What is the worst band to come out of Detroit, MIch., Grand Funk or Rare Earth?

Question

Both groups made probably the worst "covers" of Motown hits
humanly possible. One must hear Rare Earth's "Get Ready"
to realize just how awful white suburbanites sound trying to
pass as black! The Rolling Stones' Motown covers, "Going to a go go" a few Temptations covers, were just passable. Grand Funk
and Rare Earth's attempts were in the catagory of Parody, at
best.
SO, my question, is. which Detroit band, out of these two, was the worst? There is no question that these two bands were the worst
two, but which of the two wa the worst is open to question.
Many great bands camse out of Detroit.
ALice Cooper, Ted Nugent and the AMboy Dukes, Bob Segar,
MC5, Mitch Rider and the Detroit Wheels....even the White Stripes....Rare Earth and Grand Funk weren't one of them.....
so, which of the two was the worst?
and.......can you think of any Detroit bands worse than those two?
good luck trying!

Rare Earth was actually signed by Motown, in what has to lead to the question, "What was Barry Gordy smoking that week, and can I have a hit?".

Have I heard "I just want to celebrate"?
UMMMMM, I'm in my 40's, and it was a top ten hit, so yeah, but if you are going on the basis of top ten, you can include "seasons
in the sun", "I think I love you", and " Locomotion-another awful grand-funk
soul cover, BTW), as well.
Actually, Rare Earth and GFR sounded
remarkably alike, especially the vocals.
They were panned in the day by almost
every music critic on earth, including Rolling Stone and CIrcus mag.
Yeah, they did sell lots of records, but so
did Barry Manilow and Donna Summer,
or the partridge family and the brady bunch, for that matter.
Grand Funk sucked................bad........
really.....really...bad, and had what seemed like 3 minute endings to the songs......
the cumulative effect of Grand Funk was
like getting hit repeatedly in the head with
a rubber mallet.
Cheech and Chong did a spot on imitation
of Mark Farner's masturbatory guitar solos
on many of their "songs", inc. Earache my Eye", among others!

Buddy, we aren' t talking textbook precision
when speaking of "Detroit" bands....lots
of "Name you city" bands came out of the hinterlands of the city......actually, prob no white bands technically came out of Detroit
proper, cept'mitch rider, who came from a gadawful ghetto neighborhood in 'troit., cause the city has been almost solid black
since the 60's........I will admit that Flint
might be a mite out of the Detroit area(kinda like Cheap Trick's Rockford, Il, though people treat them as a chicago band as well)...I would say that Ann Arbor
is plenty close enough to qualify, and many bands were just playing the university
club circuit at UNiversity of Michigan", and were not REALLY from Ann Arbor..
(same as the B-52's and REM saying they were from Athen's georgia.)

Hope that clarifies things!

In spite of all that (and if there is one thing that would make you yearn to like Grand Funk it is that), the fact remains that their first four albums were almost uniformly awful. It was not just that they were simplistic or unmelodic the sound was plain muddy, and with a few notable exceptions like "I'm Your Captain" it was a real challenge to remember most of the songs even after the third or fourth hearing.

Believe it or not, not only are rare Earth still around, but they will play for your wedding for six thousand bucks!
Personally, I always thought they sounded like the wedding bands that were playing
the circuit in the 70's. All faux soul, with the
requisite bad horn section. Most of the wedding bands I saw in the 70s covered
"Get Ready", "I just want to celebrate"
and "Pround Mary".

here's a link if you want Rare Eath to play at your wedding and/or retirement party
(don't forget the old fans are getting up there now! Isn't it sad when they pan the audience for these old bands on PBS specials, and everyone looks ugly, fat, and
uniformly ancient? Thank God I'm at the tail-end of the baby boom!) LOL!

https://www.rareearth.com/

I have to laugh at all the "Hey man, Grand
Funk was from Flint" comments!
Anyone outside of the state would too, as we all pretty much associate the jobless,
apocalyptic, Roger and Me cesspool that is "Flint" very much with Detroit!

Sounds like something Cheech and Chong
would say!
"Hey man! Grand FUUUNK was from Flint,
man!"

Answer 1

Grand Funk was from Flint for starters and they sold a lot of records in their day....I disagree with you about Grand Funk! I can tell you that every Ted Nugent album or concert I heard or seen was the same crap repeated over & over!!!

Answer 2

I feel Grand Funk had been continually extra of a well occasions band than a depressed band, even if their songs had been unhappy. Now in case you stated The Groundhogs had been an early grunge band, that I would get in the back of. BQ: Got This Thing On The Move

Answer 3

Hell, I live here an I don't like Nugent at all. Out of your two though, I'd have to say Rare Earth. I can at least listen to Grand Funk if I have to.

Answer 4

Have you ever heard "I just want to celebrate" by Rare Earth ?? Or how about "Bad Time" by Grand Funk ??
Sorry, but you have no right to bash those bands - period*
They were right in the realm of what music was in the 70s ...
They did their thing - like them or not ....
You should open your eyes to more of their material before judging them *
:)

Answer 5

detroit must be a hell of a lot bigger than i thought. detroit is not the state of michigan. grand **** are from flint, 90 miles north of detroit. i don't even know who rare earth are. alice cooper is from ypsilanti, 25 miles west of detroit. seger 5 miles east of alice in ann arbor. mitch ryder was close he grew up in east detroit, now eastpointe, just less than a mile from detroit.
yea yea
white stripes, only one half is a detroit. meg is from grosse pointe, 5 miles from the city. and i guess unless you were a motown band from the 60's you are not from detroit. for some reason people don't live in detroit. especially racist *** ted nugent who is from jackson. jackson is 60 miles west of detroit. just cause you step foot in a city and play some shows it doesn't make you from a city.

Answer 6

Im gonna have to go with Grand Funk ....P-U