"The" Grand Funk Railroad

Hugh Hefner introduces The Grand Funk Railroad on his Playboy After Dark program in 1969.

Yeah, "The" Grand Funk Railroad.  Sounds kinda funny, doesn't it?

Maybe not.  It is a way of showing respect by using the definite article "The", which connotes a special quality of uniqueness, or one of a kind.  No doubt about that one.  There wasn't anything like them then, and not now either.  People tended to love 'em or hate 'em.

But "Playboy After Dark" doesn't really go with the front man in the group, Mark Farner.  The truth be told, he may regret that he did things like this now that he is older and perhaps a bit wiser.  It was a type of compromise in order to gain fame, I suspect.

My impression of Mark Farner is that of a really soulful man, so a song like "I Can Feel Him In The Morning"  is a bit more like him than what he does in the Playboy Mansion.

I took a lot of teasing for being a fan.  I'm not sorry, though.  Nobody's perfect.  They could make even a fan like me wince at times, but they had some good stuff.