Closer to Home cover

Closer to Home

Released

Grand Funk Railroad’s third album, released six months after their second (they’d put out a double live LP before the end of 1970), opens with the bone-crunching “Sin’s A Good Man’s Brother” — later covered by Monster Magnet — and ends with the 10-minute “Closer To Home (I’m Your Captain).” The five songs in between may not be as well known, but they’re every bit as good, assuming one is attuned to Grand Funk’s slow-motion, singalong take on heavy rock. “Nothing Is The Same” is particularly hypnotic, bassist Mel Schacher and drummer Don Brewer laying down a groove with a primitivism worthy of the Stooges as singer/guitarist Mark Farner scratches out a lead line that seems to freeze time.

Phil Freeman

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