An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!
PAUL REVERE AND THE RAIDERS: Just Like Me
Written by Rick Dey and Rich Brown
Produced by Terry Melcher
Single, Columbia Records, 1965
Wilson Pickett meets the Kinks. Welcome to 1965.
The democracy of Top 40 radio in the '60s (and even into the '70s) meant that all the myriad styles that would eventually become rigidly segmented and segregated--rock, soul, country, pop, easy listening, dance music, R & B, bubblegum, folk, novelty tunes, some blues, even some jazz--were not only allowed to co-exist within a single format, it was expected that they would. It was all pop music, so pop radio played it all. We lost that somewhere along the way. And we are much poorer for that loss.
Schisms developed, even within that time frame. The divisions may not have manifested much on the AM airwaves, but they were there. Beatles or Stones? Stax or Motown? British Invasion or made-in-America? Rock or soul or country or pop?
And, as the '60s wore on: Heavy or bubblegum?
By decade's end, the image of a band like Paul Revere and the Raiders became difficult for some to take seriously. Visually gimmicky, decked out in outlandish stage garb that suggested a dinner theater production of 1776! or Hamilton years before the fact, their live and TV performances were punctuated by slapstick and schtick, with syncopated steps like Motown's answer to the Redcoats, and the men not knowing while the little girls understood (and how!) the dream appeal of lead singer Mark Lindsay. The cognoscenti would sniff and sneer. Worthless bubblegum!
Now, we're savvy enough to know that "bubblegum" shouldn't necessarily be a pejorative. But the music of Paul Revere and the Raiders transcends that discussion anyway. For all their good-time vibe, their Revolutionary War costumes, their synchronized stage moves, their snappy patter, their TV stardom, and Mark Lindsay as the face that launched a thousand 16 magazine pin-ups, the Raiders made rock 'n' roll records. In fact, they made great rock 'n' roll records, releasing a string of nonpareil singles and fab LP tracks that can stand and sway alongside some of the best rock 'n' roll music of the 1960s. In the wake of the British Invasion in 1964, there was no shortage of domestic acts seeking to become known as the American Beatles; Paul Revere and the Raiders, already veteran hands at rockin' instrumentals and nascent frat-rock, were the first high-profile US act to seek the title of American Stones.
If Paul Revere and the Raiders were bubblegum, then by God, so were the Rolling Stones.
They'd started out as just another working band. Idaho boogie-woogie piano player Paul Revere Dick recruited saxophonist Lindsay to join his instrumental combo the Downbeats in 1958. By 1960, the piano-player had dropped his last name and his group had become Paul Revere and the Raiders. The line-up shifted and evolved, and scraped the bottom of the national Top 40 with the rockin' classical music workout "Like, Long Hair" in 1961.
Bossman Revere was drafted, and had to leave his own group because of Uncle Sam's deal. Lindsay and Revere reunited in '62, relocated to Portland, Oregon, midnight-riding through the Pacific Northwest. By now a singing and playing group, the Raiders' version of "Louie Louie"--recorded in April '63 around the same time and at the same Portland studio that the Kingsmen cut their gloriously sloppy hit rendition--was a regional success. Columbia Records noticed. Welcome to the big time, you Raiders.
Single, Columbia Records, 1965
Wilson Pickett meets the Kinks. Welcome to 1965.
The democracy of Top 40 radio in the '60s (and even into the '70s) meant that all the myriad styles that would eventually become rigidly segmented and segregated--rock, soul, country, pop, easy listening, dance music, R & B, bubblegum, folk, novelty tunes, some blues, even some jazz--were not only allowed to co-exist within a single format, it was expected that they would. It was all pop music, so pop radio played it all. We lost that somewhere along the way. And we are much poorer for that loss.
Schisms developed, even within that time frame. The divisions may not have manifested much on the AM airwaves, but they were there. Beatles or Stones? Stax or Motown? British Invasion or made-in-America? Rock or soul or country or pop?
And, as the '60s wore on: Heavy or bubblegum?
By decade's end, the image of a band like Paul Revere and the Raiders became difficult for some to take seriously. Visually gimmicky, decked out in outlandish stage garb that suggested a dinner theater production of 1776! or Hamilton years before the fact, their live and TV performances were punctuated by slapstick and schtick, with syncopated steps like Motown's answer to the Redcoats, and the men not knowing while the little girls understood (and how!) the dream appeal of lead singer Mark Lindsay. The cognoscenti would sniff and sneer. Worthless bubblegum!
Now, we're savvy enough to know that "bubblegum" shouldn't necessarily be a pejorative. But the music of Paul Revere and the Raiders transcends that discussion anyway. For all their good-time vibe, their Revolutionary War costumes, their synchronized stage moves, their snappy patter, their TV stardom, and Mark Lindsay as the face that launched a thousand 16 magazine pin-ups, the Raiders made rock 'n' roll records. In fact, they made great rock 'n' roll records, releasing a string of nonpareil singles and fab LP tracks that can stand and sway alongside some of the best rock 'n' roll music of the 1960s. In the wake of the British Invasion in 1964, there was no shortage of domestic acts seeking to become known as the American Beatles; Paul Revere and the Raiders, already veteran hands at rockin' instrumentals and nascent frat-rock, were the first high-profile US act to seek the title of American Stones.
