Grand Funk Railroad - We're An American Band Lyrics

Now this is a cowbell song!

What was that red guitar? Oh and name all the bikes. Fun stuff.

More cowbell!!

this is a wild rock n roll band.

Can anybody please post the words for this entire song! Thank you love it !!!

I am so very lucky that the owner of our local music store in San Antonio Texas called Momar Music brought Mark Farner to the Grand Opening this past Saturday, February 8, 2020 to take pictures and autograph from 1pm till 5pm and when I took my picture with him I told him that I have seen him in concert back in the 70's and 80's at least 10 times and I was also asked by the owner of the store to join some of the top staff to have dinner with Mark Farner and his wife and I was sitting next to his wire and Mark Farner and I was so excited to be able to enjoy their company and it was a fantastic experience to be with Rock Royalty and a Legend and Icon and a super nice guy

I had this song on 45's it was clear yellow if I remember right , I loved that 45 record.  great , great song.  I didn't see the MTV video much. that 45 was something that my ears loved.

looks like the hell of a time

that drum intro is right up there with neal peart tom sawyer solo... its automatic you just gotta start air drumming wherever you are..

I wanna go fishing with mark bad.😬

Today's bands are a bunch of PC pussies compared to these guys. What happened to R&R?

Early 70's: this , Highway Star and Kick out the Jambs.

Rare earth

I tried riding my bike bare chested once... ended up gettin arrested

O did. My first concert. Wet Willie band opened . Grand Funk. Memorial Coliseum Portland Oregon. I was,16.

Sooo gooood! just a brilliant record..

I still love this band in 1/26/2020, they make me feel young again.

This song is and was a jolt of energy like no other from that time. Maybe "Baba 'O Riley" can compare for visceral impact. For hard rock, let's be honest, Britain was kicking our ass. I always felt that this song was GFR's answer. And boy did they deliver. A lot of you have commented about how 70's songs were real music, not like today. I can't say. Yeah, I was a young teenager then, yes I lived the same experences as you. But no, I never felt bulletproof. Our vision is tempered by nostalgia. Nobody is more sentimental than me, but the 70's had some rough edges. Lots of violence, lots of divorces, but lots of freedom too for the kids of the seventies. In my humble opinion there were at least 500 great songs from that time. Lot's of different styles in rock n roll, and I loved them all. With the onus of Vietnam and Watergate casting such a dark shadow on the culture I always felt the we, the kids, were the power and the push that made Rock music's third generation happen. There'd have been no Grand Funk Railroad or Led Zepelin without us. So we should be proud of our good taste.

Remember, ladies and gentlemen......3 guys put out this amazing, classic rock & roll. Anything like them today?...didn't think so.

Great song and clip. I get the feeling the part with the guy on the horse could have easily er.....escalated.

Spandau Ballet will be inducted into the R & R "Hall of Fame" before GFR...:>(...

I'm 46 years old!!! And I still BLAST THIS for my kids!!!! Someones gotta remind these young ones what REAL music is!!!! Fuck u all if u disagree!!!!?🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕

Wait, wait, wait. What the heck is going on???? The drummer is singing??? Mind blown. Much respect for this band. Always loved their music.

Vine a buscar mierda y encontré cancer

I so recall playing this in my 69 G.T.O
I few years after serving in the Army 👍🇺🇸🗽

This guys got me into playing music in early 70's. Everything was rebellious back then, parents did not like the same music- it used to shit them - good old daze.............

Please put on a shirt wannabe Conan! amjmetaltomotown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzlky9Klu4I


So glad Rob Zombie covered this. Absolutely loving this song and the original, as in most cases is even better than the cover.

I had and rode one of those suzuki bikes same color green and white

Hilarious to see whites dress up in afro's as they mock blacks with natrual hair you people make me sick and the song is trash

It's so sad flint has been destroyed as bad as it has been wish I could of lived there back when it was booming

Remember when life kicked ass? This song should help you.

See I was under the impression they were Canukian?

FLINT DUDES

G.F.R. was a band very superior and complete of Deep purple or Black Sabbath

何回聞いても良い曲だな～

American band largest Afro ever seen in Africa.

Buenos un grupo

One of the best bands ever I grew up listening to these guys Rock and Roll Hall of Fame sucks

mark farner looks like Fabio on a horse with his hair blowing in the wind

the bassist needs to eat

Mel Schacher is a very underrated bassist.

one of the first songs I played on in my brother's band... used the electric accordion no less... graduated to keyboards and later piano and started writing jazz for the high school stage band... then met a guy who later became a big name producer in LA, but we were just teenagers at the time... wrote pop music together that Atlantic Records compared to the Beatles... moved out west and followed the path less traveled... met a guru who answered all the questions I had, a perfect Mahatma... seek and ye shall find... life in a nutshell

Microphone hair dooo

i would not wanna be a barber in the 70s mine starved

Maybe they cut girl's hair???

drums kick some ass in this song if you listen

It's a hundred percent travesty that this band is NOT in the hall!!!!! Ridiculous.

