Paul Revere dead at 76






"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

Sucks.

The Raiders were one of the premiere singles bands of the era - "Kicks", "Good Thing", "Hungry", "Great Airplane Strike", "Him Or Me", "Steppin' Stone"... and Midnight Ride, Spirit Of '67, and Revolution are all great albums. Granted, the whole thing evolved by then into pretty much a Mark Lindsay/Terry Melcher/Wrecking Crew project, but whatever - they were the ultimate U.S. garage band in my book and Lindsay was as close to an American Mick as anyone.

R.I.P., Paul Revere. The dude knew how to put on a show.

Sad. All of our heros are going away.

I remember the "Just Like Us" LP as being one of the finest r n r albums of the 60s...besides the near classic originals "Just Like Me" and "Steppin Out" there was (as was customary in the 60s) a nice selection of covers. Although most cover versions were just crappy filler, not The Raiders. They held their own and even out rocked some of the originals. The weakest cover was "Satisfaction" and even that was not embarrassing, say like "The Standells" trying to cover "I Want To Hold Your Hand". The Raiders have not been the Raiders we all knew for decades but he kept truckin and in that case it truly is about the fans, isn't it?

Agree 100% with all the previous posts--- The Raiders were one of the top US bands in the 60's with a killer string of radio hits--
from what I understand Revere was still playing with a version of the group up until only a couple months ago--
sad to see him go--- I would highly recommend a copy of Paul Revere and the Raiders ( feat Mark Lyndsay ) Greatest Hits. You wont be disappointed.

Great band. Ridiculous shtick. They didn't need those outfits any more than the Young Rascals needed theirs. At their best, they sounded like the Stones .... but with better backing vocals.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-10-05 21:29 by tatters.

They were just a gussied up garage band, which is fine. I dug 'em as a kid, especially 'Hungry'.

ROCKMAN

They were never played in the UK, for some reason--not that I ever heard, anyway. Thus the costumes were all I knew about them, thanks to imported US magazines. Strange.

Used to watch them everyday at "Where the Action is" after school,like others have said a great garage band ib the good sense,may he R I P....

"You know who l am, say it"

I must confess I've never heard of him. Based on that clip, was he like the Justin Bieber of the 60s?

Paul Revere and the Raiders were one of the most magnificent bands to come out of America in the 60s and sure gave the Stones a run for their money with these two songs. Hardly anyone in the UK knows them as they never chafted here or played here.

If you dig fantastic garage punk and psych a la Stones and The Animals then ckeck out their albums Spirit Of 67 and Revolution. They are two of the most brilliant albums from 1967.

RIP Paul Revere.















Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-10-06 10:02 by Silver Dagger.

Saw Tom Petty and the heartbreakers last night. They played 'I'm not your Stepping Stone' in a tribute. And boy, did Tom and the boys play it well also.

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dougie
Saw Tom Petty and the heartbreakers last night. They played 'I'm not your Stepping Stone' in a tribute. And boy, did Tom and the boys play it well also.

Cool move by TP. He knows. Paul Revere and the Raiders Are in that stellar group of bands that were huge in the mid-60s and never made it much past that quality-wise. Thinking of the Rascals, Lovin' Spoonful in that group. They were right up there but didn't have what the Stones did to make the transition. But there is a great legacy in a very groovy streak of hit singles. Paul himself didn't have a lot to do with the music, but he was the businessman.

Hope he's gigging with Drake and Smitty tonight.

I saw them when I was around 10 years old at Steel Pier in Atlantic City, NJ.

R.I.P. Paul Revere

Listening to one of my all-time favorite LP's right now: Spirit of '67.

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dougie
Saw Tom Petty and the heartbreakers last night. They played 'I'm not your Stepping Stone' in a tribute. And boy, did Tom and the boys play it well also.

So he played a Boyce & Hart song that was made a hit by the Monkees as a tribute to Paul Revere......very fitting....(OK, I know that Paul Revere recoded it before the Monkees )

Drake Levin and Phil Volk, the twins took some great turns on the vocals. Drakes german count off intro to "Out of Sight" was the first time I had heard that done (not saying he was first but for me it was)..I've heard it done a lot since then.. apparently it became different later but Phil "Fang" Volk on session players being used on Raiders recordings: ".... but when I was in the band, and I want to get this straight, I was the bass player, I sang background vocals, and I also sang some lead vocals on some of the songs, and it was Drake, and myself, and Smitty, and Paul on keyboards, and Mark played some saxophone. We were the players, because before becoming famous and national, we were on the dance circuit for a long time, playing up in the Northwest, and you know, we were known as the hardest workin' band in the Northwest, the hardest workin' band in show business. We would do a set of music at one of our dance gigs and our coats were soaking wet. We had to change outfits, because we had worked so hard on the set. So we were the players, and anyone who writes that we weren't doesn't know what they are talkin' about, they haven't done their homework".

