8. Grand Funk Railroad – Inside Looking Out

During my senior year in high school a couple of friends asked me if I wanted to form a band for the upcoming foundation day. I’ve had a little experience playing in a band, so I accepted the offer. I told them, however,  that I had one problem – I didn’t own an electric guitar. Terence, who was to be the keyboard player, assured me that it was alright and that he would ask his guitarist friend to loan me his axe.

Next thing I knew, Terence was handing me a well-worn white Philippine-made Fender Strat. He told me it was from a guy who was with the local born-again Christian Church.

I later became friends with the guitarist. I wanted to know him because of his generosity. How could a someone entrust his main musical weapon to a stranger?  I was also intrigued if he was really a speaking-in-tongues-type like what Terence painted him to be.

The mystery was shattered when I returned his guitar to his place. We went straight to his bedroom/studio and I saw LPs of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Savoy Brown on the floor. He was playing an extended blues jam by Johnny Winter on his dilapidated turntable. Some loose pages of music magazine were also strewn about the floor.

When he saw me ogling his record collection, he told me I could go check them out.  I was overwhelmed since I had more fingers that LP records. There was ELO’s Discovery, several albums of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and a couple of Pinoy Rock legends Juan de la Cruz’s LPs too.

What got my attention was this album by Grand Funk Railroad (Survival). I’ve heard Grand Funk before. Their song We’re an American Band was a overplayed in recklessly driven passenger jeepneys. When the guitarist saw me insert my hand inside the empty LP, he scratched his head and told me that he lost the LP a long time ago. He added that if I wanted to listen to GFR, I could just borrow the Grand Funk Live Album instead. What really struck me was that he offered it to me even without me asking for it.

He put the LP on before we left, after teaching me the main riff for Inside Looking Out. After that short guitar lesson, I felt that  GFR was better bluesier and raw. The band also made me realize that the concept of a power trio is possible and highly capable of kicking ass.

Later on, I would be best friends with this guitarist. I’d learn that despite his spirituality, he didn’t believe in God. At least not in the Judeo-Christian concept of Deity. (It was GFR’s guitarist and singer who would become a born-again Christian).

My friend would play one of the meanest guitar solos in one of my future band’s rare studio recording. Eventually, this best friend would be the best man at my wedding.

Here’s a 1969 performance of Inside Looking Out by Grand Funk Railroad and lyrics:

I’m sitting here lonely like a broken man.
I serve my time doin the best I can.
Walls and bars they surround me.
But, I don’t want no sympathy.

No baby, no baby,
All I need is some tender lovin.
To keep me sane in this burning oven.
And, when my time is up, you’ll be my reefer.

Life gets worse on gods green earth.
Be my reefer, got to keep smokin that thing.
No, no, no, no, no, no.

Ice cold water is runnin through my veins.
They try and drag me back to work again.
Pain and blisters on my mind and hands.
I work all day making up NICKEL (burlap) bags.

The oats they’re feeding me are driving me wild.
I feel unhappy like a new born child.
Now, when my time is up, you wait and see.
These walls and bars wont keep that stuff from me.

No, no, baby,
Wont keep that stuff from me.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.