Tonight's featured artists  came on the scene in 1969 and after a successful tour they wanted to change things up a little when their new manager suggested they write about the experience of touring and the results were a hit.  Cen you guess the band?

The group of artists is Grand Funk Railroad and what their manager said, according to their drummer Don Brewer, 'Why don't you just write songs about what you do: you're out here on the road, you're going to this hotel, you go to different places, there's people, you come into town... Don says he was inspired, "  A thought came into my mind, 'We're coming to your town, we'll help you party it down.' That's really what we were doing - we were coming into town and we were the party. That's where the line came from, and the next thought I had was, 'We're an American band.' It wasn't to wave the flag or anything, it was just simply what we were. It was a true description and it kind of rolled off my mind. I went home and worked on the concept for a while and picked up a guitar; I'm not really a great guitar player, I can play 2 finger chords and that kind of stuff. I worked out the chord structure and I brought it in to rehearsal one day and there you go - we just let it go from there. It had a mind of its own."

Funny thing too about  the song ‘We”re An American Band’ is that it is based on real people and real events.. Don explains:

  • "Up all night with Freddie King, I've got to tell you, poker's his thing" "Freddie King was the opening act for us, the great Blues guitar player from Texas. It always struck me as funny that he would make his band play poker with him every night.
  • "The '4 young chiquitas in Omaha,' that came from a situation where we checked into this hotel in Omaha, Nebraska, and there were 4 groupies in the lobby waiting to see the band. '4 young chiquitas' sounded a lot better than '4 young groupies' or '4 young girls.'"
  • "Sweet Sweet Connie was doing her act" is about Connie Hamzy, a famous groupie known as "Sweet Connie." Some of her rumored conquests include Brewer, John Bonham, Keith Moon, Huey Lewis, Peter Criss, and Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas. This song made her famous, and in 2010 VH1 ran a special about her life. According to Hamzy, she didn't have "the whole band," as stated in the lyrics, but she came pretty close - Mark Farner was a holdout.

     

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