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"We used to rehearse at a place called The Musicians Union Hall in Flint, Michigan," said Brewer. Grand Funk Railroad songwriter Mark Farner says the words to this song came to him in the middle of the night, after he prayed for musical inspiration. Usually he wrote the song, then the lyrics…but since this is one of his biggest hits, perhaps he should have been doing it the other way around all along. The lead singer/lyricist of The Beach Boys talks about coming up with the words for "Good Vibrations," "Fun, Fun, Fun," "Kokomo" and other classic songs.
Not actually feeling the hands of a stranger, tightening around my throat. It is the crew taking over his ship, not even knowing where they are going either. In his sickness he sees himself getting closer to his home as he is dying. Much like "Hey Jude" by The Beatles, this song stretches out with a very long outro where an orchestra plays and Farner sings the line, "I'm getting closer to my home" over and over. Grand Funk drummer Don Brewer told Songfacts how that came about.
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I am a professional musician today in part because of his influence. But these guys had a rawness that defines what rock should be, like Chuck Berry young,not too polished and dangerously fun. Decades later, "I'm Your Captain" remains a staple of many classic rock radio stations.
Authors have seen the song as an "epic of paranoia and disease" and as a tale of a man who had lost control of his life in a fashion strong enough to invoke childhood nightmares. It has been used as the subtitle for a chapter of a novel dealing with war and addictions. Comparisons have been made to Walt Whitman's poem "O Captain! My Captain!" in its use of the rank to mean Abraham Lincoln. Unusually for him, Farner wrote the lyric of the song first, with the words coming to him in the middle of the night after saying prayers for inspiration to write something meaningful.
Grand Funk Railroad Closer To Home I'm Your Captain Get It Together T Shirt
The chord changes to "I'm Your Captain" came to him the following morning between sips of coffee, and the next day he took it to the band. They immediately liked it and began jamming on it and working out their parts at a local union hall in their hometown of Flint, Michigan where they usually did their rehearsals. The music has a bass break and then drops down to half time before resuming at its normal tempo. The captain's pleas continue, while the unhappy crew members are approaching the point of murder. One of the first successful female singer-songwriters, Janis had her first hit in 1967 at age 15. "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" was written by Nick Lowe in 1974.
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He is having a bit of a bumpy ride in his mind and is trying to regain control of his senses, (I'm your captain)and he is afraid of losing his mind he seeks help from God and slowly regains control (I'm getting closer to my home). I think this is at least a plausible interpretation to the meaning of this song. This realization makes him sick and he pleads to heaven for help. In 1973, Grand Funk exploded with their #1 hit "We're An American Band" and became one of the top live acts in the US.
It's one of those extremely rare awesome songs that tell a bitchin' story any way you slice it. When this song was released in 1970, the Vietnam War was still going on but there seemed to be no path to victory for the American soldiers fighting there. "If you're in a foxhole in Vietnam, you're pinned down by so much fire coming in, you want to be Closer To Home," Mark Farner told Songfacts. "That song 'Closer To Home' just really registered with our Vietnam brothers and sisters." I got up and I wrote it, and as I'm writing it, I'm between the state of subconscious and conscious. I've got one foot in dreamland and my pen is writing these words down.
There are plenty of studies showing social isolation in humans can lead to panic, fear, extreme paranoia, depression, and suicide. In 2002 Closer to Home was remastered on compact disc with bonus tracks and also released in a limited-edition box set Trunk of Funk that contained the band's first four albums. The "trunk" has slots for twelve CDs to house the future release of the remaining eight albums that were released by Capitol.
It received standing ovations when Farner played it as part of the third edition of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 1995, and a similar reaction greeted it during the 1996 reunion tour of Grand Funk Railroad. When the Grand Funk variant without Farner tours, the singing on the song is taken by lead vocalist Max Carl. The song conveys the pleas of a captain on a troubled sea voyage and facing a mutiny from his crew. Its use of an orchestra during the long repeated refrains of the closing movement served to differentiate it from much of Grand Funk's work. Several interpretations of the song have been given; most revolve around the Vietnam War, and "I'm Your Captain" is popular among veterans of that conflict. As my friends listened to pop radio, I was banginging away lol...
He suggested they extend the ending so that his orchestral score would have space to develop in, so the band extended the jam on it. Producer Terry Knight brought in the Cleveland Orchestra to record it. The band members never heard the full version until Knight played it for them back in Flint. Farner nearly cried when he heard it, and Brewer has said of their reactions, "We were just like, 'Wow!'" and "Oh my God, it was magnificent." The song is composed in the compound binary form that was used for several well-known songs in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The first movement opens with an electric guitar riff from Farner, which aspiring young guitarists of the time learned to imitate.
Due to the last half of the song saying "I'm Getting Closer to My Home", people assumed that the song was "Closer to Home" and mistakedly called it by the albulm name, hence the confusion on the title. Some records (i.e. various song albulms)still list the song incorrectly due to the confusion. I do not know what Mark's original intentions were for the song but like a lot of great songs the words come out easily and the song gets written in a short period of time. I like Kitty from California's comment about this being a spiritual song. I started praying just now and this song started to play in my mind.
This soon changes into a strummed acoustic guitar paired with a distinctive lead bass line from Mel Schacher, set against a steady drumbeat from Don Brewer accompanied with occasional wah wah guitar flourishes. Meghan Trainor and her producer Kevin Kadish originally wrote "All About That Bass" for another artist to record. However, after Epic Records boss LA Reid heard Meghan play a demo of the song on a ukulele, he signed the young songwriter to his label and told her she should sing it. My dad told me one of the band members had a heroin addiction and this song was a metaphor relating to that. The lyric "are you really scheming, To take my ship away from me" is about the other band members trying to get him to quit. The lyric "Everybody, listen to me, And return me, my ship" sounds like a demand to leave him alone with his addiction.
Again the bass line carries the music, with now a flute line accompanying it. Soon the strings from the orchestra, make their entrance, featuring violins, violas, cellos, and basses. The second movement starts at a fairly slow tempo, then launches into a relatively upbeat guitar break before the captain resumes singing. The movement's single lyric repeats over and over as a mantra.
I saw GFR last week with my teenage son, they were the first band I ever saw in concert way back in the early 70's. Even though there is a definite riff between Mark and the remaining two members I must say the current line up is phenominal. When Max Carl touched his chest during this song I thought "what would Mark say"? Then I remembered how lead singer-sonwriters like Mark, John Fogerty, Steve Perry etc push the limits of their greatness too much. Don and Mel are out there - smiling, playing perfectly, having a good time and kicking a$$ for audiences young and old, they earned that right and keep GRF alive.
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