Why, Paul Revere And The Raiders?

“Why Paul Revere And The Raiders”

Dr. Rox Remember When? 

Article #152 Oct 2023

By RLSchwinden aka MrZerr0 

   When I was a kid growing up in Sioux City, Iowa there were not a whole lot of musical options, so any chance I could I  took advantage of what I was able to hear or see. My Mom asked to get HBO installed into our house as she loved to watch movies, as did I. In the summer of 1979 I saw the film “Animal House” (July 1978)  on HBO in the soundtrack. I heard “Louie, Louie” by The Kingsmen, I loved it. Now, at the time in Sioux City, there was only a few places to buy Vinyl Records, the main independent store “Uncle John” owned by Mike Duncan (eventually his daughter Mindy ran this for him) and a store where my Grandfather Willis, my Dad Bill, and his brothers all worked which was Woolco. At The time a new album cost about $7.99, an older title like the ones I was looking for, as I was looking for artists from the mid 60s , in the late 70s (Disco sucked) IF, you could even find them were about $5.99. Well, I made about $1.95 an hour working at Woolco, yes 3 generations all worked at the same store. 

Well at Woolco they had what was called the “Cut-Outs” Section. My Mom (Carol) had to explain this to me as she sold records at  Kresge’s “Certain records are not made forever they stop making them if they don’t sell well” retail stores like Woolco or K-Mart (Kresge’s) had huge “Cut-Outs” Sections. So What is a “Cut-Out” it literally means “Cut Out Of Print” (No Longer Made) the 6 major records labels being; CBS, Capitol, MCA, RCA  WEA, PGD, when they stopped making certain titles they would make a “Saw Cut” in the side or have the “Corner Cut Off” or make “Drill Hole” in the top corner, or have “Hole Punched” through the corner. and the price points were: .99, $1.99, $2.99, $3.99, $4.99, then those price stickers were color coded for a specific 3 month period, and after a year they dropped down to the next lowest price point until finally .49 and after that they were destroyed Woolco alone destroyed thousands upon thousands of KISS records in 1979 -80. 

Starting in the 80s CBS began to melt down it’s overstocked records rather than sell them at a reduced price the thinking was “CBS Records will not devalue it’s artist catalog” these slow selling records were recycled into new records. Well, not making very much money and wanting every record I could get my hands on I shopped the “Cut-Outs” Section, it was there I found artists like  The Byrds, Paul Revere And The Raiders and Thin Lizzy. It was here I found my found Raiders record Paul Revere And The Raiders “Greatest Hits” with their version of  “Louie, Louie” not the same version that I heard in “Animal House” but at least I had the song to play at home in my room. You see kids, the very 1st time I ever heard of the internet was Winter 1986, so if you wanted to look up music you had to use a giant book called a “Phonolog” at a store like “Musicland” which the 1st one I ever saw was at Southern Hills Mall about 1982 (the mall opened in Mar 1980). 

The album cover really appealed to me, I loved the colonial uniforms, as I always like a sense of uniformity of the 60s bands, everyone wearing the same suits or at least similar suits, I had Marx Revolutionary War toy soldiers only a few years earlier, so I thought the Raiders looked really cool, and I loved 5 songs on this record. Later in 1988 when I started to get all of The Raiders catalog, I found out I loved a great deal more songs.  

Originally formed in 1958 as “The Downbeats” When Paul Revere Dick (7 Jan1938; Harvard, NE. – October 4, 2014) met Mark Lindsay (9 Mar 1942 Eugene, OR.)  in Boise, ID. in 1960 the band changed their name to Paul Revere And Te Raiders, they later relocated to Portland, OR. in 1962. The band has had some 37 members in it’s 56 years career, Guitarists: Drake Levin, Jim Valley, Freddie Weller, Sioux City, Iowa born Doug Heath (9  Oct 1948), Paul’s own Son Jamie Revere, Bassists: Doc Holliday, Phil “Fang” Volk, Keith Allison (cousin of The Crickets Jerry Allison) and Ron Foos, Drummers: Mike Smith, Mississippi born Joe Carreo Jr. and Omar Martinez, just to name a few. In their career they have released 25 Albums, 42 Singles with 30 Songs on the BillBoard Charts. They have appeared on countless TV shows such as: “Batman” (1966) “Where The Action Is” (1965-67) one was filmed here in MPLS, “Ed Sullivan Show” (1967) “It’s Happening” (1968 -69), “Milton Berle Show” (1966), “Mike Douglas Show” (1966) “Lloyd Thaxton Show” (1965- 66). 

