"From Grand Funk to Grace"

Anyone who has even the slightest brain cells remaining after 1969 and the festivals of the summer of love, know who mark farner is!

This savage samite singer of the Shea stadium legendary performance and the lighting bolt that charged Grand Funks shows and albums( yeah , vinyl)was and is stratospheric in his approach to audience participation.

You knew from the start of the song, until the last tune , that you were on a laser bound for the heart of rock and roll.

This biography does exactly what i would expect from a Mark Farner project, piss you off while chuckling at his brashness.

The book is a personal look at the formative relationships of family and the tragedy of losses that took their toll on the young athlete turned musician.A fond recall of the days of yore and how they impacted him.

The un heroic flight from armed services via any means possible, even so far as to appear gay or drug addicted. Reckless youthful pranks of every variety and mayhem.A all too normal background in Michigan’s industial environment and it's root beliefs, rowdy being the norm , not the exception.

The salvation by the music of the era that sparked the drive that possessed the man and the boy to follow an uncertain and unmapped future to rock's shaking shoes , where the glass slipper is always a foot away from royalty, and gold and silver come a in vinyl gem.

The drug culture is alive and well in this storied testament to youthful endurance and luck, not to mention miraculous recoveries.

The famous co-horts in pranks and mischief are no less than Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, unfortunate examples of the excess of stardom that leads to a free fall without a net.

The success of the power trio phase of grand funk is enlightening , but too limited for my taste, more telling of the concerts would have thrilled me since i was at many of them and they were wild and untamed events that were by any one’s account, intense!!

His child by an affair with a touring female is touching and sad, evidence of his need to right a wrong.

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Mark Farner

Mark Farner Biography

True rock 'n roll legend, Mark Farner found fame and success at 20 years of age as the leader of one of America's biggest bands of the 1970's - the original Grand Funk Railroad.

The band recorded 17 albums with total sales of more than 25 million records. Mark Farner is the unmistakable voice, guitarist, and songwriter that powered the original Grand Funk Railroad to 12 platinum and 15 gold albums.

After only 3 guitar lessons, Mark put various bands together. In the mid 1960's, Mark and his bands played the usual dates that a teenage band would play - high school dances, VFW halls, wedding receptions and the like. Upon leaving high school, Mark turned professional, working with Terry Knight and the Pack, The Bossmen (with Dick Wagner), then just the Pack (this time with no Terry Knight, but with drummer Don Brewer).

In 1969, Mark started the original Grand Funk Railroad with teenage friends Mel Schacher and Don Brewer - one of the first American power trios was born. Mark and Grand Funk hit big just several months after forming. They were the only unsigned act on the show when they opened the first day of the Atlanta International Pop Festival in July 1969.

Mark and Grand Funk Railroad played before 180,000 people in 110-degree heat and the acclaim was instantaneous. They were invited back to close the show the next day. Following their hugely successful Atlanta appearance, the band was signed by Capitol Records and their first gold album "On Time", was recorded and released within four months.

The saga of Grand Funk Railroad is well documented. The albums included such titles as "Grand Funk Railroad", "Survival", "Live Album", "Closer To Home", "E Pluribus Funk", "Phoenix", "Good Singin,' Good Playin'", "Caught In The Act", and "All The Girls In The World Beware", among others. The hit singles included "I'm Your Captain (Closer To Home)," "Foot-Stompin' Music," "We're an American Band", "the Loco-motion", "Mean Mistreater", "Bad Time", "Some Kind Of Wonderful" and others.

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