12/16/2023 0 Comments Grand funk railroad rock and roll soul![]() The song has a great R&B feel and switching up with me on lead vocal adds to the flavor for the show. "Shinin' On" was fashioned after Freddy King's great blues song "Goin' Down." After having Freddy open for us on our "Phoenix Tour," we were so impressed with his music and style that the influence was clear. Why does the song continue to resonate for you?: "Shinin' On": This is another song that underlines how Grand Funk Railroad wrote and performed positive anthems that galvanized people. The drums, bass and organ track is a blast to play and the vocal lines are awesome: "Come on everybody, we're gonna have a good time." The song works well as an opener or as we do it now as our second song of the show. What inspired you to include it here?:Īfter doing the song live as a three-piece band, in 1971 we tried recording this song in the studio a few times until we captured the final version on our album E Pluribus Funk. "Footstompin' Music": This song has a ferocious rhythmic groove and it's another one that pumps up the listener/concert-goer. The opening line "We're havin' a party, everybody's invited" is a perfect opening statement. The song is truly descriptive of GFR's Rock/R&B blend. Having a top 40 hit with Rock & Roll Soul was our first step to freedom. "Rock & Roll Soul" was our first single after leaving our crooked manager Terry Knight who had stolen all our money and was taking us to court over the name Grand Funk Railroad. Why does this song light you up when you perform it?: "Rock & Roll Soul": The phrase "rock and roll soul" is an apt description of the band's music + mission. In our case we could close with "We're An American Band" and come back with "Closer To Home," Depends on how you want to leave the audience.ĭon on song highlights from their setlist In other words, you can switch them and it won't really make a huge difference. Entertainment needs to be entertaining.įinally, what goes into choosing which song will be the last one and which song will be the encore?:The last song and the encore can be interchangeable. Our goal is to have the show flow from high to low and back to high again with a few sparkles in between. In coming up with the list, do you think about the various tempos of songs and which keys they're played in?: Don't really worry too much about what key a song is in, but yes, tempos need to blend between songs. ![]() The two openers we do now, "Rock & Roll Soul" and "Footstompin' Music," are classic GFR hits and always get the audience going even if they don't know Grand Funk. Helps keep it interesting for us.Ĭan you talk about figuring out which song to open with? This has to be a challenge as a band wants to come on strong but some of the audience is still finding their seats and the sound may not be at its best near the beginning of a set.: We have tried several different songs as openers over the years, even doing an unknown original of ours. We have a spot in the show that we have experimented with new songs over the years and the songs keep changing. We don't do a lot of new material because we know the audience wants to hear the classics. I guess you could say we're all Grand Funk fans. How do you determine a set list that satisfies both the audience and the musician?: Everybody in the band loves the music we play. Spreading out the hits during the show keeps the audience involved beginning to end. You learn what works and what doesn't work by trial and error. Is there a secret sauce to creating the perfect set list?:We have been working on our show for over 40 years. (SRO) Don Brewer took the time recently amid Grand Funk Railroad's current Some Kind Of Wonderful Tour to speak with SRO about how the band builds the perfect setlist, as well as discussed some of the highlight tracks from the list.
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