Grand Jester of Rock'n'Roll: Paul Revere

Birthday tribute to a mastermind entertainer

Happy heavenly birthday to the great entertainer Paul Dick, stage-named Paul Revere. The ride of Paul Revere & The Raiders began in 1958 as an instrumental group:

Then Mark Lindsay joined and PR&TR morphed into a tight music act, pushing back on the British Invasion bands of 1964 with garage band energy. The Raiders kicked out hit after hit in multiple genres including bubblegum, country rock, hard rock, psychedelia, and soul/r’n’b, all with dazzling excellence.

They cut the first definitive version of “Louie Louie” before leaving their Oregon base for Los Angeles, joining Terry Melcher (Byrds producer) to launch a prolific and innovative run of great records that still play today: “Just Like Me”, “Kicks” and (recently in the film ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD), “Good Thing,” “Hungry,” “Mr. Sun Mr. Moon,” etc. etc.

In 1965, Dick Clark expanded his television jukebox, hiring PR&TR to host three TV shows, the best-known iteration being “Where The Action Is,” a spin-off of “American Bandstand.”

Before The Monkees even twanged “Last Train to Clarksville,” PR&TR had already set the bar for TV bands—a rock’n’roll update on Spike Jones. “Action” glued pre-adolescents like me to the tube with hipster comedy and ear candy—and there was eye candy for 1000s of girls screaming for front man Mark Lindsay—a powerhouse vocalist, able to croon soft sensual pop ballads then flip to paint-peeling bluesy growls.

The hits crested in 1971 with “Indian Reservation.” Then the band line-up shifted yet again but Paul rode on with new back-up Raiders. Over the years I’ve intersected with various Raiders (sidebar: One of my former drummers, Erik Nielsen, worked with the late Drake Levin, an under-sung guitar marvel of the Raiders classic TV line-up).

Fast forward to January 2008. I’d been touring with Davy Jones (Monkees) for many years, and we often shared bills with Paul and long-time Raiders Ron Foos, Doug Heath, and Danny Krause—“brothers of the road.”

We were on a cruise ship, floating somewhere on the Caribbean, partaking in Paul’s 70th birthday bash. During the revelry I got into a deep discussion with Paul about stage antics and how he got his Vox organ to “rhythmically float” on TV (he wouldn’t tell me the trick). Two years later, we were in Pittsburgh PA shooting a PBS-TV special and Paul enlisted me to persuade Davy to sing “Steppin’ Stone” with The Raiders. Davy balked, saying he didn’t want to wear Raider clothes, but eventually caved in:

Sadly, Paul passed in 2014, but I’m glad I had the chance to tell him in person the joy and musical instruction he showed me on record and on stage.

If I had to pick one PR&TR track, it’s "Too Much Talk.” It blew my mind when I was a kid—my 45 of it cracked but I kept pressing it with my fingers till the vinyl tissued (the fidelity on this clip is a tad distorted, but the visuals speak volumes)…

Meanwhile, heavenly HB PR and thank you for your years of spreading cheer on screen and on stage.