Charts: U.S. #27, AU #14, CA #34, JP #44. U.S. - Gold. Singles: "Time Machine" Billboard Hot 100 #48, CA #43, "Heartbreaker" Billboard Hot 100 #72, CA #58.
Listening to this album only further convicts me of the bizarre conservatism inherent to the American brand of mainstream rock criticism. See, judging by what we learn from the archives, upon its release On Time was universally panned throughout the States as completely out of time - too loud, too heavy, too noisy and too un-musical. With many of the songs denied radioplay (no kidding!). And this at a time when Led Zeppelin II was already occupying the minds of the British and European public, an album in comparison to which On Time seems like the Carpenters. Heavy? Not on your life.
Okay, so it ain't exactly soft, either, I'll give you that. Guitarist Mark Farner does emphasize his fuzz and distortion and plays some mean riffs throughout; bassist Mel Schacher lays on some particularly fat bass (not too fat, though) and Don Brewer bashes and crashes upon everything within sight with a heavy emphasis on the cymbals. But there's hardly anything special that sets their style of playing apart from the Who or Jimi Hendrix - except that the Who had far better melodies and Jimi had a far superior overall sound, of course. Hell, even 'minor' bands like Blue Cheer, who came at least a year before GFR, had a thicker and more hard-hitting sound.
The basic problem here, as far as I understand, was that the Funkers aimed for a different kind of audience - they weren't Southerners, but they obviously went for that corner of the market that would soon raise all kinds of "classic Southern rock" like the Allmans and Skynyrd. On Time sounds simple, gutsy, pretentious (in a bad, overtly obvious, pseudo-intelligent and, often, preachy - yuck - way), and at the same time, absolutely inoffensive and clean: it's hard rock, sure, but it's hard rock for sissies, the kind of people who were finding Blue Cheer and Led Zeppelin way too dangerous for them because the former had too big an anti-establishment aura around them, while the latter were just a bit too demonic. Which, of course, explains their commercial success as opposed to Blue Cheer, who never really managed to truly hit the big time. In short, Grand Funk Railroad = hard-rock Carpenters. Get that?
(full version: starlingdb.org/music/gfr.htm#Time)