Back-to-Back: Mark Farner and Lou Gramm

Where else can you find a music treat at a very nominal fee and watch two dynamic performers do their thing on stage in this day and age of high gas prices and atrocious high- tech gadgets?

Once again the annual Meijer-sponsored Taylor Summerfest did not disappoint when they brought Mark Farner of the seminal American rock band, Grand Funk Railroad, and Lou Gramm, the erstwhile lead singer of the rock band Foreigner, to the 2006 edition.

Two veteran rockers with contrasting singing and performing style wowed the audience who braved the afternoon sun and captivated them enough to watch and listen to their kind of music as they shared their vintage and classic hits to us, people who braved the heat for some afternoon delight and then some into the night--

The songs still ring like they did when I first heard them eons ago, that same sound that I am so familiar with, just like the sound from the old vinyl records that I had in my collections when I was growing up in the Philippines.

My cache of old records back home, from the Beatles to Led Zeppelin to Deep Purple to UFO to Rainbow to Black Sabbath, just to name a few, where it used to dominate the Radiowealth turntable in my younger years, that was both a source of consternation and amusement by my Gran’ Ma on the kind of music her “favorite” Grandson was hooked into.

But my taste in music is not confined to one particular genre for I enjoy and appreciate any product of artistic expression, and it also depends on what kind of mood I am at in a particular moment.

Anyway, the songs are as timeless as ever as nostalgia and appreciation quietly swept into the well- diversified crowd of “leather- clad bikers,” “baby boomers,” “thirty- some things“, “curious teens” and “old hags” that brought them together for several hours of musical extravaganza; the old revelers reminiscin’ about the good old days when rock music was pure and not yet corrupted by crash commercialism that is the hallmarks of rock groups nowadays while the young ones were introduced into a world that is so alien to them, rock and roll at its best, the way they were played before, where the guitars and drums are raw and unadulterated.



Mark Farner is the prolific songwriter, vocalist and guitarist of the power trio that is the Grand Funk Railroad who in their heyday had amassed quite an amount of jewelry in the music business (12 platinum albums/ 15 gold albums) and became one of America’s biggest bands in the 1970s as exemplified by the fact that when they performed in the Big Apple in 1971, they broke the attendance record for a concert at New York City's Shea Stadium and eclipsed the record set by the Fab Four no less in 1966, a record that still stands to this very day.

Mark Farner is a rock and roll legend no doubt, flamboyant and energetic, he held the audience captive till the end of his set with his superb guitar playing and brought us back in time with classic renditions of “We’re an American Band,” "Heartbreaker," "Some Kind Of Wonderful," I'm Your Captain (Closer To Home)," "Foot-Stompin' Music," "the Loco-motion", "Bad Time", "Mean Mistreater", and other hits from his days with GFR and also his solo career.

He is a class act when it comes to performing live.

Lou Gramm, on the other hand, who, together with Mick Jones, catapulted the rock group Foreigner to the top of the charts with his trademark powerful vocals but with a soft touch on the side.

Who can forget the rock ballad "Waiting For A Girl Like You", which spent ten weeks at 1981 at No. 2 in the American Singles Charts, and the vocally challenging "I Want to Know What Love Is", which was a worldwide number one hit in 1984 that cemented their stature as one of the biggest rock groups of the late 70’s to early 80’s?

But just like any musical group, Foreigner succumbed to that age- old curse of successful music groups when fame gobbled up their musical sense and the inevitable happened---

When Mr. Gramm and Mr. Jones clashed over musical ideas, the band’s direction and petty matters, they quietly disbanded and although they would reunite every now and then for a gig or two, the group and their music as well as their relationship with each other would never be the same again. Lou Gramm for his part, continued to do solo projects and tour with his band in the summer.

Lou Gramm who was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1997 and subsequently went under the knife to remove it; complications of surgery affected his voice and weakened his stamina, which was quite evident in the concert. He struggled with the high notes and at times seemed to stammer on the lyrics, but the audience did not mind these small asterisks in his performance for his drive and spirit were in full throttle.

He sang with so much power and gusto that the people showed their appreciation by singing along with him all the way-- from the opening song, “Double Vision” to “Dirty” to “Long, Long Way Home” to “Cold as Ice.”

The classic “Waiting for a Girl like You” made the audience quiet for awhile and just listened to his soothing voice float in the evening breeze.

Then he brought them back to their feet with a succession of classic songs like “Ready or Not,” “Rev on the Red Line,” “Head Games,” “Midnight Blue,” “Dirty White Boy” and “Jukebox Hero.”

“Hot Blooded” was the last song in his repertoire and a fitting one to end the hot and balmy summer night where music fans were treated to an extraordinary evening of classic rock and roll from two extraordinary performers.





*07/2006