Drake Levin died July 7th at his San Francisco after long battle with cancer according to longtime friend and fellow Raider Phil Volk. He was 62 and lead guitarist for all the Raiders biggest hits during the 60s. The Raiders(in my opinion) in their original line-up performed some of the greatest American R n R
during a period dominated by the "British Invasion". Sad indeed.

Yes, I'm glad you posted this. I had read about it in the LA Times, and it was nice to see they gave him a good size story. (When Zal Yanovsky of the Spoonful died, he got about a three-line obit that I'm still pissed about...)

[www.latimes.com]

According to this story, he died on Saturday (the 4th!) but this obit is dated the 7th.

Last Monday on the David Letterman show, when they went to the first commercial break, Paul shouted, "THIS ONE'S FOR DRAKE!!" and the band went into a rockin' version of "Just Like Me" Very cool.


RIP Drake....

They were the first live rock concert I saw.

Thanks for the article loog droog! I found out on garage music blogspot.

RIP Drake

I'm surprised, I have always been told that the band never played their own instruments (like several other bands of that era). Please tell me my uninformed friends were wrong!

Your freinds are definately wrong! This band had a HUGE following in the Northwest before signing with CBS. Theres a cd of the show they put on live in the studio for Columbia execs and staff in Sept 64 basically doing their act at the time. Its great and dont forget Drake playing his guitar behind his head in 64!

Just an interesting clip from 79!

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BluzDude
I have always been told that the band never played their own instruments (like several other bands of that era). Please tell me my uninformed friends were wrong!

The band played on their early studio albums. However, by 1966, Columbia and producer Terry Melcher were using studio musicians like Ry Cooder, Van Dyke Parks and others for much of the albums and songs. The Raiders, when they played on those albums, were mostly confined to the rhythm tracks.

They could definitely play, they just weren't allowed to play very much from 1966 onward...

I know that after the "Spirit of '67" album the Raiders line-up changed, and the next record "Revolution" was basically written and recorded by Mark Lindsay and Terry Melcher with studio musicians.

Both are great albums, by the way.

Who knows-maybe thats one reason Drake left? I know he left first then Phil and Smitty(this trio actually formed a new band and put out a couple of albums I think.) About what time did Brian Love and the Beach Boys start using the "wrecking crew" on their albums? After that the band was restricted to vocals only and live performances. (Until when?)

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scottkeef
Who knows-maybe thats one reason Drake left? I know he left first then Phil and Smitty(this trio actually formed a new band and put out a couple of albums I think.)

In fact, that's a key reason why those 3 guys left the band, because they were being shelved in the studio in favor of studio musicians.

Found this fact sheet on the group that has some interesting stats about their career:

[www.classicbands.com]

Among them, they were the first rock band to be signed to Columbia, and "Indian Reservation" was their only #1 and the biggest single on Columbia in 10 years!

Also, the spinoff group with Levin was called Brotherhood.

I must admit to being a fan of this group in the 60's!! I saw them live in August of 1967 when Drake was still with them. He did leave briefly in 1966 to join the National Guard but returned until 1968 when he formed a new band with Phil. They were really good live!! I had a thing for the hunky Mark Lindsay, and actually he looks better today than in the 60's. WHO KNEW!? I just read that they only played the Ed Sullivan show once. They had lots of members coming and going during this time, no doubt due to the session musicians. I'd be miffed too!