The Musical History of Paul Revere & the Raiders featuring Mark Lindsay 1961-1975
.. The first rock and roll group signed to Columbia Records, and the first group to bring
Columbia a gold rock and roll record.
... According to Chuck Eddy, in "Stairway To Hell - The 500 Best Heavy Metal Albums
in the Universe": "Ages before Subpop Records made the Great Northwest famous again,
this Portland bunch rocked with more guts and gusto than Soundgarden and Mudhoney ever would." He ranked the Raiders' GREATEST HITS as #33 .
... According to Ken Barnes, in Phonograph Record Magazine (March 1973): "A group whose vast recording output turns out to be as solid a legacy of straight-forward, exciting mid-sixties rock and roll as America produced in that illustrious era. "They came out of the
Northwest playing in that region's dominant style as exemplified by the Wailers, Sonics, Kingsmen , and other local hotshots
-- raw, wild organ/sax-dominated versions of raunchy rock and roll and R&B records. Their first Jerden Records release was recorded live with Mark Lindsay displaying bombastic bull-throated vocal power. Similarly, their first Columbia LP, HERE THEY COME [expanded on the November 2000 release of MOJO WORKOUT], sports ferocious live versions of 'Money,' 'Louie Louie,' 'Do You Love Me', 'You Can't Sit Down,' 'Big Boy Pete,' and 'Ooh Poo Pah Doo .'"
The Raiders had been signed to Columbia Records in 1963 on the basis of their local success with an indie release of "Louie Louie ," and Columbia released that master as the group's first single. While it was a huge success in the Northwest, the Kingsmen's version took the country by storm, largely because of the controversy over its definitely
unintelligible and supposedly obscene lyrics. As it turned out, the Kingsmen's version was merely the garbled result of lead singer Jack Ely trying to sing into an awkwardly-placed mic while wearing braces on his teeth, while the Raiders' version really does have an obscene ad-lib during the guitar solo. The Who certainly took notice of the Raiders at this time. Check out The Raiders' "Louie, Go Home" (1964) from the Columbia / Legacy anthology LEGEND OF PAUL REVERE and then check out The Who's " Lubie (Come Back Home)" (1965) from WHO'S MISSING -- you'll hear an identical song... note for note, word for word, ad-lib for ad-lib, with Roger Daltrey's vocal style an exact copy of Lindsay's on the original song. By the way, "Louie, Go Home" was also covered by David Bowie.
Newly signed as the house band on Dick Clark's squeaky-clean MTV precursor "Where the Action Is," the Raiders released " Steppin ' Out," which Barnes describes as "a classic number with a brilliant prototypically punk Lindsay vocal, and the next single, the pulsing rocker 'Just Like Me' [later covered by Pat Benatar ] went Top 10." The follow-up album, MIDNIGHT RIDE, has been included as #63 in Tom Hibbert's "The Perfect Collection - The Rock Albums Everybody Should Have and Why." He says, "There was nothing innocuous about the Raiders' music, just listen to the power and drive of 'I'm Not Your Stepping Stone.'" (And check out the Sex Pistols' recent version.)
Paul Revere & the Raiders, featuring Mark Lindsay, continued to record new material for Columbia through 1973, including the largest selling single in Columbia Records history to that date, "Indian Reservation." Mark pursued a solo recording career at the same time, and recorded the platinum single "Arizona," available on THE BEST OF MARK LINDSAY, the ARIZONA/SILVERBIRD combined CD, and ARIZONA AND OTHER STATES OF MIND. Although the Raiders' final album has never been released (it has been dubbed THE LOST ALBUM), a few cuts made it to THE LEGEND anthology, including "Chain of Fools" -- with the group returning to its R&B roots on that track.
Ken Barnes concludes with: "Those who are willing to re-examine what they overlooked for years will find a wealth of fine music -- impressive instrumentation (the powerful chording or the whining twin guitars on 'Just Like Me' or 'Hungry' for example), superb singing (Lindsay at times approached the status of an American Jagger ) and enthralling precise harmonies -- in short, some of the best American rock and roll of the sixties."