AMG Review of Thirty Years of Funk: 1969-1999

Keith Pettipas
All Music Guide

Thirty Years of Funk is a three-CD boxed set anthology of the music of one of America's premier heavy rock bands, Grand Funk Railroad. This set covers the music of the band from 1969, when the band first burst onto the music scene and ushered in a post-British Invasion alternative to the progressive movement, until they broke up in 1976 to subsequently reform in the mid-'90s.

Although Grand Funk Railroad was officially formed in 1969, some band members played together as Terry Knight & the Pack in the mid-'60s and this set opens with three songs from the Pack from 1968. The set concentrates on being a complete anthology of Grand Funk material with only two to three songs from each one of the band's 16 studio albums. All of the band's albums are represented in this collection except for one album that was released on the Warner Bros. label in 1983. The set also contains a number of previously unreleased alternate recordings, outtakes, and live material to add appeal to fans. In 1997, Grand Funk performed a concert for Bosnia and in 1998 got together in the studio and for a tour and recorded a number of new tracks, three of which are contained on this set. Although a number of the band's early songs and some fans' best-of tracks are not contained on this set, thus making it flawed according to fans, it is the best retrospective package of Grand Funk Railroad's music available to date on the market. The set's booklet contains detailed information on the history of the band, a discography, album jacket photos, and detailed song information.