Blu Ray Player
Paul Revere & the Raiders heroic lead singer/songwriter/producer – Mark Lindsay has impacted the music world in so many memorable ways.
Mark Lindsay – Paul Revere and the Raiders charismatic romantic superstar – one on one
Mark’s voice and persona with the Raiders made him a 60′s and 70′s icon and a mainstay on classic hits radio. Not only did he obtain legendary status with the band, hey what the object for affection for the world’s school girl population. Mark Lindsay’s alluring smile, handsome profile, and mop-top dew with his trademark long ponytail (que) were on the front cover of every teen magazine around the globe. And forget about those redcoats from England that called themselves the Beatles, mark Lindsay & the Raiders were true blue Patriots for American rock & roll.
Mark Lindsay will once again be singing those timeless Paul Revere & theRaiders megahits on the happy together tour 2011. Headling this year’s tour is – the turtles featuring Flo & Eddie (“it ain’t me Babe” “Happy Together” “she’s my girl”). Other legendary performers on the tour are – the Association (“Windy” “Cherish” “along comes Mary”), the grassroots, (“Let’s live for today” “Midnight Confessions”), and the Buckingham (“Kind of a Drag” “don’t you care” “Susan”).
The tour will be stopping at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater on Tuesday July 19th.
All these GREAT bill performers on one exciting and reminiscent of the American Bandstand, where the action is, hullabaloo and shindig TV show lineups of the 60′s.
Paul Revere & the Raiders-produced hit after hit throughout the 60′s and early 70′s. Memorable classics like “kicks”, “Steppin’ out”,.”Hungry”, “good thing”, “Just Like Me” and “Indian reservation.”
Marl Lindsay is a Florida native now. And thanks to Jeff Albright from the Albright Entertainment Group, I was able to speak with both mark Lindsay and mark Volman of the turtles last week. The interview will be following this article with Professor Volman.
And now here’s my interview with Mark Lindsay. Mark’s a singer/writer/producer/hitmaker & legendary frontman of Paul Revere & the Raiders.
Hi mark, thanks for spending a few moments with me today. How are you?
“I’m great Ray.” “Where are you calling from?”
I’m calling from beautiful Bradenton, Florida.
“Well hey;” I’m sitting in Florida right now. We’re over near Jupiter and we’re actually living in Florida now. I’ve been married toDeborah for twenty years and twenty years in that we’ve lived in Idaho, Oregon, Arizona, California, Maui, Nashville, Memphis, upstate New York and Florida. So we’ve lived in all four corners of the country and Hawaii and I like Florida the best. Florida’s cool, where else can you get summer 365 days a year, although it might get cold at night. “I think we re both lucky to be down here.”
What was like living in Hawaii?
“Except for the ocean breeze that blows pretty much all the time in Maui, the weather is pretty much exactly the same.” We lived there for eight years and lived about two miles down the road from George Harrison as a matter of fact. We had three acres right on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It what great except we had a full time gardener, between him and the twoof US; We’d be out there three days a week just beating down the bushes. “So it got crazy but it what fun.”
Let’s talk about the happy together 2011 tour. It recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, right?
“I what on some of the first ones and they put me back on the tour last year.” We’ve got great reviews and we’re back again this year. I love it, it’s so much fun, you get to hear so many great songs and see all the guys, and it takes you back my friend, it takes you back. “You’re gonna’ see a giant slice of the charts from the 60′s and 70′s and a lot of hits!”
I what a top 40 radio deejay back in the late 70′s / early 80′s and then MTV and video wiped out the radio star.
“Then the web wiped out the record.” It’s all digital, it’s all downloads and unfortunately there’s alot of piracy. “But the kids today, it’s a whole new generation, you got a kid that’s 12 or 13 years old and he just doesn’t understand why he can’t hack in and download stuff because it’s there and so why can’t you get it.”
When I grew up, it was all about listening to your favorite deejay and finding out what the hit songs were. If you liked what you heard on the radio you ran down to the record store and bought the 45 record. Then you usually bought the album.
