Drake Levin R.I.P.

July 7, 2009

Drake Levin, lead guitarist for Paul Revere & the Raiders during the quintet's hit-making prime in the mid-1960s, died Saturday at his home in San Francisco after a long battle with cancer, according to his longtime friend and former Raiders bandmate Phil Volk.

He was 62.

Levin's four-year stint with the Raiders, known for its campy Revolutionary War uniforms, thigh-high black riding boots and tri-corner hats, coincided with a string of top 10 hits including "Kicks," "Hungry" and "Good Thing."

Something to listen.

Paul Revere & The Raiders: Something Happening (1968)

ALBUM INFO

Having previously scored big through their association with the Dick Clark TV show Where The Action Is, Paul Revere & the Raiders seemed a good bet — from the point of view of Columbia Records — to hit again in Clark's new series, Happening '68 (later renamed It's Happening. Unfortunately, 1968 wasn't 1965, and the group had neither the command of the most relevant rock sounds of the later era nor the ear of younger teen listeners in the same way. Something Happening showcased this problem: Soemthing was, indeed, happening to the group's sound, and it wasn't good. Paul Revere & the Raiders had abandoned the sneering garage band sound that had fueled their earlier success, taken one detour to a white soul sound through Chips Moman's studio on Goin' To Memphis (essentially a Mark Lindsay solo record), then tried to come back with this album, the first produced entirely by Lindsay. This time out, the group delivers some melodic but very tepid psychedelia ("Happens Every Day," "Free," "The Good TImes") and lightweight pop-rock ("Love Makes The World Go Round," interspersed with tracks that do manifest a sharper edge, such as "Get Out Of My Head," where the mix of punk defiance, light textured string section, and horn back-up is genuinely exciting and engaging (but to get to it, one has to listen through a minute of sound effects and a trippy fade-down); and "Don't Take It So Hard," a punchy imitation "Paperback Writer"; and the extended punk-psychedelic jam "Communication." On the group's earlier records, songs like these would have been the tolerable flatter spots in between the moments of greatness, but on Something Happening they are the album's peaks. As to the semi-title track, "Happening '68," it does present some pleasant guitar and keyboard flourishes but is othewise undistinguished. The 1996 Sundazed reissue sounds great, but the bonus tracks mostly associated with the show Happening '68, all combining to make this one of the less compelling re-releases of the group's work.

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OK...FOR ME ALL THE ALBUMS OF THIS BAND ARE AMAZING (UNTIL 1970) THIS BAND REALLY KICKED SOME ASS BACK IN THE DAYS ... IMPORTANT.

LINK: DON`T TAKE IT SO HARD ! ! ! !

Paul Revere & The Raiders: Revolution! (1967)

ALBUM INFO (Sdz)

Their Northwest party sounds exploded across the nation and evolved into the tuffest teen rock of the 60's. Thirty years hence, Sundazed reignites the fuse, rocketing Paul Revere and the Raiders back to their rightful place in the rock cosmos. This was the real thing!

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If not as consistently a knockout as Spirit of '67, Revolution! is nevertheless right on its heels, containing as it does an even greater degree of pop experimentation within the form. Suffice to say that this group managed to make the transition from the simple, tough R&B-flavored rock they helped found to the more psychedelic popcraft/acidic majesty that soon unfolded behind the 1964-1965 Beatles' lead. And if Spirit is the Raiders' Revolver, then Revolution! is their less wacked-out Sgt. Pepper. Beginning with one of their most supreme moments — the rough-and-tumble, aggressive yet amazingly catchy "Him or Me — What's It Gonna Be" — the LP takes the same twists and turns as its predecessor through a multitude of entertaining styles, from the sharp laze blues of "Reno" to the quintessential upbeat smack of "Mo'reen" and especially "Gone-Movin' On." Through it all, bandleader Mark Lindsay is a minor marvel. Lindsay may not have been blessed with a classic pop voice croon, but his exciting lower-range grunt and snarl compliments his upper-range prettier voice in a way that adds bushels of unfiltered attitude. His gutsy, versatile style totally blends with the rough edges of both the production and playing, which belies the more gilded pop moments. Lindsay is the glue that holds what would have been a willy-nilly collection together. Truly 1967 was the most magical year in pure pop history. But if many with-it fans have already bathed in the unbelievable sonic pleasures of that year, far too few have given the Raiders their rightful place in this pantheon, even though they certainly held such a place in their time. There can be no reason for this oversight to continue, for here is the evidence once again laid bare.

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SUCH A GREAT ALBUM HERE... JUST LISTEN ... A CLASSIC...

LINK: MAKE IT WITH ME ! ! ! !

