The Bay City roots of a very successful Michigan rock and roll band.
The Woodstock music festival, which drew an audience of over 400,000 people in August of 1969, is often regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history and a defining event for the nation’s counterculture. Although no Michigan artists performed at Woodstock, a new band from the state called Grand Funk Railroad made an important impression five weeks earlier on the 4th of July.
Five years earlier in 1964, Bay City businessman Willard Kehoe filed the name Delta Promotions at the Bay County Clerk’s office in preparation for the opening of the new teen dance club that would soon be named Band Canyon. Delta Promotions would offer services as a booking agent and/or management for the many young bands in the mid-Michigan area for the next six years.
By early 1969, Kehoe represented the bands that contained Mark Farner, Don Brewer, and Mel Schacher. That trio of musicians, along with their manager Terry Knight, would soon form Grand Funk Railroad at Delta Promotions in Bay City, Michigan.
Kehoe and his partners, A. J. LaMarre and William Wesolek, had originally been part of a five-man syndicate called the Euclid Development Corporation. The group was formed with a goal of establishing a year-round teen club on N. Euclid, a short distance from Roll-Air, the popular summertime gathering place for teens that was also the home of the Bay City’s battle of the bands.
When the Euclid location didn’t work out, Kehoe and his partners obtained land at 377 S. River Road on the southern outskirts of Bay City. Built from the ground up, Band Canyon was up and running by July 2, 1965, and Delta Promotions was on hand to book the young bands that appeared at the teen club.
Willard Kehoe and his wife Anna had been married in Gladwin, Michigan, in 1951. The couple moved to Bay City in 1952 after Kehoe had graduated from Central Michigan University. Kehoe was employed as a supervisor at the Bay City Chevrolet plant and was active in several community organizations over the years.
Both he and his wife were also active in politics. Running as a Democrat, Kehoe was an unsuccessful candidate the 1958 primary for state representative. Anna Kehoe was a member of the Bay County League of Democratic Women. She served as chairwoman for John Swainson’s campaign for governor, and she was also a delegate to the 1960 Democratic state convention.
Willard Kehoe operated several businesses over the years as well, but he is best remembered for his activities with Band Canyon and Delta Promotions. By 1966, he had an office for Delta Promotions in the Shearer Building in downtown Bay City. He had also established his own Deltron record label that had released several singles by The Jayhawkers, and band fronted by Jay Walker, a popular DJ on Saginaw radio station WKNX.
The Jayhawkers had some regional success with “Come On Children” and “Dawn Of Instruction,” an anti-war and anti-draft single that borrowed heavily from Barry McGuire’s #1 protest hit, “Eve Of Destruction.” The Jayhawkers’ record was actually a response to “The Dawn Of Correction” by The Spokesmen. The Spokesmen’s song was a conservative counterpoint to McGuire’s hit that stressed the need for both a nuclear arsenal and the conscription of young men to keep us free from Communist domination. “The Dawn Of Correction” reached # 36 on the Hot 100 in late 1965.
Kehoe also managed The Shepherds, a folk rock group that evolved out of The Del Raes, a popular Bay City band that had won the first battle of the bands at Roll-Air in 1964. Kehoe negotiated a recording contract for the Shepherds with Harry Balk’s Impact label in Detroit, and the band recorded four songs at their session in 1966.
Unfortunately, the band’s folk rock version of “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” was put on the shelf for nearly a year because Impact was putting all of its promotional efforts into the Shades Of Blue, a blue-eyed soul group from Detroit that had a big hit with “Oh How Happy.” When the single was finally released in 1967, the band’s name was misspelled as ‘Sheppards’ and the popularity of the folk rock sound had already waned. Discouraged by the lack of airplay and their experience with Impact, the band broke up soon after.
In 1967, Kehoe received a shot in the arm when formed a partnership with Jim Atherton at Delta Promotions. Atherton was a Flint native who had managed a band from Swartz Creek called The JazzMasters, featuring Don Brewer on drums. Atherton, who looked like he could have been a lineman for the Detroit Lions, was an imposing figure who was very effective at collecting the band’s wages, and he did not interfere with the music.
