Since I yap about them so much on here, why don't I just give a little shout out to the most underrated Rock 'N' Roll band of all-time, Paul Revere & The Raiders? Long before Ted Nugent, long before Gene Simmons, long before Elton John even, there was my original Rock idol, the pony-tailed Mark Lindsay. My earliest memories of being alive are of standing atop my toy box, rocking out to PR&TR with my plastic guitar (with the broken strings) at age 3, and dreaming of being Mark Lindsay. Oddly enough, I can thank my old man's narrow-mindedness for my devotion to this wonderful band—he deemed The Beatles to be Communists because of Lennon's "We're bigger than Jesus" quote, yet he deemed the Raiders patriotic enough to be allowed in our house when the Fab Four weren't. This coming from a man who rarely ever went to church himself, yet constantly bitched and griped about the people who ran our church, but I digress... I discovered the magic of The Beatles in my own time, but the Raiders were MY group almost from Day One, and always will be. They were certainly my first taste of Rock 'N' Roll, and I'd put their stuff up against the Monkees', Beach Boys' and Lovin' Spoonful's best stuff any day! Don't even get me started on why these guys aren't in the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame...I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Lindsay backstage after a concert in 2001, and he was every bit as cool as I imagined him to be—very gracious and accomodating in signing otto-graphs, and quite a nice man to speak to. It's too bad Paul Revere himself doesn't revere the band's history more appropriately in his Branson nostalgia act, though. Sadly, his current band of "Raiders" is more like a '60s music revue than a PR&TR show. Sorry Paul, but I don't wanna hear "Mony, Mony" and "Heard It Through The Grapevine" at your show—I wanna hear Raiders songs! And I'm talking about more than just a minute worth of "Kicks" and a minute worth of "Good Thing" too...
Still and all, these are the only Raiders I'll ever root for...
My PR&TR Top 5:
1) "Time After Time" (1969) Little-known song whose backing track was also used in a Pontiac GTO TV ad. It would make the Fuzz Guitar Hall of Fame (if there was one).
2) "The Great Airplane Strike" (1966) One of the coolest fucking songs of all-time. Ironcially, it sounds even better in mono! View it here.
3) "Hungry" (1966) One of their biggest hits, featuring Drake Levin's underrated guitar work. View it here.
4) "Let Me!" (1969) A sadly forgotten hit from around the time of Woodstock. It would also make the Fuzz Guitar Hall of Fame (if there was one). View it here.
5) "Him Or Me-What's It Gonna Be?" (1967) This one hit #5 in early '68—one of their most energetic songs. View it here.
3 comments:
The bass players name was Fang. "Hungry", "Kicks" and "What's It Gonna Be" are excellent rock and roll songs. I was ten-twelve when these guys came out and "Where The Action Is" had them on all of the time. You are correct my friend, this band was a kick ass band for the time. And thanks for the videos links.
Actually, the Raiders had a whole phalanx of bass players throughout their history: Mike "Doc" Holliday, Phil "Fang" Volk, Charlie Coe and Keith Allison (a regular himself on "Where The Action Is"), in that order, and who knows how many bassists Revere's gone through in his nostalgia act band.
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