An early single, ‘Like, Long Hair’, charted, but whatever momentum that instrumental cut might have afforded the band stalled when Revere was drafted for military service. Revere claimed conscientious objector status and was instead assigned to a job as a cook in a mental institution.


NORTHWESTNIGHTS


The early Raiders with Revere (far left) and Lindsay (seated, centre).


“I


N A LITTLE TOWN IN IDAHO, way back in ’61…” So began the lyrics to the wryly autobiographical 1967 B-side ‘The Legend of Paul Revere’. The song


tells the story of how pianist bandleader Paul Revere (his real name!) found vocalist/sax player Mark Lindsay and recruited him into his group. Revere’s group got its start a few years earlier, and Mark Lindsay actually joined in ’60. But unlike “sixty-one”, that year doesn’t rhyme with “fun”. And ultimately, fun was the raison d’être for this group from The Pacific Northwest. Fun, delivered with kick- ass energy, and a bit of danger. As Revere told Ed Osborne (producer of the newly-released Raiders compilation The Complete Columbia Singles), “My band was bad. We had long-ass greasy hair and I wanted parents to say, ‘My daughter’s not going out with that guy.’”


When Revere’s service was up, he rejoined the band, now based in Oregon. Word of the group’s lively stage show caught the attention of Portland KISN-AM disc jockey Roger Hart. Hart recalls, “I was pretty much The Pied Piper of the town, doing the teen dances at the armouries, skating rinks, anywhere we could find a floor to dance on. We started having live groups; we were inspired by The Wailers, out of Tacoma, Washington. My bank teller told me about Paul Revere & The Raiders, and I hired them to do a teen dance.” Hart observes that though they were young, the group was already “mature; they had a little experience.” He soon became their manager, and the “first order of business was to go into the studio and record a song that was driving the kids to the dance floor.”


The group released a version of that song – Richard Berry’s ‘Louie, Louie’ – recorded within days of, and at the same studio as, the version by


another regional group, The Kingsmen. The latter group, with access to better distribution than the self-released Raiders version, got the hit. By ’63 the Raiders’ line-up included Mike “Smitty” Smith on drums and Drake Levin on guitar. During this period the group’s raw and largely R&B-flavoured set list consisted mostly of covers. The Raiders’ reputation grew on the strength of their raucous, high- energy live performances.


Mark Lindsay says that onstage, the Raiders had been “wearing collarless blazers, like any number of groups, quite frankly. Paul Revere and I were walking in downtown Portland one day, to pick up our dry cleaning. We happened to pass a costume shop, and in the window was a mannequin dressed in a three-cornered hat, Revolutionary coat and tights. I turned to Paul and said, ‘You know, that’s the way


The classic ’65/66 line-up of Lindsay, Jim “Harpo” Valley, Revere (seated), Phil “Fang” Volk and Mike “Smitty” Smith.


Photo courtesy of Gino Rossi


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