Atherton and the JazzMasters’ fortunes improved considerably when popular radio DJ Terry Knight joined forces with the young group as their lead singer. Knight immediately took control of the band, renaming them Terry Knight and The Pack and styling them as a Michigan version of the Rolling Stones.
Knight used his many contacts in radio to line up record deals for the band. After recording their debut single on Wingate Records, a Detroit R&B label, Knight and Atherton found a much more suitable home for the band at Lucky Eleven Records out of Flint. In late 1965, Terry Knight and The Pack recorded Knight’s composition of “How Much More,” which sounded very much like the Rolling Stones’ current hit “Get Off My Cloud,” and the band got a prime gig opening for the Stones in Detroit.
Mark Farner, who was friends with Jim Atherton, was invited to join the band after bassist Herm Jackson received his draft notice. Farner had played in a few local bands as a guitarist, but he mastered the bass in time to play in his first big gig with Terry Knight and The Pack at the Flint I.M.A. Auditorium opening for The Yardbirds.
“You’re A Better Man Than I” was one of the songs performed by the Yardbirds, and Knight thought the song would make an ideal single for his band. Terry Knight and The Pack recorded a cover version with the shortened title of “Better Man Than I”, and it became a big regional hit in the spring of 1966, hitting # 1 on WTRX in Flint and # 125 on Billboard’s Bubbling Under Chart.
Through his numerous record business connections, Knight received an advanced pressing of “Lady Jane,” a new Rolling Stones’ song, and he quickly had the band cover it. Having a new Jagger-Richards composition as a single was big news, and it garnered a good deal of publicity and airplay for Terry Knight and The Pack. This came to a screeching halt, however, when the Stones objected to the release and it had to be pulled off the market.
Riding the wave of publicity, Knight immediately brought the band back in the studio to record to record his folk rock protest song, “A Change On The Way.” It was another solid regional hit that also reached the Billboard charts, peaking at # 111 in the summer.
After Herm Jackson broke his leg and was given a medical deferment by the Army, he returned to the band as a roadie. Mark Farner apparently felt guilty about having Jackson’s spot in the band, and Jim Atherton arranged for him to join The Bossmen, another popular band that he managed that featured the songwriting, vocals, and lead guitar of Dick Wagner.
In the meantime, the self-titled “Terry Knight and The Pack” album was released, containing the band’s cover of the 1963 Ben E. King ballad “I (Who Have Nothing).” Released as a single in November 1966, “I (Who Have Nothing)” would prove to be Terry Knight and The Pack’s biggest hit, peaking at # 46 on the Hot 100 in early 1967. The album also charted, reaching # 127 on Billboards’ Top 200.
Mark Farner’s stay was the Bossmen only lasted six months. He played rhythm guitar and sang backing vocals on “Baby Boy,” the band’s biggest regional hit when it was released on the Lucky Eleven label in late 1966. After he Bossmen broke up in early 1967, Farner was invited back into the Pack to replace guitarist Curt Johnson who had been fired from the band by Terry Knight.
The final charting single for Terry Knight and The Pack was “Love, Love, Love, Love, Love” which reached # 117 on Billboard’s Bubbling Under chart in May of 1967. Terry Knight left the group to go solo shortly after the release of the band’s second album, “Reflections.” Knight went on to form the short-lived Terry Knight Review, featuring an 11-piece orchestra and two female go-go dancers, but his solo career didn’t take off.
After Knight’s departure, the remaining band was renamed The Fabulous Pack. Curt Johnson was hired back and Mark Farner became the lead singer. The new edition of the band recorded a cover of Bob and Earl’s “Harlem Shuffle” in Nashville in the spring of 1967 for its first single. It was a hit in Michigan, reaching # 1 on Flint’s WTAC in June, but it failed to chart nationally.
Dick Wagner had written a song called “Wide Trackin’” for an advertising campaign for the Pontiac Division of General Motors that touted the virtues of the new “wide tracking” Pontiac. Otis Ellis, owner of Lucky Eleven Records, loved the song and had the Fabulous Pack record it for their next single. Graced with a picture sleeve, the single was given out at Pontiac dealerships. It received a lot of air play in Michigan, but the single again failed to do any business outside the Midwest.
