By the time Grand Funk Railroad came to make Survival in January 1971, Cleveland Recording had moved to new quarters, and the group had become a national phenomenon, its last two albums Top Ten million-sellers.
They spent a relatively luxurious six weeks or so on the record, and the results showed; Survival was the best-sounding and the best-played album they had yet made.
Such assessments are, of course, relative, however.
The group's playing remained rudimentary, especially in the rhythm section, and its sense of song construction was simple and repetitious.
Singer/songwriter/guitarist Mark Farner sang in a strained, limited tenor lyrics that yearned for basic satisfactions ("Comfort Me," "I Want Freedom"), then led the lengthy instrumental passages with either simple guitar patterns or simple organ patterns.
The band's choice of covers, Traffic's "Feelin' Alright" and the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter," indicated taste (and that they were short of material), but their interpretations were inferior.
This may have been Grand Funk's first real studio album, but they still sounded like they hadn't quite figured out how the studio differed from the stage and what added dynamics might be necessary to make a recording successful.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Country RoadMark Farner | Grand Funk Railroad | Play | 04:22 | 10 MB | 30 MB |
| 2 | All You've Got Is MoneyMark Farner | Grand Funk Railroad | Play | 05:16 | 12 MB | 36 MB |
| 3 | Comfort MeMark Farner | Grand Funk Railroad | Play | 06:48 | 15 MB | 46 MB |
| 4 | Feelin' AlrightDave Mason | Grand Funk Railroad | Play | 04:27 | 10 MB | 32 MB |
| 5 | I Want FreedomMark Farner | Grand Funk Railroad | Play | 06:19 | 14 MB | 41 MB |
| 6 | I Can Feel Him in the MorningDon Brewer, Mark Farner | Grand Funk Railroad | Play | 07:15 | 16 MB | 46 MB |
| 7 | Gimme ShelterMick Jagger, Keith Richards | Grand Funk Railroad | Play | 06:29 | 14 MB | 46 MB |
| 40 mins | 93 MB | |||||
| 40 mins | 280 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Don Brewer | Composer, Drums, Vocals |
| 2 | Mark Farner | Composer, Guitar, Harmonica, Keyboards, Vocals |
| 3 | Grand Funk Railroad | Primary Artist |
| 4 | Kenneth Hamann | Engineer |
| 5 | Mick Jagger | Composer |
| 6 | Terry Knight | Cover Design, Liner Notes, Producer |
| 7 | Dave Mason | Composer |
| 8 | Keith Richards | Composer |
| 9 | Mel Schacher | Bass, Vocals |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |