Grand Funk Railroad – "Sin's a Good Man's Brother" (1970)

You tell me that I don’t

Then I say I won’t

But then I might

In 2010, I wrote a series of eight posts featuring every song on Grand Funk Railroad’s Closer to Home album.

The most famous song from that album – the ten-minutes-long “I’m Your Captain/Closer to Home” – was all over the radio the week I started college.

By coincidence, one of my suitemates that year owned this album.  Somehow, his copy of Closer to Home LP ended up secreted in my copy of Savoy Brown’s Jack the Toad album. 

Most of my friends thought Grand Funk Railroad was a joke.  I did, too.  I was never tempted to listen to any of their other albums.

But Grand Funk was one of the great “Golden Decade” (1964-1973) power trios.  Mark Farner (guitar), Don Brewer (drums), and Mel Schacher (bass), take a f*ckin’ bow!

From Wikipedia:

In 1970, [Grand Funk’s manager, Terry] Knight launched an intensive advertising campaign to promote the album Closer to Home.  That album was certified multiplatinum despite a lack of critical approval.  The band spent $100,000 on a New York City Times Square billboard to advertise Closer to Home.  

Grand Funk's Times Square billboard

By 1971, Grand Funk equalled the Beatles' Shea Stadium attendance record, but sold out the venue in just 72 hours whereas the Beatles concert took a few weeks to sell out.

Almost every single song on Closer to Home is GREAT.  I’m listening to the album right now, and it’s even better than I remembered.  (It’s right up there with the first Led Zeppelin album, boys and girls, and that is high praise indeed.)  I’m not surprised that Grand Funk sold out Shea Stadium faster than the Beatles!

“Sin’s a Good Man’s Brother” – no, I don’t know what that means – is the first track on Closer to Home:

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: