This is the "mod" look with Out On That Road from the Hard 'n' Heavy album, which came out in April 1969. Paul's engaged for once and he's got a good look here. Wonder if he actually played on it considering it was piano and not organ.
Here they are in '69 with updated wardrobes and less choreography (but Paul is still hamming it up) edit: oops, ninja'd by Jay_Z!
The great guitar parts on their hits (eg, intro to Him or Me, the riff from Steppin' Out, etc.), plus Mark's snarling vocals, set them apart from other pop acts of the day. They really did rock righteously. The Great Airplane Strike rules!
Revere apparently preferred playing piano to organ, but lugging a piano around was impractical. from the Sundazed interview: Mark: When the Animals came out, of course they had the electric piano. It was the Farfisa organ, and then the Vox organ, was the main sound then. That’s when Paul switched from piano to organ, and unfortunately for him, that took a lot of the fun out of his playing, because he was a rip-roarin’ boogie woogie piano player, but on the organ, he just kind of like padded chords and stuff. He did it, but he really couldn’t shine after that, and show his keyboard chops. The first wave obviously came from the British Invasion but we picked up on it, The Standells did, and it became ‘the sound.’ Here's the great full interview: A Conversation with Mark Lindsay
Thanks, I was going to post something similar. People tend to forget how little of their hits were penned by outside writers. You could probably fudge your list by 2 songs, too..."Just Like Me" (#11, 1965) was re-tooled by their manager, Roger Hart and "We Gotta All Get Together" ( #50, 1969) was written by Freddy Weller who was still in the band at the time.
Two of the Raiders' biggest hits, "Kicks" (#4) and "Hungry" (#6) were written specifically for them by grandmasters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Mann and Weil had written "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" which had been a major hit for the Animals, and Raiders producer Terry Melcher asked them to compose a song in a similar vein for Paul Revere and the Raiders. "Kicks" was the result, and in a complicated story the song somehow actually wound up getting to the Animals first. But Eric Burdon turned it down, so the Raiders got to record it. The Raiders Vs The Animals The song stood out for its anti-drugs message, which was, to put it lightly, counter to the trend of rock & roll and youth culture in those times. But it was also a very well-made record with an R&B-styled vocal by Mark Lindsay, a somewhat Beatle-ish lead guitar line, great vocal harmonies and a ridiculously catchy tune. So "Kicks" was deservedly a big hit. In 2004 it made #400 on Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Mann and Weil had another rockin' hit a couple years later with "The Shape Of Things To Come" by fictional group Max Frost and the Troopers. Mark Lindsay, who is an absolute genius at tweaking songs just a little bit to make them hugely better, reimagined the Max Frost song as a Raiders tune in the vein of the earlier Mann/Weil hits on the Indian Reservation album (an all-time favorite LP for me), with spectacular results: The Raiders - The Shape Of Things To Come
Threads like this keep me coming back to this site. Interesting stuff and inside knowledge. I'd forgotten how much I liked this band when I was a kid. Now I gotta do a Qobuz search.
Goin' To Memphis had nobody from the band on it except for Mark. As I recall, it was originally supposed to be a solo album.
Wasn't trying to ignite a Hall of Fame argument with my comment because I know that is a flash point here (as is the definition of rock and roll). My .02: Every great musician or band that lives in people's memories is not a Hall of Famer. Baseball fans will get this analogy: Boog Powell and Dave Concepcion were superb players, among the 50 or so best at their respective positions in the 150-odd-year history of MLB, and they were integral parts of two 1970s dynasties, but neither is a Hall of Famer.
Read up on it, now back to the music..... Is it Terry Melcher's voice the prominent one im the backing vocal stack? Hungry, for example....
I believe The Raiders are the only group with a song with an inference to crawfish sex (Louisiana Redbone)
I guess I’m trying to figure out why the Turtles (who had a heck of a lot more than “five good songs” are in a thread about Paul Revere and the Raiders. Same with the Rascals and Tommy James. ???
I think the implication is that there were a lot of other good bands in the '60s, and the Raiders are no more special than the rest. But I certainly agree with you that the Turtles had a lot more than five good songs!
My older brother led a band on the college frat circuit in the 60s (same circuit as Ronnie Dio and the Prophets and the incredible Wilmer and the Dukes). His band played every Raiders and Rascals hit. It was almost mandatory. Good Thing and Hungry would get a room going for sure. Fantastic singles. I agree that at some point the stage uniforms worked against them being take seriously at some point (the Rascals had silly uniforms early on but eventually ditched them). But their top singles stack up quite well against almost every other band from that era. Crank up Good Thing if you doubt that.
Board member Little Steven is certainly a fan (since Mark Lindsay's on his radio station). John Sykes probably doesn't know who they were.
I worked in my college "hippie" radio station in the early 70s. The Raiders and The Beach Boys were pure Kryptonite to all of the heads, radicals and "free-thinkers" on campus, and I even got flak for playing late 60s Kinks and Small Faces.
I just know some of their hits. Some great tunes there for sure. Edited to Add Pretty sure I read somewhere that the Raiders were featured on TV more than any other rock/pop act in the 60s, a great feat to note.
Just wish there were more actual TV performances that weren't lip synched. Especially from the Weller/Allison/Correro version of the group. I found a couple where Mark's vocals are actually live but nothing on the instrumental side
