Bands from the Pacific Northwest are credited with having had much to do with the proliferation of what were termed "garage bands" back in the 1960's. Bands such as Seattle's Fabulous Wailers and the Sonics, were among the best known in the genre. One of the first really big garage bands, that ended up being much more than a garage band, was Paul Revere and the Raiders. They had a huge number of hits in the 1960's. Some of those songs are classics. I heard from a man who told me how much he enjoyed that group because, as a kid, he could play their music in his band. That might have been much of the appeal -- loud and accessible music that teen bands could duplicate. Paul Revere, the leader of the band not the guy of the midnight ride, was born in Nebraska but raised in Idaho. He was into Spike Jones and the City Slickers, for those of you old enough to remember that odd musical comedy. The comedy in the Raiders act was not unlike Spike. There were several incarnations of Paul's band, before they finally started gaining ground as artists and with the public. When Mark Lindsay joined the group in the early 1960's, he became lead singer and the main personality for years. By 1962, they were based south of Seattle in Portland Oregon. When 1963 rolled around, the Raiders were a powerful group in the Pacific Northwest. When Dick Clark hired the band to star on "Where the Action Is", his nationally syndicated teen music show, the group was obviously going places. Some of their hits included a version of Louie Louie, Hungry and, probably their best known tune of all -- Kicks. It was one of the biggest songs of 1966.

 

 Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections