Chattanooga: Grand Funk Railroad’s Mark Farner on Budweiser Stage Tonight
By Karen Nazor Hill, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.
Jun. 7–When Mark Farner hits the Budweiser Stage tonight, baby-boomer festivalgoers will recognize the voice that catapulted his former band, Grand Funk Railroad, to the top of the charts year after year in the 1970s.
Grand Funk Railroad became one of the most popular bands of the 1970s, recording 17 albums with total sales surpassing 25 million records, including 12 platinum and 15 gold albums, according to markfarner.com.
Mr. Farner said that though boomer fans make up a large portion of his audiences, he has young fans, too.
“A lot of young people are going back to that style from where we came, and that’s the real deal,” he said in a telephone interview from his home in Michigan.
Mr. Farner formed his first band as a teenager after taking only three guitar lessons, his Web site says. In 1969, Mr. Farner started the original Grand Funk Railroad with teenage friends Mel Schacher and Don Brewer. By July of that year, the band was performing at the Atlanta International Pop Festival and was a huge success.
They were quickly signed by Capitol Records, and their first gold album, “On Time,” was recorded and released within four months.
Among their hit singles: “I’m Your Captain (Closer to Home),”"Foot-Stompin’ Music,”"We’re an American Band,”"The Loco-motion,”"Mean Mistreater,”"Bad Time” and “Some Kind Of Wonderful.”
Farner said the lyrics and music for “I’m Your Captain” came to him during the night.
“My mom taught me to pray before I went to bed, so one night I asked for a song that would reach and touch people. In the middle of the night, the song came to me. I got up, wrote down the words and went back to sleep. The next morning, I started playing the chords, went to rehearsal and everybody thought it would be a hit.”
Riverbend Festival marketing and public relations director Sallie Beckes is a fan of Mr. Farner and Grand Funk Railroad. In fact, Ms. Beckes has Mr. Farner’s promotional photo hanging on her office wall.
“I’m going to get him to autograph it,” she said, noting that “I’m Your Captain” is one of her all-time favorite tunes. “I have such fond memories of young innocence (when the song was released).”
In 1971, Grand Funk Railroad set the attendance record at New York’s Shea Stadium for a concert, surpassing the record set by The Beatles in 1966. The record still stands today, some 30 years later, according to the Web site.
In 1977, Grand Funk Railroad disbanded. Mr. Farner signed a solo deal with Atlantic Records and issued two albums, “Mark Farner” and “No Frills.” In 1981, a reunited Grand Funk Railroad recorded two new albums, “Grand Funk Lives” and “What’s Funk.”
Additionally, Mr. Farner recorded four contemporary Christian albums and earned a Dove nomination. Mr. Farner now tours with his band “Nr’G.” They have recorded two albums — “Red, White and Blue” and “Live Nr’g.”
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