Paul Revere & The Raiders: Mojo Workout! (63-65)

ALBUM REVIEW (am)

Though this is to the Raiders later, greater catalog what With the Beatles is to Revolver, it's another piece of hard evidence that the Pacific Northwest was the tough, balls-out, kicking-and-screaming early-'60s rock & roll region of America. Again, long before and right through the onslaught of the British Invasion, these guys and their bill-sharers were stomping out the '50s-model R&B so hard, it was a wonder they weren't black like the inspirations they covered. Yet, as it turns out, Mojo Workout is one of only three known live recordings that documents the band's early, mostly covers, wild-party sets, and its sound is impeccable. It was done at a free concert, in 1964, within their new label's (Columbia) Hollywood studios for the express purpose of caging the Raiders infamous live beast. (Yet the tapes sat in a vault for 37 years!) These five guys clearly fed off an audience, and though there's still plenty of drive in the young Raiders' studio work — see the whole of disc two for the evidence of that — you can feel the charge they got in their natural habitat, being egged on by a crowd. Unbridled frontman Mark Lindsay asks over and over, before each song, "Is everybody ready!!!," as if for another rocket launch. The songs and riffs of Ray Charles, Richard Berry, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Aaron Neville, Isley Brothers, Huey "Piano" Smith & the Clowns, Jerry Lee Lewis, Coasters, James Brown, Olympics, and Jessie Hill mix with the occasional similar-styled original to make the kids dance along with the Raiders' noted high-kick stage dance steps. Just listen and you can hear the band's charismatic power and the smoke they put into a clutch of great material, known and obscure.

INFO SUNDAZED

With a lot of tracks and over 2 1/4 hours of music on 2 discs, Mojo Workout! is the story that has never been told, of how Paul Revere and the Raiders burned down the pines in the Northwest for years, then bottled that rude magic on record for Columbia in ‘63 thru early ‘65. Revere, Lindsay, Mike Smith, Drake Levin and “Doc” Holladay were a lethal R&B party machine with a conqueror’s spirit.Mojo Workout! marks the first comprehensive issue of the Raiders’ earliest Columbia recordings. The way the Raiders played these songs was the way they sounded in real life, in clubs and VFW halls. This is what rock & roll was like between Presley and the Beatles, as white teenagers discovered the blackness in the music for themselves — and then reinvented it.

ANOTHER ALBUM OF ONE OF MY FAVOURITE BANDS... IT`S JUST A LOT...+ THAN 30 SONGS OF PURE JOY !!! IT`S A LOT ! ! BE CAREFUL ! !

LINK1CD: WHOLE LOTTA NOTHIN´ ! ! !
LINK2CD: MY WIFE CAN`T COOK ! ! !

Paul Revere & The Raiders: The Spirit of '67 (nov. 1966)

ALBUM REVIEW (am, + bonus tracks)

The Spirit of '67, Paul Revere and the Raiders' third gold-selling, Top Ten album to be released in 1966, marked the triumph of the group's in-house writing team of lead singer Mark Lindsay, Paul Revere, and producer Terry Melcher. "Hungry," the Top Ten follow-up to "Kicks," was written, like the earlier hit, by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, but Lindsay-Revere-Melcher then hit the Top 40 with "The Great Airplane Strike" and the Top Ten with "Good Thing." (Actually, Revere was not a writer on "Good Thing," as subsequent releases indicated.) Those hits anchored this collection, which was filled out by showcases for bassist Phil VolkMark Smith (guitarist Drake Levin had been replaced by Jim Valley), plus some secondary material by the group's leaders. As usual, they were listening closely to their peers, and much of the material had the twangy guitar-rock sound common to 1966, though some of the experimental eclecticism that would lead to the elaborate productions of 1967's Sgt. Pepper psychedelic era was also apparent in songs like "Oh! To Be a Man" and "Undecided Man" (the latter a near-copy of the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby"). This stylistic trend-following did not bode well for the future, but for the moment Paul Revere and the Raiders were riding high. The CD reissue on Sundazed adds three bonus cuts, including the 45-single version of "The Great Airplane Strike," and an alternate version of "Hungry."

ALTHOUGH THE TITLE SAYS 67´THE ALBUM WAS RELEASED ON NOVEMBER OF 1966 ! A DETAIL ... OK SO ... HERE`S ANOTHER GREAT ALBUM OF THIS AMAZING BAND... YEAH ... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ... + THE BONUS TRACKS ...

