........it just smells funny

Taking a walk on this lovely day. Powered up the old iPod . That's right , I said iPod. Old skool baby. I still have an original iPod that my sister gave me as a gift ages ago. A few years back a bunch of elementary school kids saw it and had no idea what it was. The mocked me viciously, children can be so cruel. To them it was enormous , the size of a brick- comparatively I will agree it's a bit bigger then what they have today........ I'm tearing up, just writing this, why do they have to be so mean?

Anyway......

I was listening to a odd mix of tunes House of Pain, Doris Day, Sly and The Famile Stone. In among the mix I stumble upon Grand Funk Railroad playing the Rolling Stones classic- Gimme Shelter.  Is there version as slinky , as slithery , as challenging as the original? No, it's kinda plodding, a bit Neanderthal , and I love every second of it.

Now, Grand Funk will never see the inside of the Rock and Roll hall of fame- if Jann Wenner had his way they wouldn't even be allowed to buy a ticket.

But if I had my druthers , I would put them in, immediately. (And if I had my Druckers I would own a general store near Hooterville, but that's another story for another time.)

What the.....? Grand Funk? Hall of Fame? Heresy! Kill him! Stone the Beast! Kill! Kali! Kill for the love of killing? Kill for Kali! .......okay, got carried away there.

Here is my case for Mark, Don and Mel- I was in 8th grade or so when they first burst on the scene. And make no mistake, they hit big! Big! They played Shea Stadium! Big! They were releasing albums every coupla weeks (I exaggerate). The albums would have like 4 songs on them, two on a side! Eleven, twelve minute magnum opie! ( plural of opus)  the scone half of "I'm your Captain" alone runs about 45 minutes!

But, you know what? My 13 year old self and my buddy Ed said "We can do That!" And by gods we did! That summer we set up in Eds garage, electric guitar and a bunch of cardboard boxes stuffed with pillows and we would thrash the bejeezus out of "Inside Lookin' Out" for hours out of time.

It is said that now many people bought the first Velvet Underground album, but everybody who did started a band.

I'll guarantee that like the punk bands who would arrive a few years later, Grand Funk inspired more than a handful of young punks to sit in a hot garage and pound away and make a loud, joyful noise..

Mark says Alright.


ps the title of today's digression is a paraphrase of an old Frank Zappa line " Rock and Roll isn't dead, it just smells funny" for the original substitute Jazz for Rock and roll.

Pps picture has nothing to do with the story, I just like Stewart's.