Search - Paul Revere & the Raiders :: Midnight Ride

Another favorite !

Alejandra Vernon | Long Beach, California | 11/25/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I know...I have a lot of favorite Raider CDs...but this one has to be a top 5 favorite.
From '66, it was their 3rd LP for Columbia, and a big transition, as 9 of the 11 tunes were written by them...the exceptions: The terrific Mann/Weill "Kicks", which was a big hit for them, and the Boyce/Hart "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone", which The Monkeys did a cover of and had a hit with...but this is the original version, and it's a knockout.Drake contributed "Ballad of a Useless Man", which is a compassionate look at the homeless (and in the '60s this wasn't a common point of view), along with 2 other songs, and the other 5 are by Mark and Paul. Perhaps the most interesting musically on the entire CD is "All I Really Need is You", with its many time/rhythm changes...it ends with the lovely instrumental, "Melody for an Unknown Girl", with Mark doing a smooth sax solo and the spoken parts.The bonus tracks: "Shake it Up", another Mark/Paul piece that's a rousing instrumental, and the Italian version of "Little Girl in the 4th Row". I feel the inclusion of "SS 396" and "Corvair Baby", which were recorded earlier ('65) and are in a "Beach Boys style", though neat songs, just don't fit in with the mood of the rest of this CD, and are kind of a jarring finish to an otherwise unique and excellent recording...(...)"

Rockin' Paul Revere

Ron | Tacoma, WA | 04/07/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"1966 was possibly the greatest year in rock & roll history. The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds", Bob Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde", "Revolver" by the Beatles, and "Face to Face" by the Kinks were all released in 1966. I add to that list"Midnight Ride" by Paul Revere & the Raiders. It was their third album for Columbia (fifth overall), and the first not to rely heavily on cover versions of other people's songs. "Kicks" and "I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone" were supplied by the songwriting teams of Mann-Weil and Boyce-Hart. Paul Revere and Mark Lindsay wrote six of the songs on the album, and one of the CD bonus tracks, "Shake it Up". Guitarist Drake Levin contributed "Ballad of a Useless Man" and collaborated with drummer Mike Smith ("There's Always Tomorrow") and bassist Phil Volk ("Get it On"). Most of the songs have the basic sound of the band playing together. Revere's Vox organ is prominent in the mix, and Levin's rhythmic guitar is unmistakeable. Also of note is the strong bass lines from Volk. 60's recordings usually buried bass guitar in the mix, unless it was a Motown record. Maybe the Raiders learned a few tricks from them. The clarity on this CD is eye opening. I've never heard "Kicks" sound as good as it does on this CD. "I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone" will have you forgetting all about the Monkees version - Mark growls out the lyrics like nobody's business! "Louie Go Home" is a killer Revere - Lindsay collaboration that should have been a single. It would have been a smash. "Take a Look at Yourself" is another killer rocker with strong lyrics. On the lighter side, there's Mark singing to the "Little Girl in the 4th Row" - some of the band members hated it, but Lindsay's teen fans loved it; "Melody for an Unknown Girl", an instrumental featuring Mark's sensitive sax; and "There She Goes", an up pop number with producer Terry Melcher on background vocals. The Raiders were to go on to make more sophisticated pop albums (with practically unlimited studio time as they desired), but it doesn't get any better than this: one of America's greatest bands rockin' it out with a great batch of songs."

Charm of Nostalgia

Kevin Killian | San Francisco, CA United States | 09/09/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This LP used to be my favcorite, until one day it didn't seem cool and I pushed it to the back of my recvord cabinet with some other records I was ashamed of. They were trying too hard to be like the Stones is what I figured, and they weren't cutting it. Oh boy, how I wrong I was. But as it turned out, most of the records I was ashamed of loving then, have come back from the valley of shame and are now my favorites! Isn't it funny?



Before the renmastered reissue with the extra tracks, the final song on side B USED TO BE the instrumental "Melody for an Unknown Girl," heavy with saxes, a tune I thought the ultimate in romance, sort of like "Caroline No" was for the Beach Boys PET SOUNDS. I'd play it on my little mono player again and again. The needle would click, click, click after the last groove while I was lost in a silence that grew more tenuous and romantic with every minute that passed, while I thought of the way that eventually I would become a teenager and be out there falling in love every day and a half and breaking hearts and getting my heart broken too I suppose. It was the idea of the "unknown girl," tantalizingly mysterious in the mist of anticipation, parallel to the "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier" which my dad took me to see, which also broke my heart.



I liked KICKS then too, from a child's perspective the song was filled with an older boy's looking back to a time long past when "Kicks" weren't quite as hard to find as nowadays; I had regret that I was too young to live in that time--the hedonist's utopia, some archetypal time before the expulsion from Eden. If that sounds far fetched, the lyrics to verse 2 are all about the way the girl in the song is looking (through drugs I used to think) "for another piece of paradise." We're all looking for that time before our own births in which sin and death had not yet corrupted our innocence. Maybe that's why those old albums and the pop tracks they contained now have the place of pride on my iPod."