Paul Revere and the Raiders were an American pop rock band based out of Los Angeles via Portland, Oregon via Caldwell, Idaho (outside of Boise). Led by their founder and namesake, keyboardist Paul Revere Dick (January 7, 1938 – October 4, 2014), and their lead singer Mark Lindsay, the Raiders started out as a standard Rock & Roll dance band in the '50s, gaining a regional following in the Pacific Northwest and scoring a minor chart hit with the instrumental "Like, Long Hair". After singing with Columbia Records, the band found national success in the mid-'60s by playing hard-edged Garage Rock influenced by The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds. Widely viewed as part of the American response to The British Invasion, with their name and stage uniforms invoking The American Revolution, they also became Household Names by starring in the daily Dick Clark-produced pop music TV show Where the Action Is.
The band garnered five Top 10 hits in America between 1965 and 1967, before their particular style of good-time rock fell out of favor at the end of the decade. Shortening their name to just "Raiders", they scored a surprise comeback hit single in 1971 with "Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)", which topped the Billboard chart and eventually achieved Platinum status. In the middle of all that, lead singer Mark Lindsay launched a solo career alongside his work with the band, scoring a Top 10 hit of his own with "Arizona". Also guitarist Freddy Weller had a concurrent career as a Country Music singer, which he continued even after he left the group.
Lindsay formally left the group in 1975, but Revere kept it going as a nostalgia act.
Studio discography:
- Like, Long Hair (1962)
- Paul Revere and the Raiders (1963)
- Here They Come! (1965)
- Just Like Us (1966)
- Midnight Ride (1966)
- The Spirit of '67 (1966)note
- Revolution! (1967)
- A Christmas Present...And Past (1967)
- Goin' to Memphis (1968)
- Something Happening (1968)
- Hard 'N' Heavy (With Marshmallow) (1969)
- Alias Pink Puzz (1969)
- Collage (1969) (the first of three albums under the shortened name Raiders)
- Indian Reservation (1971)
- Country Wine (1972)
- Special Edition (1982)note
- The Great Raider Reunion (1983)note
- Paul Revere Rides Again! (1983)note
- Ride to the Wall (2001)note
"Tropes just keep gettin' harder to find":
- And Starring: Many of their records were credited as Paul Revere & the Raiders featuring Mark Lindsay.
- Artist and the Band: Although the frontman was named Paul Revere Dick and dropped his last name. Bandmate Mark Lindsay also had a huge leading influence in the band as its composer/producer. After the passing of Paul in 2014, the band renamed themselves Paul Revere's Raiders.
- Christmas Songs: The 1967 album A Christmas Present...and Past, notable for having all but two of the songs be originals.
- Dolled-Up Installment: "Indian Reservation" was recorded as a Mark Lindsay solo track, with a bunch of stalwart Wrecking Crew session musicians (Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, Louie Shelton, Artie Butler) backing him, but he ultimately decided to credit it to The Raiders.
- Drugs Are Bad: Their 1966 hit "Kicks" (written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil) is considered one of the first anti-drug pop songs, even making it on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.
- Girlish Pigtails: "Arizona"-she's a girl (NOT a state) and she has "those Indian braids".
- Incessant Music Madness: "Introduction" from A Christmas Present... And Past, where Mark Lindsay introduces the Salvation Army Band: First, he can't get them to play on cue, then once they do start playing, he can't get them to stop.
- Instrumentals: Several, including their first hit, 1961's "Like, Long Hair".
- The Legend of X: The title "The Legend of Paul Revere"
- Like Is, Like, a Comma: The title "Like, Long Hair".
- Protopunk: Some of their harder songs qualify. They even did the first version of "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone".
- Protest Song: "Indian Reservation", about the mistreatment of Native Americans and the cultural genocide they've faced.
- Record Producer: Terry Melcher (the son of Doris Day) did most of their classic period, and played a heavy role in shaping their sound, in some cases playing most of the instruments on their studio recordings. Melcher also worked with The Beach Boys and The Byrds, but of course, these days he's best-known for his dealings with a certain aspiring singer-songwriter.
- Rock Star Song: "The Legend of Paul Revere" has lyrics that tell the band's story up to 1967, starting with Revere running a hamburger stand and befriending Lindsay, who was the delivery driver for the bread company ("the bun boy").
- Secondary Character Title: Revere was the keyboardist, Mark Lindsay was the singer.
- Singer Namedrop: Played wih: "Paul Revere's Ride", "The Legend of Paul Revere". As already noted, Revere was the keyboardist, Mark Lindsay was the singer.
- "Stuck at the Airport" Plot: "The Great Airplane Strike", where Mark Lindsay sings about trying (and failing) to find another flight at LAX when one airline goes on strike.
