Sunday, November 8, 2009

Flint Photos: Flint


Grand Funk Railroad disbanded in 1977. Following the breakup, Don Brewer, Mel Schacher, and Craig Frost remained intact and formed the band Flint with the addition of Billy Ellworthy. Flint released one album on Columbia Records; a second record was completed but never released. Mark Farner began a solo career, signed with Atlantic Records and released two albums: Mark Farner (1977) and No Frills (1978).


13 comments:

  1. That album should be prominently displayed in ev'ry Flintoids home.

    GFR recorded two more albums after "Flint". Known simply as "Grand Funk" Mel got the boot and was replaced by some chunky black dude.

    Check out the back cover of Grand Funk Lives! for some high quality funny. Mark, Don, and Dennis(!?!) have just tagged a truck with the words Grand Funk. The photo captures them, spray paint cans in hand, gleefully skipping the scene.

    Mark Farner has released a number of albums since then mostly of the x-ian / American flag fetishist variety.

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  2. Should Craig show up at these digs -- yo, dude.

    Didn't know you at Lowell but 10th grade CHS, Foreign Relations (Mr. Howe). I sat next to you.

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  3. Cool album cover. What are they standing in front of? An airplane or a building? One of those guys looks like the actor from Beneath the Planet of the Apes (james franciscus)

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  4. I think it is admirable that Mark Farner admits in his authorized biography that some of his song names, picture sleeves, album covers, and lyrics could have misled American Youth. But nothing like The Beatles did.

    While Mark Farner has probably recorded CCM because he had to like other artists, I don't doubt his convictions.

    What, you can't even use the term "Christian", as in Christian Contemporary Music?

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  5. Farner has a lot more prosthelytizing to do if he is gonna make up for the song T.N.U.C.

    As far as misleading the youth of America (kids are still listening to GFR, right?), I'd rather have kids listening to lyrics about "four young chiquitas from Omaha" than insipid bible banging and vapid flag waving. Anyone who dons an stars and stripes doo rag should be considered suspicious.

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  6. Grand Funk Railroad has always been and will always be a part of me. I still listen to their classic (pre-American Band) albums. However, I would never consider them to be a part of any brain trust. Case in point: they fired their manager Terry Knight one month before his contract expired.

    BTW-The Flint album cover photo is in front of some big propane storage depot.

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  7. damn, man...out for the jugular on Mark. He;s just a man, no super x-tian or super patriot. He does Love his Country, and has been adopted by the Green Berets because of His unflagging support. yeah, it's a bad pun, so what. He's generous to a fault, and down to earth. maybe show me the part of knight's contract where it says undying loyalty forever, and I'll get pissy for him. all the ragging i've done on Flint, I've not heard one negative word from Mark on it.

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  8. My point on the firing of Terry Knight was that they only had to wait a month to get out of their contract with him. Instead they got sued for "breach of contract" and lost their pants (along with their band equipment at one show).

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  9. I have three copies of this album on vinyl.

    It sounds like 70's AM rock, a bit on the more pop side, almost as if Elton John, Billy Joel, Leo Sayer, and Peter Frampton got together and jammed. It's good for what it is, but doesn't sound anything like Grand Funk Railroad.

    The mirror reflection in the sunglasses reveals that there is a huge grass field in front of them, so propane storage facility or not it was near a large field.

    Flint photo legend Tom Wirt would know, let's ask him!

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  10. Back about the time the Flint album came out, I worked for a short time with one of Mark's siblings. She said that Mark would be doing more adult contemporary stuff because it was more marketable and easier to get airplay on the radio like some of you have implied. I had a great time talking with her, even though I honestly told her I wasn't a big fan but liked some of the mellower tracks like "Bad Time". She had some great stories about the studio sessions and stuff.

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  11. at least wurst has taste in rockgods, if not hotdogs...s'Cool Andy-no love lost for knight/knapp here...

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  12. I delivered "The Flint Journal" to them at there apartment in Knollwood apatments. All there albums where on the wall very cool.

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  13. Propane isn't stored in riveted-plate tanks like the one behind the guys. #6 heating oil is, though. Residential oil heat was pretty common in Flint up to the 1960s, and there used to be moderate-sized tanks in cities like Flint, back when the oil was cheap but the transportation was expensive.

    Seems like I remember, from years ago, that there was a Flint Oil Company somewhere around town that had some squat-vertical-cylinder steel plate tanks like the one in the photo.

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.