Paul Revere & The Raiders - "Here They Come" (1965) - Columbia Records
Hello Friends,
We've got Boise, Idaho's own Paul Revere & The Raiders on the turntable tonight.
Here They Come! would be the Raiders' third LP, their first for Columbia records, the first to get them some attention beyond the Pacific Northwest and the first to chart (it would reach # 71 on the US Charts). It would also be Columbia Records' first "rock & roll" record.
Produced by Doris Day's son (and Charlie Manson bud) Terry Melcher, it would be the last Raiders' album released before they really took off and before they started regularly appearing on Dick Clark's American Bandstand spin-off show, Where the Action Is.
This isn't a great album, but its pretty good. Side One captures the band in a faux-live setting playing pretty rip-roaring R&B standards like "You Can't Sit Down", "Money (That's What I Want)", "Louie Louie" and "Do You Love Me?" Definitely a great way to get a raucous party started (by 1965 standards!)
Side Two gets a little more folksy, a little more psych-y and a little more expressive. Over the course of the side of an album they evolve from a middle-of-the-road dance/party band to a tight-sounding, legit rock & roll band.
There's more cover songs on Side Two, like "Fever" & "Time Is On My Side", but there are also some great songs written by some of their contemporaries like Bruce Johnston/Melcher ("Gone") and Steve Barri/P.F. Sloan ("These Are Bad Times For Me And My Baby"). The album's soulful closer (and our probable winner for best song on the record award), "A Kiss To Remember Her By" was a completely original tune, composed by Lindsay.
History will probably most remember Paul Revere and The Raiders as a gimmicky sort of band as in their early days they would perform dressed up like Colonial Minutemen, however, there was nothing gimmicky about their tight and driving rhythm section, their grinding lead guitar work (by Drake Levin), their heavy, bleeding Hammond organ (by Paul Revere) and singer Mark Lindsay's soulful, raspy vocals. Like all great rock & roll bands they were a bunch of white kids pretending (wishing) to be black and having a ton of fun doing it!
FUN FACT: Hey kids, did you know that lead singer, Mark Lindsay, and producer, Terry Melcher, once shared a house at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles's Benedict Canyon? Sound familiar? That's the same house that Sharon Tate & friends would be brutally murdered by the Manson family in August 1969! Melcher Skelter!
RATING: 3.5 kisses to remember you by out of 5
We've got Boise, Idaho's own Paul Revere & The Raiders on the turntable tonight.
Here They Come! would be the Raiders' third LP, their first for Columbia records, the first to get them some attention beyond the Pacific Northwest and the first to chart (it would reach # 71 on the US Charts). It would also be Columbia Records' first "rock & roll" record.
Produced by Doris Day's son (and Charlie Manson bud) Terry Melcher, it would be the last Raiders' album released before they really took off and before they started regularly appearing on Dick Clark's American Bandstand spin-off show, Where the Action Is.
This isn't a great album, but its pretty good. Side One captures the band in a faux-live setting playing pretty rip-roaring R&B standards like "You Can't Sit Down", "Money (That's What I Want)", "Louie Louie" and "Do You Love Me?" Definitely a great way to get a raucous party started (by 1965 standards!)
Side Two gets a little more folksy, a little more psych-y and a little more expressive. Over the course of the side of an album they evolve from a middle-of-the-road dance/party band to a tight-sounding, legit rock & roll band.
There's more cover songs on Side Two, like "Fever" & "Time Is On My Side", but there are also some great songs written by some of their contemporaries like Bruce Johnston/Melcher ("Gone") and Steve Barri/P.F. Sloan ("These Are Bad Times For Me And My Baby"). The album's soulful closer (and our probable winner for best song on the record award), "A Kiss To Remember Her By" was a completely original tune, composed by Lindsay.
History will probably most remember Paul Revere and The Raiders as a gimmicky sort of band as in their early days they would perform dressed up like Colonial Minutemen, however, there was nothing gimmicky about their tight and driving rhythm section, their grinding lead guitar work (by Drake Levin), their heavy, bleeding Hammond organ (by Paul Revere) and singer Mark Lindsay's soulful, raspy vocals. Like all great rock & roll bands they were a bunch of white kids pretending (wishing) to be black and having a ton of fun doing it!
FUN FACT: Hey kids, did you know that lead singer, Mark Lindsay, and producer, Terry Melcher, once shared a house at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles's Benedict Canyon? Sound familiar? That's the same house that Sharon Tate & friends would be brutally murdered by the Manson family in August 1969! Melcher Skelter!
RATING: 3.5 kisses to remember you by out of 5
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