Shortly thereafter, keyboardist Bobby Caldwell was drafted. His spot in the band was taken by Craig Frost, a friend of Mark Farner. Hoping to get a major label deal, the group began working with John Rhys who had helped SRC get a contract with Capitol Records and also produced their first album. Rhys got the band a deal for a single in the spring of 1968. Recording as ‘The Pack’, they covered the Jimi Hendrix Experience song “Fire.” Released under the title “Next To Your Fire,” the single was, once more, a regional hit that failed to chart nationally.
During this time, American males aged 18 through 25 were required to register with the Selective Service System. From 1966 through 1968, an average of 300,000 young men were drafted into the service each year as the war in Vietnam escalated. Many young bands in Michigan and all over the country were disrupted or disbanded as a result of military conscription.
According to Kristopher Engelhardt’s biography of Mark Farner (From Grand Funk To Grace), Farner suffered from colitis and water on both knees. He had sent letters from his doctors to the Draft Board but was still required to take his Army physical. To help make sure that he was rejected, Jim Atherton provided him with a potion to take. Made from the buttons of the peyote cactus that have psychoactive properties, the effects could last from 10 to 12 hours. Farner was reportedly nauseous and disoriented during his draft physical, and he required great deal of assistance from the medical staff. Four weeks later, he received his draft card with a 4-F classification which gave him a complete exemption for medical reasons from having to serve in the Armed Forces.
After Jim Atherton and Willard Kehoe joined forces, Delta Promotions moved its offices into a building at 812 N. Euclid that had been the former tire warehouse for Harold Alexander Inc. Always on the lookout for new talent, Atherton signed a power trio called Dick Rabbit from Baldwin, Michigan. Inspired by the Beatles, brothers Gordon, Phil, and Dick Thayer formed a band, and they recorded their first single at the Great Lakes Recording Studio in Sparta with Dave Kalmbach. Dick Rabbit played regularly in their hometown as well as in Custer, Muskegon, and Manistee, but the brothers moved to Bay City after they heard that there were lots of gigs for bands there
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Atherton and Kehoe invited Dick Rabbit to stay in the top floor of the huge warehouse that Gordon Thayer described as “dirty and greasy.” They liked it because they could set their equipment up and play music into the wee hours of the morning without bothering anyone. They also got to know Mark Farner and Don Brewer after opening for the Pack at several gigs after Craig Frost had joined the band.
The Pack broke up in 1969, however, following a series of club gigs in the Boston area in February during an especially nasty period of ice and snow storms. Delta Promotions had convinced the band to play a series of “free” gigs in an attempt to break into the Boston market. It turned out to be a miserable experience, and the band returned to Michigan disillusioned, a feeling that was only made worse when they discovered that Delta Promotions was being paid for their performances while they were scraping by in unheated summer cabins with frozen pipes and meager food supplies.
Brewer and Farner had been discussing the idea of forming a new power trio along the lines of Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. They needed a bass player, however, and they found one when they heard Mel Schacher playing with a new version of ? and The Mysterians at the Delta rehearsal space. Schacher, who was also from Flint and knew Brewer and Farner, quickly agreed when they proposed forming a new band.
While the Pack was out East, Jim Atherton had rented a two-story house on Jenny Street, located on Bay City’s West Side. Atherton, the Thayer brothers, and several Delta employees moved into the house. Mark Farner also stayed at the house for a short time. Farner moved not long after, however, because it had quickly become a party house for the longhaired musicians, roadies, and their friends. With lots of marijuana smoking and loud music at the house, Farner was paranoid of being busted.
His fears were realized shortly thereafter when the house was raided in the early morning hours of February 18, 1969, by the Michigan State Police. The bust was a frontpage story in the Bay City Times with the headline, ‘Pot’ Raid Bags Eight in West Side Dwelling. The arrested included Atherton, the three members of Dick Rabbit, and four other young men who were living in the house.
All except Atherton, who had posted bail, appeared in a photograph on the front page of the newspaper. The story also included a photo of three of the police officers with some of the marijuana and other evidence seized in the raid. According to Gordon Thayer, the marijuana had been brought to the house by Jim Atherton.
Thayer said in an interview that they were having a party, and Mel Schacher sold two nickel bags of pot to some girls from Midland who were later pulled over by the police. Not knowing the exact address, the girls told the police that they obtained the drugs from the house on the corner of Jenny and N. Henry Street.
