo-hoo\u201d vocals from \u201cFootstompin\u2019 Music\u201d come in, making one wonder if \u201cFlight\u201d was written as a warmup for that latter track and discarded for time reasons. Regardless, when the first thing you hear on a Grand Funk album is a keyboard, you know something\u2019s up.<\/p>\n
The final two songs are the best on the disc: \u201cGotta Find Me A Better Day\u201d and the minor hit single \u201cRock And Roll Soul,\u201d which dispenses with the bullshit and just boogies. More than any other, it\u2019s the one that paves the way for We\u2019re An American Band<\/i>, and it\u2019s the only track most people remember from this disc. Not that this is entirely unfounded \u2013 there are some interesting passages scattered around \u2013 but Phoenix <\/i>ultimately is more interesting for what is signified and what it attempted than in what it actually is. And while that makes it of interest to fans, it\u2019s nowhere near one of the band\u2019s better albums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":33380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5829],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-45195","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-grand-funk","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45195"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}