This encapsulates the essence of being young in the '70's...with an endless future and sense of invincibility...being bulletproof...

Man the 70s looked pretty damn awesome.

@Alex C They were Alex. Id never trade them for any other era.

I had a real good time...

Just wish things would slow down some.

dennis fravel Right on Damn straight !

Great song and Band.

I only like Armenian bands.

System of a down

One of the greatest American songs of all time!

This ladies and gentlemen is rock and roll!

@Mr. Baseball In my senior year of high school, 1971-1972, there were several songs that stood out. One was "American Pie" and it has to be one of the most profound I can remember hearing!

It isn't just rock and roll. It's like DNA of the rock and roll sound.

Within it's finest form. USA, USA, USA! AMJMETALTOMOTOWN

HELL YEAH!!!!

@carol holiday You are GREAT! The fellow band members( of the lead singer of Kansas) were "less than thrilled" about
their "shirtless" frontman as well.
amjmetaltomotown

This song needs MORE COWBELL!

Good one

Still kickin´arses at 2019! \m/

This song just f*@king rocks. Turn it up loud and enjoy it on your home stereo, not your smartphone...lol. Sounds fresh and new even after 40 yrs or so.

Anyone know where GFR originated from?

Flint, MI

I wish they came to our house to party down.. never happened... still waiting..

Great tune!

Grand Funk Railroad is just too fucking Goddamn good for the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. They just ARE! And if they should be taken in by those idiots, it'll be a sad day for me. I'M AGAINST THE ROCK 'N' ROLL HALL OF FAME EVER TOUCHING GRAND FUNK RAILROAD!! Fuck em! They are No Authority on SOUL. They're Punks.

They once sang:  ''If you want your freedom son, Don't want your country to be overrun. You got to keep America number one...son, don't let 'em take your gun. They're taking your Bill of Rights away from you'.   I wonder how they vote, this ''American band'' today?

Billy Sou said that they have the credentials - and he's exactly right! But, as he said, the critics didn't like them. As if many critics originally liked the Rolling Stones. The Stones are like, the Best Garage Band in the World. I kind of put GFR in that same category. They had a "Genuineness, a Grittiness" to their Blue Eye'd Soul - to me, anyway. Not too polished, yet polished "Enough" - they almost always make me want to jump out of my seat cuz they had a youthful energy, an excitement and "Punch" to their performances, both in and out of the studio. I recently saw a vid here on youtube (I Love Youtube) showing them live in their early days. The set up with the PA System, micing, guitars, drums, amps - was all very late 60s "Primitive" - like when I saw Zeppelin in 1969. It's rough - and awesome! In the Vid they are doing "Inside Lookin' Out" - It's raw and great! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxcOxvEsE_Y

Even if you were alive during this era of bands, most of us probably never saw these “promo films.” Life with YouTube/INTERNET really is better!

Prior to the late-1970s, when music videos were shown on the USA Network on their "Night Flight" weekend overnight program blocks, and on HBO's "Video Jukebox" segments in between movies, concerts, and documentaries, music promo films were made by record labels for two purposes: 1.  to serve as a foundation for making TV commercials to promote the artist(s)album, and 2. to show the entire promotional film in TV markets overseas, where the artist(s) either had surprise chart success, or to promote their album in nations where the artist(s) were not going to appear on tour.  For example, this song may have become a hit in the UK, so the promotional film clip was aired  on the BBC's "Top Of The Pops" TV program.

I bought the gold 45. Wish I still had it. It was translucent. Probably paid 85 cents for it. Love this song. I talked my brother-in-law in to adding it to his bands play list. It goes over real good at the bars he plays at.

Que saudades 😪😪😪😭😭😭

Throw down against those damn Canuck's The Guess Who that did American Woman (stay away from me.)

::::rolleyes:::

An awesome video, before video ever existed. We are lucky that they made these because there wasn't really an application for them at the time, just foresight and the investment that they made for the future.

Promotional film clips were being made as far back as the 1960s.  The Beatles started making them, so that they would not have to appear on TV variety shows worldwide to promote their singles and albums.  The Supremes made a promotional film clip for their song, "You Keep Me Hanging On", because  the group felt that the song was not appropriate for performing on television, and did not want to offend segments of their fan space, and TV corporate sponsors.  Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell made a promotional music film  for ""Ain't No Mountain High Enough", most likely to be aired in European TV markets.   These artists and music labels were very forward-thinking, for saving the promotional film clips for future generations to enjoy here in the 21st Century.