Everyone involved in the bust was sweating a drug conviction, but they were saved by a police error. In their haste to bust the house, the police typed up the search warrant and raided the house the corner only to discover that Atherton’s rented house was the second house from the corner. Gordon Thayer recalled that the arresting officers changed the address on the original warrant and then made the bust. When Dick Rabbit’s attorney discovered what the police had done, he challenged the legality of the arrest. The judge agreed and declared the warrant illegal. As a result, none of the evidence acquired in the raid could be used, and the case was thrown out.
Although its musicians and employees had escaped prosecution, Delta Promotions was hurt by the negative publicity. Jim Atherton parted ways with the company as a result of the bust, and he moved to Boston where he began working as a manufacturing representative for Sunn Amplifiers. Willard Kehoe closed the Delta office on N. Euclid, located just down the road from the Michigan State Police post, and found a new space for Delta Promotions at the former home of a truck leasing and bulk transport company at 352 S. Tuscola Road on the other side of Bay City.
In the meantime, Farner, Brewer, and Schacher were rehearsing in Flint. Not interested in going back to Delta Promotions, Don Brewer convinced the others that Terry Knight, with his many contacts, could help take the band to the next level. Knight liked what heard after watching a rehearsal, but he would only agree to work with them if he had total control. When given, he named the trio Grand Funk Railroad, a moniker that Knight felt conveyed power and forward motion. It was also a play on the Grand Trunk Western Railroad, a rail line that ran through Michigan.
The newly christened Grand Funk Railroad then recorded two demos in Cleveland, and Knight used them get a deal with Capitol Records for a single to be followed up with an album. The band signed a contract with Terry Knight to both produce and manage the band as well as handle their music publishing. It turned out to be a much better arrangement for Knight than it was for the members of Grand Funk Railroad.
The band played a few gigs before getting their big break on July 4, 1969, at the two-day Atlanta International Pop Festival. An estimated crowd of 180,000 had gathered to see acts like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Led Zeppelin, Chuck Berry, and Big Brother and the Holding Company.
Knight arranged for Grand Funk Railroad to open the festival, and the band’s performance impressed everyone in the crowd including representatives from Capitol Records. A few weeks later, Capitol released the band’s first single, “Time Machine,” and it eventually reached # 48 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
Grand Funk Railroad’s debut album, “On Time”, was released on August 25th, just days before their next important appearance at the Texas International Pop Festival near Dallas. The album, which contained all original songs composed by Mark Farner, reached # 27 on the Billboard 200.
Grand Funk Railroad opened all three days of the Texas festival which drew an estimated crowd of over 120,000 people. Featuring a bevy of big names including Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, B. B. King, Santana, Sly & The Family Stone, and Johnny Winter, the festival was filmed for a possible theatrical release. Although the movie idea was scrapped, some performance footage was shot including Grand Funk’s opening number, “Are You Ready.”
The band’s successful appearances landed them a plum gig as the opening act for Led Zeppelin’s tour of the U.S. in the fall of 1969. An ugly incident at Olympia Stadium in Detroit on October 18, however, led to Grand Funk Railroad being kicked off the tour.
After they received a thunderous ovation from the crowd at Olympia, Led Zeppelin’s manager, Peter Grant, pulled the plug on Grand Funk Railroad in the middle of their song “Heartbreaker.” Grant was upset because he thought that Grand Funk Railroad was trying to upstage Led Zeppelin. This resulted in a long delay in the show as confusion reigned both on stage and off. A mini-riot also occurred after Terry Knight announced to the crowd that Led Zeppelin was afraid to follow Grand Funk Railroad. Following the incident, Grand Funk was removed from the tour.
The incident may have actually helped Grand Funk Railroad. Riding the wave of positive publicity, Knight quickly brought the band back into the studio to record their second album, titled simply “Grand Funk”. Containing all original songs except for a cover of The Animals’ “Inside Looking Out,” it was released on December 29th, just four months after their debut. It also had the distinction of being the last album released by a Michigan artist in the 1960s.
The “Grand Funk” album peaked at # 11 on the Billboard Top 200 early in 1970, and its success as well as the band’s powerful performances would propel Grand Funk Railroad into becoming one of the most popular and successful American bands of the new decade.