Very sad news. The Raiders were an icon in American pop/rock in the late 60's.

This band earned their way in. They played the Pacific Northwest area with gusto and showmanship not seen to that point in the early 60's. They weren't the Stones or Beatles in terms of stature but they were a big deal. They appeared on American television over 700 times, Held the record for biggest selling single (Indian Reservation)at CBS/Columbia records from 1971 thru 1988.They really are underrated as an influential group of that time period.

Some of the comments have been disrespectful to this great band. I find that sad in a human way.

Rock on Paul Revere, you will be missed.

I always loved the Raiders. However, can anyone tell me if there is a single video available where they play live? I hate that miming trend of the 60s. And their terrible costumes. But man, what a great band!

I agree...they were so good that its a shame they didn't perform live on any of these shows.I thought maybe ed Sullivan might have some actual "live" sound but the earliest I found was 1967 and they were already going to pre recorded backing tracks then? for audio you oughta get the 2 cd "Mojo Workout" that has two live shows the label recorded at shows set up for staff of Columbia..it rocks..."Crisco party"...he dig em she dig dig em I digga digga digga em too!







Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014-10-08 01:41 by scottkeef.

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ROPS
Used to watch them everyday at "Where the Action is" after school,like others have said a great garage band ib the good sense,may he R I P....

I used to watch this with my hot teenaged neighbor when I was in elementary school. Fun show.

I really like "Hungry" and Mark's "Arizona".

"No Anchovies, Please"

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Elmo Lewis

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ROPS
Used to watch them everyday at "Where the Action is" after school,like others have said a great garage band ib the good sense,may he R I P....

I used to watch this with my hot teenaged neighbor when I was in elementary school. Fun show.

I really like "Hungry" and Mark's "Arizona".

FYI - Keith Allison was a regular on that show, later joined Paul Revere and the Raiders (1968) for several years before taking on some acting rolls. He is now a regular at the Waddy shows. Very friendly guy. He is a cousin of J.I. Allison from Buddy Holly's band.

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flacnvinyl
I always loved the Raiders. However, can anyone tell me if there is a single video available where they play live? I hate that miming trend of the 60s. And their terrible costumes. But man, what a great band!

Here's one from 1969


[www.youtube.com]

that's a pretty rare find but to me the "Raiders" really ceased to be after Fang ,Drake and Smitty left and studio musicians became the norm for recording. Is Freddy Weller here? Its hard for me to tell. I always wondered how Drake really took it when he showed up for the Sullivan show and Freddy Weller had already replaced him but he showed Freddy the dance moves anyway. Freddy had to be bribed to join by Lindsey getting him a solo country contract with Columbia. He scored with a version of "Games People Play". The Raiders really took on a more country flavor after Allison and Freddy joined up...

Mentioned here earlier, here's the Raiders doing Stepping Stone. Love the Yardbirds style fade out on this. So much better than the Monkees version.

[www.youtube.com]

And here's a tune by them that just rocks, grage band style. I can hear this being played at the frat house now. Makes you remember when music was about fun and rockin' out.

[www.youtube.com]

Enjoy.

One of my favorite bands growing up in the 60s. I thought the cover photo of the band on the "Spirit of '67" album in their red suits was way cool.

"Hungry" is one of those 45 records that I got and just about played to death. One of the great lost 60s classics.

In 1994, Paul Revere and the Raiders (with only Paul as any kind of original member) played an oldies concert here in Atlanta, which also featured the Beach Boys, the Spinners, and others. It was good to see them live, but it was also kind of weird.

They did a few of their hits all the way through, but mostly they just played medleys of their tunes, only playing about a minute of each one. That sort of irritated me, because I really wanted to hear them do Raiders songs.

To top it off, their last song in their set was Bachman Turner Overdrive's "Takin' Care of Business," which made me say "WHAT?!" They did a few other tunes like that, and that was kind of disappointing.

Oh, well, it was still fun to see them do the dance moves and the back and forth kind of choreography on stage.

I know Smitty, the drummer, has passed. What is happening with some of the other members?

Drake Levin (guitar) died in 2009 at 62 from cancer I think..Mark Lindsey,last I heard was on a "oldies' tour that also included David Cassidy (who reportedly was so drunk he embarrassed himself and the backing band) Phil Volk (bass) has a band in Vegas that performs oldies. I think his family members may be included. I'm fb friends with Phil and Jim "Harpo" Valley (who replaced Drake on the live performances when Drake got drafted. He joined the National Guard and was able to stay stateside and record with the band but couldn't make the performance schedule.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-10-09 19:44 by scottkeef.

I saw them in Nov.1966 right after "Kicks" and they could really bring it live.

They were great LIVE! Saw them in the 60's, very energetic, entertaining, good songs too...Mark Lindsay, lead singer was a HUNK!