Another cool thing I later figured out about The Raiders, much like their contemporaries of the time they used VOX Guitars and Amps, specifically Volk used a “Phantom” Bass and Weller used a V288 Aristocrat and Lindasy played a “Phantom” 12 String. Just like The Beatles, Rolling Stones and The Monkees used VOX Guitars and amps like the AC30 or “Super Beatle” 100w The Rolling Stones used a  MkVI Teardrop and  a  V298 Wyman Bass, The Monkees used V219 Bobcat and V238 Country Western. I saw and met Paul Revere And The Raiders twice in Des Moines, IA. in 1993 and 1997 I found him to be the consummate showman, always on making plenty of jokes , though I was supposed to see them in 1989 in Williamsburg, IA. but car trouble prevented me from doing so. I finally  saw Mark Lindsay in St. Paul in 2012, as I was supposed to see him in 1993 in Des Moines, and 2009 in Milaca, MN. Unbelievably Jim “Harpo” Valley became a children’s artist after The Raiders and also performed in Des Moines, I did not find out until a week later, when my friend Reno informed me he met him after the show. In 1997 I met Jon Vasey ESQ. a VOX collector, and the biggest Raiders fan I ever met. He and I had the endless argument about who was a better vocalist, Mark Lindsay or Micky Dolenz (fans what do you think ?)
It took me a long time to do so, but I have created (so far) 4 Radio Shows on Paul  Revere And The Raiders, with 2 more in the works. Here are the set lists for these shows. 

WDGY “PsychoGello Shows”Paul Revere And The Raiders

Part #1: 1965 -1968

Fever: 1965, Just Like Me: 1965 , Steppin’ stone: 1966, 1001 Arabian Nights: 1966, Louie, Go Home: 1966, I Hear A Voice: 1967, I’m A Loser Too: 1968 ,Happening ’68: 1968.

Part #2″ 1969 – 1976
Ride On My Shoulder: 1969,I Dont Know: 1969, Just Seventeen: 1970, Indian Reservation: 1971, Powder Blue Mercedes Queen: 1972, Love Music: 1973, All Over You: 1974, Gonna Have A Good Time: 1975, The British Are Coming: 1976.

“Mark Lindsay Solo”
Reason To Believe: 1969, Arizona: 1969, Silver Bird: 1970, Been Too Long On The Road: 1971, Something Big: 1972, California: 1973, Mamacita: 1975, Sing Your Own Song: 1976.

WDGY
“Cover Up Show””Lament Of The Cherokee Reservation Indian” 1965 John D. Loudermilk: 31 March 1934; Durham, NC. 21 Sep 2016

“Louie Go Home” 1966 The Chambermen: Spokan, WA.

“Steppin Out”  1966 The Atheanians: Edinburgh, Scotland

“Birds Of A Feather” 1969Keith Allison: 26 Aug 1942; Coleman, TX. 17 Nov 2021

“Freeborn Man” 1976 May The Outlaws; Tampa, FL.

“Hungry” 1977 Jan Sammy Hagar: 13 Oct 1947; Solinas, CA.

 “(INY) Steppingstone: 1979The Mertron Parkas; London, ENG.

“Kicks” 1986 June The Monkees: 1965 L.A. CA.

“Just Seventeen” 1998Crawlspace; Perth, AUST.

Coming soon to WDGY
Paul Revere And The Raiders: “Top BillBoard Hits” Just Like Me #11: Nov 1965, Kicks: #4: Feb 1966, Hungry: #6: June 1966, Great Airplane Strike: #20: Oct 1966, Good Thing: #4: Dec 1966, Him Or Me: #5: April 1967, I Had A Dream #17: Aug 1967, Too Much Talk #19: Feb 1968, Mr. Sun Mr. Moon: #18: Jan 1969, Let Me: #20: April 1969, Indian Reservation: #1: Feb 1971.

“Mr. Zer0’s Evolation Show” trying to get on Radio WVIC
55 min. Featuring:Paul Revere And The Raiders, The Brotherhood,
The Unknowns, Mark Lindsay, Jim Valley, Freddie Weller,
Keith Allison, And several Cover Versions.

You can catch my Radio Show “Mr. Zer0’s PsychoGello Show”  on WDGY AM740, Streaming, FM: 92.1, 103.7, 107.1, Sundays at 8am (occasionally at 7am too). You can hear The past 90 Episodes at www.MrZeroS.Com -Podcast. You can find “Mr. Zer0’s Evolation Show” (32 programs) and “Hits And History” (17 Programs) at www.MixCloud.Com.
Check in next time. Until then … Nerd Is The Word” 

Mr. Zer0’s *Est. 20091744 Lexington Ave. N.Roseville (St. Paul), MN. 55113www.MrZeroS.Com$ELLING:
Vinyl, CDs, Cassettes,VHS, DVDs, LaserDiscs,Retro Toys In Package,Nintendo, Sega, PlayStation, XboX.Shirts, and That’s Is ALL!