“Yea, it was fun.” “I love vinyl, as a matter of fact I’m working on a project now and we might end up putting it on vinyl as well because there’s a whole new market, kids are discovering the fact that vinyl sounds a hell of a lot better than digital.”
I miss that echo effect sound from all those classic 45records. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to ever master that wonderful sound ever again. Jim McCarty of TheYardbirds agreed with me when I spoke with him several weeks ago, that magical sound on those early records can never be duplicated.
“Well a lot of it had to do with the live chambers.” CBS records in Hollywood where the Raiders cut most of their stuff, they had two special echo chambers that were just… well you’ve heard Simon & Garfunkel, Raiders, it all sounded great. Capitol Records of had these echo chambers designed by Les Paul as a matter of fact. Yea all that stuff-Frank Sinatra, the beach boys they all sounded great. I have a lot of my old equipment, a lot of the same equipment that I used back in the 60′s and I can get pretty close but you cannot duplicate that echo.However a friend of mine has gone around and sampled a lot chambers of the old so he can get like 99% of the way there. “It’s an all new technique though.”
There seemed to be a lot artists back in the 60′s of pressure on those, pressure to get a hit record on the radio along with a grueling touring schedule and constant television appearances.
“I joined my first band when I was like 14 years old and formed the Raiders with Paul when I was like 17 or 18.” So I’ve been on the road all my life, and for some strange reason I still like it I guess I’ve never grown up. That’s what’s so good about the happy together tour; We’re back on the road again. You mentioned McCarty, we were lucky we had the show where the action is. It what a great way to debut your record and everybody saw it at once.”Although tour we did, there was like several years there where we were on the road like maybe 200 nights a year.”
Do you think it was that kind of discipline that made the 60′s music scene so great?
“I don’t of know if it was the discipline or the sheer joy of playing rock & roll.” I remember my first record contract; I would have paid them a nickel a record, you know? “Anything to make music, and it wasn’t about the bucks it what about playing music and being on TV, and playing in front of crowds.”
Yea, what was the fame like mark; I remember your picture being plastered on the front cover of every teen magazine around?
“It what a funny thing, in my mind there were two’s mark Lindsay,.” There what one guy that was on TV and then the magazine’s and stuff, and then there wasthe real me which I knew wasn’t like that guy. I what hard time putting the two together kind of having a. “Inside I what kind of this shy kid from Idaho but when I got on stage everything changed.”
I think many of US kids identified more with bands like the Raiders and Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles because you were one of US. You were “American” bands.
“Well, we were the American Revolution.”
And you wore that que or ponytail.
“And you know I wish the heck that I had put a copyright on that because just think how many hell’s Angels would have been paying royalties right now.”
Are you still sporting the ponytail (que) or is it a thing of the past?
“It’s come and gone about four different times.” I’ve grown it and cut it off. Right now I don’t have it, it I off about three cut”years ago but who knows I may start growing it back again, it comes and goes.”
I wanted to ask you about a song you did in 1966 called “little girl in the 4th row” from the midnight ride album, what there actually a girl in the fourth row that you were singing about?
“Being on tour and you look out at the audience and there’d be this babe, you know?” But you know that there was no way in the world that you’d ever be able to meet her, you can see her out there, but like as soon as the show was over BAM-you were on a bus or a limo or whatever to the airport or wherever you were going and never stick around, so it was kind of like one of those things. Then mark began to sing some of the lyrics to the song, “Maybe someday you ll be closer than four rows away.”
So you neveractually got to meet her mark?
“Well actually I did, believe it or not in Buffalo, New York in 1967 there what this priest that come up before the show and after a soundcheck before the show opened curtain.” He said, ‘ mark, I’m kind of the unofficial greeter here, there’s these little girls that are sitting out here that would love to meet you.’ So I said, ‘Sure bring them back on.’ So there were three girls that came back, and one of them what really-really cute, she had these cat eye glasses and there what this instant attraction, and I thought wait a minute this girl is 14 years old this is not going to happen. So I gave her a rose and a kiss on top of the head, and that was it.
