Paul Revere And The Raiders
Midnight Ride

Small premise. Paul Revere (Boston, January 1, 1735 - May 10, 1818) was an American engraver and patriot, who interpreted and immortalized the events of the War of Independence in a famous print engraving (an expert copper engraver, he created many anti-British caricatures). A historic night ride (known as the Midnight Ride) undertaken by Revere served to thwart the English attempt to assault the weapons and ammunition depots of the insurgent colonists: on April 18, 1775, along with another patriot, William Dawes, he rode from the early evening hours until late midnight between Charlestown and Lexington to warn the leaders of the revolt (Samuel Adams, Samuel Prescott, and John Hancock) of the imminent arrival of English soldiers who had just landed at North Beach. WIKIPEDIA

Organist Paul Revere Dick formed his first band (the Downbeats) in the suburbs of the city of Boise (Idaho) in the late 50s and became a prominent figure in the local scene with fiery rock n' roll and rhythm and blues performances. Soon, young baker Mark Lindsay joined the band as a vocalist, and the group, at the insistence of their then-manager, changed their moniker to the more striking Paul Revere & The Raiders, just in time for their first recording "Like, Long Hair" in 1961. The song was a small-big hit, reaching number 38 on the Billboard sales chart. From this point, the band's history became frenetic and whirlwind, with constant lineup changes, a year and a half of Revere's separation from his creation due to civil service as a cook in a psychiatric hospital to avoid enlisting for Vietnam (while Lindsay continued the project as Paul Revere's Raiders) and a well-known local DJ, Roger Hart, who took them under his protective wing and paid for the recordings of "Louie Louie," which was released on his own label, Sande. Beaten by the Kingsmen, who reached the top of the charts with the same song, the Raiders were undeterred and, still with Hart's label, released their first self-titled album.

The explosive force the band expresses in concerts does not go unnoticed (Revere used to play his piano by setting it on fire or smashing it... years before Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend, and even Keith Emerson), so much so that producer Terry Melcher managed to sign them to CBS, a label then not very inclined towards rock. In 1964, with the album "Here They Come" and in 1965 with "Just Like Us," the fame of the Raiders grew immensely from one coast to the other of the nation, also thanks to the success of the singles "Steppin' Out" and "Just Like Me"; so much so that they became the champions of patriotic defense against the British Music Invasion that bands like Beatles, Rolling Stones, Animals, and Kinks were bringing from the land of Albion. The group was cast for the Saturday afternoon youth program Where The Action Is, hosted by Dick Clark, and the new lineup with drummer Mike Smith, bassist Phil "Fang" Volk, and guitarist Drake Levin alongside Lindsay and Revere, playing on the homonymy with the famous patriot and their assigned role by the press, appeared on stage in American Revolutionary uniforms, staging between pieces small theatrical sketches with refined humor. It's 1966 and Paul Revere & The Raiders couldn't hope for a better moment. Their producer, however, was thinking of a change in their sound and urged them to explore alternative paths, to distance themselves from the nickname of America's Stones that they carried with them. Revere came to abandon his beloved ivory keys to agitate his fingers on those of the Vox organ and under Melcher's guidance, the band went into the studio for the recording of the album "Midnight Ride," a title that sounds like a tribute/parody of their famous namesake's feat.

The games are opened by the clanging of the single "Kicks," a true garage anthem softened by a certain mod-beat mannerism, with Lindsay's now mature and sensual voice leading the dances to flow into the wild rockabilly of "There's Always Tomorrow" with an interlude of pure amphetamine frenzy that becomes pop-delia in "Ballad Of A Useless Man" or rural folk-rock in "There She Goes." The suffering of the tragedy-song "All I Really Need Is You" is tempered by a magical trumpet in the background and a folk brushstroke of Byrds matrix, "Louie, Go Home" lives on the murky and lazy blues of "Gloria" by Them, only to be sucked into an acid and arabesque vortex of Kaleidoscope (USA) matrix while "Take A Look At Yourself" seems like a "friendly" advice given to the Beatles and their music. The tear-jerking ballads are not missing, like "Little Girl In The 4th Row" (of which there is an Italian version, included among the bonus tracks of the CD reissue) and "Melody For An Unknown Girl," which seem, at first glance, to be fillers, but which mark exactly the path Lindsay will take as a solo artist, once he sheds his patriot's clothes. Final citation for the album's masterpiece "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone" revisited here by the Raiders in a way that will never be surpassed (perhaps only the devastating version by Minor Threat more than 10 years later)... angry, slick, torrid with Lindsay's voice drawing words directly from his twisted guts and with Revere's organ pounding on the head like a migraine after a colossal binge.

I leave this monographic review of mine with the words of Bruce Eder, who on the pages of Allmusic Guide opens the biography dedicated to them:
"... during the three years of greatest success (1966-1969) no band had as high radio play and their sales were second only to those of the Beatles and Rolling Stones, and on par with the Beatles and Rolling Stones they had coverage in music and teen magazines. But every time a new history of rock is started, Paul Revere & The Raiders are barely mentioned, at best as a footnote in the chapter on the late sixties boom.".