{"id":261,"date":"2010-07-07T05:45:05","date_gmt":"2010-07-07T10:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=261"},"modified":"2010-07-07T05:45:05","modified_gmt":"2010-07-07T10:45:05","slug":"feature-paul-revere-the-raiders-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2010\/07\/07\/feature-paul-revere-the-raiders-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature: Paul Revere & the Raiders (part 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In connection with the 2010 Collectors\u2019 Choice Music release of the 3CD compilation <\/em>The Complete Columbia Singles [review here<\/a>], I arranged a series of extensive, in-depth interviews with former members of 60s hitmakers Paul Revere and the Raiders. I was fortunate to gain insights from vocalist Mark Lindsay; bassist Phil \u201cFang\u201d Volk; guitarists Jim \u201cHarpo\u201d Valley and Keith Allison; and Raiders manager Roger Hart. In a modest tribute to Raiders guitarist Drake Levin \u2013 he passed away on July 4, 2009 \u2013 I\u2019d like to present PART THREE of this five-part Raiders feature. \u2014 bk<\/em><\/p>\n

Peak and Valley<\/strong>
\nThe grueling schedule of TV taping and live concerts left Paul Revere and the Raiders<\/strong> little time for studio work. Yet the group managed to record two successful albums in 1966, Just Like Us<\/em> and Midnight Ride<\/em>, both among the best of their recorded output. Guitarist Drake Levin<\/strong> was drafted and left the group in 1966 to join the National Guard. His replacement was Jim \u201cHarpo\u201d Valley<\/strong>, by this time guitarist with the up-and-coming Don and the Goodtimes<\/strong>. Valley initially hesitated to join, believing that the Goodtimes were on the verge of success themselves. He recalls, \u201cPaul Revere<\/strong> gave me the fatherly advice: \u2018A lot of bands are \u201cthis close,\u201d but most bands never get beyond that.\u2019\u201d Valley accepted the offer in part due to assurances that some of his songs would be included on the next Raiders album (Spirit of \u201967<\/em>). But as the time came to cut one of his tunes \u2013 the last to be recorded, Valley recalls, \u201cMark Lindsay<\/strong> came running in and said, \u2018Hey, I just wrote a song in the crapper. And it\u2019s got to be on the album!\u2019\u201d A frustrated Valley left after a year of touring with the group.<\/p>\n

Levin returned briefly, but soon he too would become disenchanted. \u201cPhil<\/strong> [Volk<\/strong>, bassist] and Drake were writers, too,\u201d observes manager Roger Hart<\/strong>. \u201cAnd they wanted to move up front a bit. But there weren\u2019t that many opportunities.\u201d Volk says that \u201cwe thought maybe the Raiders were losing their edge. Our focus was too much on pleasing the teenyboppers.\u201d What\u2019s more, future Raider Keith Allison<\/strong> says that because the group was often on tour, producer \u201cTerry <\/strong>[Melcher<\/strong>] would start tracking songs without the entire band. That was a matter of contention, especially for Phil and Smitty.\u201d In 1967 Levin, Volk and drummer Mike Smith<\/strong> left the Raiders to form Brotherhood<\/strong>. \u201cIt probably wasn\u2019t a wise business decision\u201d for them, says Hart, recalling CBS\u2019 forcing a delay in release of the first Brotherhood LP. Revere sued the departing trio for breach of contract as well.<\/p>\n

The division of labor within Paul Revere and the Raiders had by this time been well established. Lindsay handled songwriting and production (originally with Melcher, and eventually without him). Revere, always the businessman, concentrated on live shows and commercial exposure. While Revere\u2019s manic boogie-woogie piano playing had been an early hallmark of the group\u2019s R&B-derived sound, as the Raiders moved toward guitar-oriented rock, the songs provided less for him to do. In the studio, as often as not, the keyboard parts had been played by Volk, Melcher or (occasionally, when a session was booked and the band was on tour) session musicians. \u201cPaul was not always comfortable in the studio,\u201d Hart notes. \u201cHe loved being onstage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volk stresses that although \u201cthings in the studio moved too slowly for him,\u201d Revere \u201ccould rock his ass off.\u201d Volk offers, \u201cif you really want to hear Paul play, listen to those b-sides\u201d on the new 3CD singles compilation<\/a>. As Revere told Ed Osborne<\/strong>, \u201cI was [Terry Melcher\u2019s] worst nightmare. I\u2019d always been the leader of the band; I was the guy<\/em>. It was my band and I ran that son-of-a-bitch like a sergeant. And all of a sudden, I had a general over me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 1967 disc Revolution <\/em>\u2013 recorded with a new lineup \u2013 was the last Lindsay-Melcher collaboration, save the left-field A Christmas Present\u2026and Past<\/em> LP. Lindsay recalls that he and Melcher developed that holiday album as \u201ccombination Vietnam war protest and man\u2019s-inhumanity-to-man observation.\u201d He chuckles that the resulting music \u201cturned out to be very dark, and not exactly\u201d what the label had wanted. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t exactly our most commercial enterprise,\u201d Lindsay admits.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Even in the wake of the classic lineup\u2019s breakup, the Raiders had a lot to offer. We\u2019ll look at the rest of the group\u2019s career in Part Four<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow \u201cthe_musoscribe\u201d on Twitter<\/a> and get notified
\nwhen new features, reviews and essays are published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In connection with the 2010 Collectors\u2019 Choice Music release of the 3CD compilation The Complete Columbia Singles [review here], I arranged a series of extensive, in-depth interviews with former members […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview","cat-41-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}