Grand Funk Railroad-Caught In The Act(1975)(2003 Capitol Rem.)[E

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Caught in the Act is Grand Funk Railroad's second live album, and was released in August 1975 by Capitol Records as a double album. It was recorded live on tour in 1975 and features "The Funkettes" — Lorraine Feather and Jana.



The 2003 re-mastered version of this release has a total time of 79:08, and was squeezed down to one disc. The 2:47 "Introduction" is gone, but "T.N.U.C" and "Gimme Shelter" are lengthened. Audience interaction and applause is shortened throughout to compensate.







For the new Caught in the Act reissue, one of the greatest live albums of all time, they still didn't get it right--contrary to what the liner notes say. Musically, the album is still outstanding. Everyone in the band serves up an inspired performance, and overall, it sounds great (then again, the original album never sounded bad). Don Brewer's drum solo on "T.N.U.C." has been restored, but elsewhere, all is not well. There are a number of things that keep me from raving about this CD.



First of all, let's talk about the transition from "Closer to Home" into "Heartbreaker." On the original album, "Closer to Home" faded out to end the first side. Side two faded back up with the end of "Closer to Home" and went straight into "Heartbreaker" (the actual performance featured a seamless transition from one song into the other). Anyone with a good ear can hear exactly where they tried to mix the two songs together. While better than it's been (this is at least the third time Capitol has released Caught in the Act on CD), it still isn't as good as it should be. Not only is there an audible space between the two songs, the treble actually drops on "Heartbreaker."



Secondly, there's the matter of editing. Rather than mixing the songs where necessary, they're crossfaded instead. Mixing in this case involves basically overlaying the end of one track with the start of another, while keeping the volume level the same. Crossfading is similar to mixing; only the end of the `first' track fades down while the start of the `second' track fades up. This is most noticeable on the intro to "Black Licorice," where part of the vocal intro is actually missing. The liner notes mention that some of the applause between tracks was cut to let everything fit on one CD. Considering the fact that there's almost a full minute of usable space left on the CD, it makes one wonder why they felt the need to do this.



Thirdly, they left off the first song played at the shows on the tour, "Are You Ready." The liner notes say that Capitol originally didn't want to include it because it was on the band's first live album (the band was having problems with the label at the time). Again, due to space restrictions and wanting to keep it to a single CD, the song was left off once again.



Lastly, there's the matter of the album's original first track, simply entitled "Introduction." The liner notes mention the fact that it was on the original album, but that it was left off to keep everything on one CD, but it's available as an unlisted bonus track on "one of the discs that `supposedly' has no bonus tracks." (Editor's note: "Introduction" has never appeared on CD before). Granted, it's mainly just applause, with a bit of the band jamming on "Rock and Roll Soul" before they go onstage. This was expendable. The thing that makes no sense is why they put it at the end of the new CD. It's completely out of context.



What they should've done with Caught in the Act is release the entire show on two CDs instead of one--including "Introduction" and "Are You Ready," and mix "Closer to Home" into "Heartbreaker" properly. (assuming they're from two different shows--no source information is listed). Maybe next time. Meanwhile, despite all the gripes above, it's still a great CD.





Track listing



1. "Footstompin' Music" (Mark Farner) – 4:07

2. "Rock & Roll Soul" (Farner) – 4:04

3. "Closer to Home" (Farner) – 7:08

4. "Heartbreaker" (Farner) – 7:22

5. "Some Kind of Wonderful" (John Ellison) – 4:14

6. "Shinin' On" (Farner, Don Brewer) – 5:31

7. "The Loco-Motion" (Gerry Goffin, Carole King) – 3:21

8. "Black Licorice" (Farner, Brewer) – 4:27

9. "The Railroad" (Farner) – 6:13

10. "We're an American Band (Brewer) – 3:38

11. "T.N.U.C." (Farner) – 9:32

12. "Inside Lookin' Out" (Eric Burdon, Chas Chandler, Jackie Lomax) – 12:24

13. "Gimme Shelter" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) – 7:00







Personnel



* Don Brewer – drums, percussion, vocals

* Mark Farner – organ, electric guitar, harmonica, vocals

* Craig Frost – percussion, keyboards, backing vocals

* Mel Schacher – bass, backing vocals

* Funkettes Group (Lorraine Feather and Jana) – backing vocals