If Paul Revere and the Raiders were bubblegum, then by God, so were the Rolling Stones.
They'd started out as just another working band. Idaho boogie-woogie piano player Paul Revere Dick recruited saxophonist Lindsay to join his instrumental combo the Downbeats in 1958. By 1960, the piano-player had dropped his last name and his group had become Paul Revere and the Raiders. The line-up shifted and evolved, and scraped the bottom of the national Top 40 with the rockin' classical music workout "Like, Long Hair" in 1961.
Bossman Revere was drafted, and had to leave his own group because of Uncle Sam's deal. Lindsay and Revere reunited in '62, relocated to Portland, Oregon, midnight-riding through the Pacific Northwest. By now a singing and playing group, the Raiders' version of "Louie Louie"--recorded in April '63 around the same time and at the same Portland studio that the Kingsmen cut their gloriously sloppy hit rendition--was a regional success. Columbia Records noticed. Welcome to the big time, you Raiders.
Television personality Dick Clark also noticed; he knew a thing or two, and offered to put the Raiders on a TV show. Where The Action Is aired weekday afternoons, and Paul Revere and the Raiders were the de facto house band: Revere, Lindsay, bassist Phil "Fang" Volk, guitarist Drake Levin, and drummer Mike "Smitty" Smith. They cavorted and pranced in sparkling black-and-white, playing covers, playing stars, and living the part. It was 1965. Anything could happen in 1965.
"Steppin' Out," a cantankerous jolt of greasy, pissed-off orneriness written by Revere and Lindsay, was the Raiders' first single in the wake of Where The Action Is, and it couldn't quite breach the Top 40, stepping down after a peak at # 46. Their follow-up would be the Raiders' first Top 20 single.
"Just Like Me" was a cover, but virtually no one had heard the original version by a group called the Wilde Knights. In the hands of Paul Revere and the Raiders and their producer Terry Melcher, "Just Like Me" moved from the garage-punk Kinks feel of the Wilde Knights' take into something more intrinsically pop, something tailor-made for hit radio, yet still unmistakably, unerringly rock 'n' roll.
The differences are striking. Melcher and the Raiders tweak the song's intro, retaining the chunk-a-chunka rhythm inspired by Kinks guitarist Dave Davies, but grafting it with a soulful flourish nicked directly from Wilson Pickett's "In The Midnight Hour." Mark Lindsay, who had swaggered so effectively on "Steppin' Out," suddenly pouts like a teen idol oughta, a lonely pop heart longing for elusive fulfillment and, one presumes, action. The little girls for damned sure understood. With continued TV exposure and a # 11 hit, Paul Revere and the Raiders were well and truly on their way.
More hits followed, including four Top 10 smashes--"Kicks," "Hungry," "Good Thing," and "Him Or Me--What's It Gonna Be?"--in 1966 and '67. The classic Where The Action Is cast o' Raiders was temporary; Levin, like Revere before him, also had to leave town because of Uncle Sam's deal, though he continued to record with the group even as Jim "Harpo" Valley took his place on tour. But by the middle of 1967, only Revere and Lindsay remained as permanent Raiders.
That may not have mattered all that much. As time went on, much (if not all) of the Raiders' studio work was managed by Lindsay and Melcher, with or without other Raiders present. Accomplished by whatever combination of Lindsay, Melcher, Raiders, and Raiders associates, the quality of the Raiders' collective body of work throughout the '60s is staggering, and well deserving of rediscovery.
Paul Revere and the Raiders were disdained by the hipper-than-thou. Their image, their approach, their name itself proclaimed them as uncool, square, and (ironically) anti-Revolutionary. In 1969, wondering if perhaps a rockin' Raiders record could connect with the progressive crowd if unencumbered by the Raiders brand name, Lindsay sent a new Raiders song called "Let Me" to an influential FM DJ in L.A.; the song was credited to the Pink Puzz, and the DJ loved it and played it until he learned that the Pink Puzz was really those crass, commercial sellouts Paul Revere and the Raiders. Suddenly, he didn't like the track anymore, and he stopped playing it. He was, let's face it, a weasel.
But the weasels were in control. That hasn't really changed since then.
In 1970, Paul Revere and the Raiders shortened their nom du bop to just the Raiders. Mark Lindsay finally left the group in 1975; Paul Revere restored the group's longer name, and the Raiders thrived on the oldies circuit until Revere's death in 2014. But before that, in 1971, the group had its sole # 1 hit with "Indian Reservation." "Indian Reservation" is not a bad record, but it is not--it is not--worthier of a Top of the Pops moment than most of the many great Raiders singles that preceded it.
This is particularly true of "Just Like Me," a magic meeting of Wilson Pickett and the Kinks, as seen on TV and on the covers of teen magazines across this great land of ours. Pop music. Democracy in action. One if by land. Two if by sea. The heaviest bubblegum you ever could love. 1965. Listen, my children, and you shall hear.
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