Fast forward to the 80′s, I’m in this meeting in Beverly Hills to do this commercial for this bigCorporation and appear at one of their functions. And I’m there with this gal and one of the guys from the agency. And this girl and I just hit it off instantly, and we’re sitting there laughing and the guy says, ‘ well I might as well leave. It’s obvious that you two know each other.’ And I said, ‘no.-no, we’ve never met, and the girl said, ‘Actually we did meet many years ago but you wouldn’ t remember it.’ I said, ‘When did we meet?’ She said, ‘ Buffalo in ’67′ I said, ‘you’re the girl that I gave the rose to.’ “And I ended up marrying her.”
You’re kidding me?
“Nope, that’s my wife now.”
Wow, what a great story mark.
“Oh, yea.” It is what is right, we were like star crossed lovers. “It what meant to be but it was just too early the first time around.”
That isamazing.
“My life reads like a novel and so I’m working on a book.”
Yea, I did hear that you were working on a book. As a matter of fact my first book which released recently – it’s called check the GS – the true story of an eclectic American family and their wacky family business. How far are you along in your story?
“Well you know I’m almost done, I’ve written it and rewritten it three or more times, and I’ve been working on it for 10-15 years.” But what happens is every time I get almost finished, I start reading it and I say no, no, no., that’s not the way it really happened, I’m trying to make myself look too good here, this isn’t really real. So I go back and write what really happened without really stretching the fabric over the real stuff you know? So as I’ve donethat several times and maybe as I get a little older I get a little more honest with myself. “So I’m really getting close to the truth now and the truth reads better than fiction.”
Are you writing this totally on your own or getting some help with it?
“No, I’m doing it myself.” Actually a couple of years ago I sent a couple of chapters to a publisher and I said maybe I need some help with this, and they no, no, no, we love your style just keep doing the way you’re doing. “They wanted to make a deal but I said I’m not ready yet.”
Eventually, like I did, you’re going to say enough, it’s ready, I’m done.
“Well, when it’s right it’s right!” It’s like writing a song, I’ll work on it in my head and it’s amazing back in the day I use to write a song and that’s it great-spitted it out you know. “Now I work a little harder on them and just keep working on it until I start taking things out and when I figure it’s time I start taking things out to stop.”
My book took two years to write and I look back and say where did those two years go? My mind what that time totally focused at on the story.
“It’s a consuming art but it’s worth it and when you get through it you’ve got something you can look at for the rest of your life.”
When we leave this planet, well… you already have your legacy; I guess I’ll have mine with my book.
“No, I’m still working on mine;” I’ve got a lot more stuff to do I kind of hit a renaissance period and I’ve written more songs in the last eight months than in the previous eight years. And I’ve got a coupleprojects going, can’t really talk about them but one of them if it happens, will fulfill my horoscope. Back in the 60′s, Gloria Stavers, you mentioned 16 magazine; She what the editor of 16, she gave me for my birthday one year my horoscope by Linda Goodman, a private horoscope right, and it predicted that you were going to end up with the mansion up on the hill, and sure enough I shared this big mansion with Terry Melcher, and about a sports car in the garage and I had the red Ferrari in there but she said these things will not make you happy you’re going to want more, you’re going to move on past this and do all these things and then become more famous then you ever thought you could. But it won’t make you happy.
But much later in life you’re going to have a second career that’sgoing to be so phenomenal that it will almost eclipse out your first career entirely. You’ll be known by millions more people. So I’m working on that and so if that comes true then there you go. “And if this project works, that can happen, but I can’t of say anything more about it than that, but to wait and see.”
Tell me a little bit about Terry Melcher, hey what’s important guy in the 60′s wasn’t he?
