Grand Funk, "I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home"

Music Talk Radio

    "I'm Your Captain," by Grand Funk, is on the 1970 album Closer to Home. The song is among the best storytelling in rock. In it, the ship's captain finds himself in danger of mutiny at the hands of his crew. The boat is lost, and he pleads with his crew to return the ship to him. The captain asks god to help him overcome his plight.

    But the song is more than just a great story. Musically, the intro draws me in with guitarist and lead singer Mark Farner's lone guitar, mostly a two-string hook that leads into a prominent and punchy kick drum snare groove by Don Brewer, the band's drummer. Farner's scarce alternating two-chord strums are all the more effective, allowing the groove to breathe. Farner only adds a wah pedal for emphasis. 

    Just a side note. The length of an intro like this in a song would never be allowed in music production today!

    I digress. At the end of the intro, we come to the verse, and the music thins out to an interplay between the bassist's single-note punctuation and Brewer's kick drum, playing simultaneously only on the first two beats of each measure. Brewer fills in the empty beats of the measure with a hi-hat sixteenth-note groove keeping you firmly grounded and allowing Farner to have all the prominence in the mix to sing the story.

    The song lasts ten minutes but holds my attention. Sure, it gets a bit hangy at the end, where Farner sings, "I'm getting closer to my home" repeatedly. Still, I hang in there for Farner's eventual guitar riffs and Brewer's ever-changing drum fills.  I am rooting for the captain to finally reach his home port. 

    The entire end section of the song represents his journey home. Once you hear waves crashing and seagulls, the listener knows that the land is close. These sound effects bring it home (no pun intended) and are an ingenious way to tell the listener the captain will make it back to his home port. Of course, the lyrics "I'm getting closer to my home" don't hurt either. Hah!

    It's a long-ass but classic old song with great storytelling.  I thought it deserved a nod.

Check it out on Spotify: "I'm Your Captain/Closer To Home"

Popular posts from this blog

The Rolling Stones Mick Taylor

Music Talk Radio
Image
     Mick Taylor was a great replacement guitarist for Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. His keen sense of melody and ability to jam were fresh for the Stones. Think of the end of "Sway." Taylor joined the Stones in 1969.       Taylor played on the following albums from the Stones: Let It Bleed (1969), Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out (1970), The Rolling Stones in Concert (1970), Sticky Fingers (1971), Exile on Main Street  (1972), Goats Head Soup (1973) and It's Only Rock 'n Roll (1974).       When Taylor was in the Stones, he fostered the best and most creative writing and guitar playing. Mick Taylor challenged Keith. They worked well together.       Keith is one of my favorite songwriters, and he upped his game, as did Mick Jagger when Mick Taylor was in the band. Taylor challenged them and intimidated them a bit. They got bluesy, too. Mick Taylor was a great slide player. If you haven't considered him a Rollin...
Read More - Your Two Cents!

Tony Iommi, Black Sabbath

Music Talk Radio
Image
    Did you know that Tony Iommi, guitarist of Black Sabbath fame, lost a couple of his fingertips on his right hand? His index and middle fingers, to be exact. Being left-handed, this would have been his fretboard hand. He worked in a sheet metal factory and accidentally cut them off. Ouch! It almost stopped Iommi from playing guitar, but a friend, seeing Iommi's depression from not playing, played Iommi a record of Django Reinhardt.  A guitarist of Jazz fame. Iommi didn't know until after hearing Reinhardt that Reinhardt had severely burned his ring and index finger on his left hand but kept playing. Iommi was impressed by the jazz great. His friend then revealed that Reinhardt could only use two fingers on his fretboard hand.       This got Iommi inspired and back on the saddle again. Tony used light guitar strings and even banjo strings , dropping the string tension to make them looser.  He dropped his tuning to C# Standard and D# Standard...
Read More - Your Two Cents!

Cream's Disraeli Gears Album Cover

Music Talk Radio
Image
     The album art for Cream's  Disraeli  Gears doesn't get any more '60s, does it? 1967, to be exact. Talk about psychedelic! It's always been one of my favorite album covers because of its pure insanity. The artwork was done by a gentleman named Martin Sharp. A fine job he did.   From Wikipedia, " Martin Sharp was attempting to capture the sound of the music in the cover, which he describes as a "warm fluorescent sound"   The colors are outrageous in their combination. This had to be the boldest album cover known to man. To me, it represents the 1960s more than any other album cover. Including Sgt. Pepper and Their Satanic Majesties Request. Peacocks, horses, flowers. Who's the green chick in front of Jack Bruce? Anyone? Oh, and the trio in there too. Gotta love it. Check out more on  Classic Rock Magazine . Album Art by Martin Sharp, 1967
Read More - Your Two Cents!