1972 Grand Funk Railroad / Phoenix LP/ vinyl inner gatefold pic

I've been trying to put this album away all week, but have left it open on coffee table / I feel these three have posseessed me.....

Mark Farner (stud in the middle) was quite the macho sex symbol rocker in the early 1970s. Whilst Mick swanned across the stage, injected with amphetamine, cocaine, and B vitamins (my conjecture. I'm not a doctor, I don't play one on telly. But I know my pharmaceuticals!), David bathed himself in red light and sang about louche outer space heroes... Mark was onstage, bereft of makeup and drugs. He delivered straight on rock and roll!

Unfortunately for Grand Funk Railroad, the public preferred Mick and David. I know I did.

I cut my baby gayling teeth on guys who looked exactly like that. To this day I love that look on a man. So rare now. When i do ocassionaly see a hippie throwback walking down the street,Im transported to some fantastic memories.

I love me some old (pre-Locomotion) GFR!! But I'm an old, old woman.

GFR followed a similar path that many bands did, like the Small Faces, in having a shark in control of their work.

Farner in his glory days.