“Terry was really the sixth Raider, if you I listen too much talk; to any of the songs up to the first record that produced which what” before that was on every Raider record Terry. We’d finish a song and he and I would go back into the studio later and he and I would mainly do the background. He had this great high sounding voice and it is just blended so well. He was a big part of theRaiders sound. “He was real instrumental in helping the Raiders in becoming the hitmakers they were and I really’s Miss gone him, Hey now.”
He left US much too soon, didn’t he?
“Sure did, the last four or five years before he died, I said come on Terry of let’s get back in and write something, let’s do something again, and hey well said,…”I do not know. “But his last big song was”Amarillo”(the beach boys) he of all over that for sure.”
Yea, Terry Melcher what instrumental to so many important bands-including the beach boys and the Byrds. When I attended broadcasting school back in the late 70′s, all my instructor were deejays with illustrious broadcasting careers and they all had Dick Clark stories. What was it like to work with Dick Clark?
“Well, Hey, what totally”Professional. When the camera would come on or the microphone would come on and he would be all smiles. “He was very much a professional and if something didn’t go his way you knew about it but he got done what he wanted done and done his way and it sure worked for him.”
So Dick Clark what so instrumental to the Raiders success right?
“Well sure, he had to idea for where the action is;” He hired US because we worked very cheap for the pilot, and when he sold the idea to ABC he hired US for a thirteen week period. He knew how visual we were right and we would work cheap, and he told me years later, ‘ you know what? I thought I’d hire you guys for thirteen weeks, and whenever the show took off I ‘real band d hire a.’ So they liked what they saw and by the end of that thirteen weekperiod we had become that real band. “We were the house band for almost three years.”
You guys cranked out some hits, but what really amazed me is that “Indian reservation” what your only number one hit?
“Yea, even”Arizona”which was up to where it made platinum but not Number One.” But we did have some gold records, it was the only number one and the funny thing is it what is suppose to be a follow up to “Arizona.” It what a mark Lindsay record, I produced it and I usually didn’t produce myself, Jerry fuller did, and when I got through with the record Jack gold said, ‘why don’t you put it out as the Raiders, you produce the Raiders and they need a hit.’ So we put it under the name of the Raiders and it became the biggest selling hit in the history of CBS records.”
Anyregrets for calling the band Paul Revere? (Keyboardist Paul Revere Dick continued to tour without mark using the Raiders name)
“In the beginning, way back to the beginning before we got on CBS, we signed our first record contract on a little label called Gardena and the owner said, ‘ you got to sign the contract and sign your full legal name,’ so my full legal name is Mark Allen Lindsay and I signed my name and then everybody else signed their name and Paul’s name what signed Paul Revere Dick”, that was his full name.
Then he looked over at US and said, ‘ Paul Revere…Paul Revere, Paul Revere, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait…a…minute! That’s a great gimmick. I mean the Downbeats are okay but Paul Revere now that’s a hook. Everybody knows Paul Revere’s ride comeon.’
He said, ‘I’m going to call this Paul Revere & the Nightriders band or something’ and Paul especially hated it because he’d been teased all his life in school about, ‘Hey Paul Revere-where’s your horse?’ So he just dropped his first name Paul and went by the name Revere Dick. But when our first record came out, our first record said Paul Revere & the Nightriders. “And although the did cause some confusion but it’s probably a lot name (using Paul Revere) like the Dave Clark five where Mike Smith what the lead singer and Dave Clark (the drummer) what the name of the band.”
There are so many bands running around out there without the original lead singers anymore.
“Well, what are you going to do…”What are you going to do but when you see the happy together tour you’regoing to see the real deal here, I’ve sang every hit that Paul Revere & the Raiders ever had. “And mark & Howard from the turtles, if they’re not the real deal then I never saw one.”
I’m really looking forward to the show, and I’m hoping to get a pass to cover the show from backstage. I want to take a lot of pictures.
“Tell them mark said that they’d better do it or I won’ t do”Kicks.”"
I’ll definitely tell them that. My favorite Paul Revere & the Raiders tune has always been “good thing.”