Of course they were promotional films made, even before the sixties and they did serve a purpose however, relatively few ever saw them when compared to the amount of audio recordings that were sold and listened to at the time. Generally you would see them before movies in the movie theaters or on variety shows occasionally etc... There was, of course not a dedicated broadcast station, nor was there an internet for broadcasting these once unusual film clips. I think that's the point.

Toxic masculinity, and patriotic ! Someone is offended ! .lol. 🇺🇸💪🇺🇸

...no... no one is offended... it's just a good rock and roll song...the end.

1 2 3 the rst is history....

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a joke. I have never been, and will never go there

Green Day gets in and not Grand Funk Railroad. It's a joke.

1K thumbs down = 1K morons...

Need more cowbell damit

Estan bien pasados de chingones....siempre ,siempre, grand funk ,ha sido la supremacia 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵🎸🥁🎺🎤🎼🎵🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶

GRAND FUNK É DA HORA pena q acabou,Tocava mt nas domingueiras do Caiçara clube; em SANTOS SP 🤘🇧🇷

https://youtu.be/Xc1N5gIelqs

Back when rock n roll was made by hairy, sweaty, manly men.

YEAH many back then were FTM too, you'd be shocked... I was knowing i lusted for chicks in the 70's-80's Uncle Ted I won't even begin the rest! all 95% save Mercury, Hatchet, Purple, Kansas good old southern boys save the allwoman sissies. Even skynyrd looks suspect, steve tyler, idol, hagar iffy, kiss, ozzy, acdc, styx, hagar, rodgers van halen, cobain, colins, gabriel, dead, ELP, REM, REO, cream, rex, rush, who, zep, think bolan, def elton, idol, sweet, bono, rose, eagles, journey, nightranger, styx, scorpions, zz top all throwing TV gang signs I was aghast at first. where you see them together bird of a father... see some transvetigations learn anatomy you'll see right away. the women were men and vice versa a few had hips some didn't. sickos...why they called them pretty 'GIRLS'. No larynx, tiny apple, slope narrow shoulders, hips you know.

Wow, never knew Colin Kaepernick was the drummer.... guess it's true you learn something new everyday.

this is so kiss or kiss is so this

Anybody else listen to this in 1973

love these stupid comments...

yeah but the drummer should have never been in the video, he looked like shit

Nope I wouldn’t be born for another 18 years

jose andrade filho I was 15 years old in 1973 and I thought GFRR was off the chain. Still love all their music. This video is such a joy to watch. Such a great time they were having (and that we all were having). Love the school pics of the guys at the end of the video.

Benedict Zwartzneger How does the drummer look like shit? He looks like a lot of guys did back then with the fro, the sideburns and those clothes. Reminds me of my junior high days.

kick ass...

don brewer lives in my home town. jupiter fla

First 45 I bought with my lawn mowing money.Record was actually a see through gold record

So was the album. Pretty much wore it out. In fact the album before it, E. Pluribus Funk (silver coin cover) was the first record I bought with my own $.

Glad to see Kaepernick found work.

I have a fever and the only prescription is more cow bell.

Wow live am all in!!!

Up all night with Freddie King, I got to tell ya poker’s his thing. Grand Funk Railroad opened for Freddie King in the early 1970’s. Freddie King made it mandatory that the members of his band played poker with him after a show. Members of Grand Funk sat in on some of the poker games. Lots of people don’t know the words to that part of the song. Now you know. Freddie King passed away in 1974, if I am not mistaken.

I love this song this group ! I was 17 when it came out !

El mejor rock de todos los tiempos Grand Funk railroad .... desde Spain. Andalucía. Huelva. La Rábida. Colón trip.

Farmer looks like amythical warrior riding that hotse

this has got to be the coolest music video ever made.... LoL.

There are a lot of bands that owe there success to these guys

... their* success ...

Phil Collins is good BUT the cowbell has him beat baby!😜😜✌✌

Them dudes be gettin' it on!!

Pure Michigan like me

Can only be played LOUD!!!!

This was one of my favorite bands as a young teen however they lost their way and fell into the pop trap of commercialism... SAD!

Just listen to their earlier albums and perhaps you’ll agree.

I'm gonna admit it folks, I had this album of 8-track, yes 8-track.

I still have my 8-tracks! Nothing to play them on but...can't get rid of them, too many memories. Black Sabbath, GFR, Beach Boys, Chicago, James Gang, Grass Roots, etc. Loved em all!

@Shelter I'll buy em all ...

QUAD BABY!

If you grew up in the seventies it was a requirement you owned this on 8-track.

William Lesh It was a law!