Knight sued for breach of contract, which resulted in a protracted legal battle. This growing dissatisfaction led Grand Funk Railroad to fire Knight in early 1972. E Pluribus Funk celebrated the Shea Stadium show with an embossed depiction of the stadium on the album cover's reverse.īy late 1971, the band was concerned with Knight's managerial style and fiscal responsibility. Survival and E Pluribus Funk were both released in 1971. Following Closer to Home, The double disc Live Album was also released later in 1970, and was another gold disc recipient. īy 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.

The band spent $100,000 on a New York City Times Square billboard to advertise Closer to Home. That album was certified multiplatinum despite a lack of critical approval.

In the spring of 1970, Knight launched an intensive advertising campaign to promote the album Closer to Home. The hit single ' I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home)', from the album Closer to Home, released in June 1970, was considered stylistically representative of Terry Knight and the Pack's recordings. Despite critical pans and little airplay, the group's first six albums (five studio releases and one live album) were quite successful. In February 1970 a second album, Grand Funk (or The Red Album), was awarded gold status. In August 1969 the band released its first album titled On Time, which sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold record in 1970. Patterned after hard-rock power trios such as Cream, the band, with Terry Knight's marketing savvy, developed its own popular style. After a raucous, well-received set on the first day of the festival, Grand Funk was asked back to play at the 1970 Atlanta International Pop Festival II the following year. First achieving recognition at the 1969 Atlanta International Pop Festival, the band was signed by Capitol Records. Knight soon became the band's manager and also named the band as a play on words for the Grand Trunk Western Railroad, a well-known rail line in Michigan. Grand Funk Railroad was formed as a trio in 1969 by Mark Farner (guitar, keyboards, harmonica, vocals) and Don Brewer (drums, vocals) from Terry Knight and the Pack, and Mel Schacher (bass) from Question Mark & the Mysterians. A Grand Trunk Western Railroad bridge (located at 42★9'56.2'N 83☄1'35.6'W) in Grand Funk's hometown of Flint, Michigan, that was re-painted to instead show the band's name, as well as the first names of founding members Mark Farner and Don Brewer, and early 1980s bassist Dennis Bellinger Formation (1969)

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