“Yea we ll be doing that, I tune that love, when we do it on stage it sounds just like we did on the record.” The guys in the band all sing like birds or the Byrds I’m not sure. But I do my best to make the stuff that we don’t sound like in the day or better you know. So there you”go.”
You’ve always had a great voice and your voice today sounds like your only 35 years old and it appears that you take really good care of aufpeppen eleven. (Mark is 69 years old)
“Well, I walk six miles a day;” I get up around three or four in the morning and out by sunrise. That’s where I write, I’ll be on the trail. I try to eat right and exercise another hour when I get back home. “So when I went in for a checkup recently my doctor said, ‘ Whatever you’re doing don’t stop it’ (after getting a recent physical his doctor said you could be 25 years old).”
After Paul Revere & the Raiders you worked as an A & R executive with United artist records?
“Yea, I thought I was qualified, I’d been an artist, producer, writer, a Publisher, so I thought I knew how to pick songs and it”What a lot of fun and I did pick some hits. “I had a great run there until Capitol bought the company and just like a radio station, somebody came in and said okay we’ve got your job now.”
“What kind of hits did you pick?”
“The first project that they gave me what the city to city album by Gerry Rafferty.” They said, ‘any hits on here?’I said, ‘well, let me take it home and I’ll let you know.’ So I went home over the weekend and came back and said ‘ okay, Baker Street is a monster, it’s going to be about a million-seller, it’s way too long but we can edit it down. And they said, ‘what’s the next connection?’ I said ‘”Right DownThe Line,” not as big as “Baker Street” probably won’ t sell quite a million maybe eight hundred and nine hundred thousand, and the third single should be “home”"And Dry” maybe three hundred-four hundred thousand but that’s about it ‘ and they said, ‘You re on!’
So we released “Baker Street” and nobody’s playing it. So I went to Charlie minor, the head of promotions and said, ‘Let me sit in your office, when you make all these calls to the stations and I’ ll get on the extension. Ask them if they’re on it yet, and if they’re not, why they’re not playing it Don ‘t give them reasons to play it ask them why they’re not playing it.’ so he did and I listened and wrote down all these notes.
One station said, ‘well, the guitar is a little too raucous for our format.’ Another said, ‘That sax thing shouldn’ t be at the front, it should be at the end.’ And so on and so forth.
I had a little studio in my house. I went home, got out a razorBlade and made 17 different custom edits for these 17 stations. I threw them on Charlie’s desk on Monday morning and said, ‘ okay, send these out and ask them why they won ‘t play them now.’ And I guess maybe they were so flattered that we’d made a custom edit for their station – now, with digital stuff, of course everybody makes their own custom edits. “But they had said, ‘we’ll take you on temporarily,’ so when that happened they said, ‘Okay, you got the gig.’”
Do you still talk with Paul (Paul Revere Dick) at all?
“Occasionally we talk;” We haven’t played together for years. You guys are always asking me would you ever do something together and there was awhile when I’d say no but nowadays I don’t give a crap you know, why not? It might happened, it might not, if it does fine,”if doesn’t that’s cool too.”
It seems like Paul’s version of the band took a totally different direction with more of a comedic flare, almost like a lounge act.
“Paul is a great natural comedian;” When he grew up his heroes were like Danny Kaye and the Marx Brothers and people like that. And he just loved comedy. Now he’s got a band and he does comedy bits and they play the hits and it’s entertaining, but it’s not the Raiders that I remember. “But as long as he of putting people in the seats he’s doing the right thing.”
Mark, I want to thank you so much for spending some time with me today, and I look forward to meeting you in person backstage at the happy together show at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater on July 19th.
“I look forward to meeting with you Ray, thank”"you.”
Order my new book called check the GS – the true story of an eclectic American family and their wacky family business. Order your copy NOW at http://rayshasho.com/ –you will LIVE it!
You can contact Ray Shasho at rockraymond.shasho@gmail.com
Blu Ray Player