LINK: WHY ! ? WHY ! ? WHY ! (IS IT SO HARD)

Paul Revere & The Raiders: Midnight Ride (1966)

ALBUM REVIEW (am)

Midnight Ride marked just about the pinnacle of Paul Revere & the Raiders' history as a source of great albums. Even more to their credit, most of the music on Midnight Ride was written by the bandmembers themselves, and not just Mark Lindsay and Paul Revere, but Phil Volk, Drake Levin, and Mike Smith get shared songwriting credits, too. The irony is that this was the last album on which that egalitarian spirit was to dominate; alongside the tight, hard, eminently danceable rock & roll sounds that comprise about two-thirds of this album, there are signs of the softer, more introspective balladry that lead singer Mark Lindsay was starting to favor in his songwriting ("Little Girl in the Fourth Row," etc.). It was this stylistic break, coupled with disputes over which bandmembers were to get their songs represented on the group's albums, that led to Levin's departure following the release of this album, and which helped precipitate a stylistic drift away from the sound that defined the group. The Sundazed reissue, released in February 2000, has been remixed from the original three-track session masters, yet remains true to the band's original sound, and the album has been enhanced with the presence of three rocking bonus tracks (two of them car songs — cool!). "Kicks" is still the coolest song here, but the Sundazed version rocks a lot harder with the extra tracks, and is a lot more fun. There are also new liner notes by Volk and Levin, in which both look back with honesty, yet a great deal of warmth and enjoyment for what they did, and what they were doing around the time this album was made.

Their Northwest party sounds exploded across the nation and evolved into the tuffest teen rock of the 60's. Thirty years hence, Sundazed reignites the fuse, rocketing Paul Revere and the Raiders back to their rightful place in the rock cosmos. This was the real thing! (Sundazed)

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ... NO MORE WORDS ... AH YEAP ... THIS ALBUM CONTAINS THE BONUS TRACKS... SUNDAZED EDITION ...

LINK: K I C K S ! ! !

Paul Revere & The Raiders: Just like us (1966)

ALBUM REVIEW (allmusic)

Although Just like Us! was Paul Revere & the Raiders' fourth album overall, it marked a number of firsts. It was their first album to appear since they had become TV stars (and therefore AM radio staples and teenage magazine heartthrobs, especially Mark Lindsay) as a result of Where the Action Is; it was their first album to be produced entirely by Terry Melcher, a powerful influence and significant contributor to their sound; it was their first Top Ten album and their first to go gold. Actually, it's only a gradual development from their previous album, the half-live (in the studio) Here They Come! The group still had a tough R&B edge and still favored R&B covers like "Night Train," "Doggone," and, by way of England, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "I'm Crying." (Melcher was already steering a stylistic course for The Raiders between The Rolling Stones and the Animals.) Even the two hit singles, "Steppin' Out" and "Just like Me," were intense, bluesy rockers. Unlike later albums, Just like Us! highlighted the whole band — guitarist Drake Levin, bassist Phil "Fang" Volk, and drummer Mike Smith each took turns on lead vocals. (That would change as Lindsay's profile rose in the band.) Each was competent and entertaining, but Just like Us! was still an album by a group feeling its way from the dancehall circuit to the different and more creative demands of mass popularity.

THIS IS JUST ... AN AMAZING ALBUM... REALLY ... IT`S PRICELESS ! ! ! ... Great songs, one of their best for me... yes including "baby please don´t go" , one of the best versions ever recorded ... 10 POINTS FOR ME - masterpiece album.

LINK: BABY PLEASE DON´T GO ! ! ! ! ! !

Paul Revere & The Raiders: Like Long Hair (1961)

Gardena Records issued Paul Revere & the Raiders' debut album in the wake of the Top 40 success of the instrumental "Like, Long Hair," and much of it is in the same vein as the single, which is a boogie-woogie arrangement of Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C-Sharp Minor." Pianist and bandleader Paul Revere and saxophonist (and occasional vocalist) Mark Lindsay lead the instrumental attack, as they boogie up such numbers as Gershwin's "Summertime" and also provide the group's covers of bar band R&B standards like "Road Runner." It's lively, if basic music, but offers little hint that the group would go on to make polished pop/rock in a few years.



LINK: SUMMERTIME

Paul Revere & The Raiders: The Essential Ride (63-67)

No other rock & roll band has experienced the rollercoaster ups and downs in reputation that Paul Revere & the Raiders have known across 40 years in music. One of the most popular and entertaining groups of the 1960s, they enjoyed 10 years of serious chart action, and during their three biggest years (1966-69) got as much radio play as any group of that decade, sold records in numbers second only to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and received nearly as much coverage in the music press of the period (which included a lot of teen fan magazines) as the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. Yet when most histories of rock started getting written, Paul Revere & the Raiders were scarcely mentioned — at best, they were usually a footnote to the boom years of the late '60s.

LINK1: STEPPIN`OUT

LINK2: (IM NOT YOUR) STEPPIN`STONE