Mark Lindsay - Paul Revere and the Raiders Charismatic Superstar - One on One

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 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 excellent hits radio. Not only did he gain legendary status with the band, he was the object for affection for the world's school girl population. Mark Lindsay's alluring smile, handsome profile, and mop-top dew with his long trademark ponytail (que) were on the front cover of every teen magazine nearby 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 & the Raiders megahits on The Happy Together Tour 2011. Headlining 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 Buckinghams ("Kind of a Drag" "Don't You Care" "Susan").

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The tour will be stopping at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater on Tuesday July 19th.

All these Great performers on one involving bill, and reminiscent of the American Bandstand, Where the performance 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 with Professor Volman will be following this article.

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 gorgeous Bradenton, Florida.

"Well hey; I'm sitting in Florida right now. We're over near Jupiter and we're no ifs ands or buts living in Florida now. I've been married to Deborah for twenty years and in that twenty years we've lived in Idaho, Oregon, Arizona, California, Maui, Nashville, Memphis, north 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 living in Hawaii like?

"Except for the ocean zephyr 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 was great except we had a full time gardener, between him and the two of us; we'd be out there three days a week just beating down the bushes. So it got crazy but it was fun."

Let's talk about The Happy Together 2011 tour. It recently preponderant its 25th anniversary right?

"I was 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 was 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 Camera would come on or the Microphone would come on and he would be all smiles. He was very much a pro 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 was also instrumental to the Raiders success right?

"Well sure, he had an idea for Where the performance Is; he hired us for the pilot because we worked very cheap, and when he sold the idea to Abc he hired us for a thirteen week period. He knew how optical we were right and we would work cheap, and he told me years later, 'You know what? I conception I'd hire you guys for thirteen weeks and whenever the show took off I'd hire a real band.' So they liked what they saw and by the end of that thirteen week period we had become that real band. We were the house band for roughly three years."

You guys cranked out some hits man, but what no ifs ands or buts amazed me is that "Indian Reservation" was 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 was suppose to be a result up to "Arizona." It was a Mark Lindsay record, I produced it and I commonly didn't yield myself, Jerry Fuller did, and when I got straight through with the description Jack Gold said, 'Why don't you put it out as the Raiders, you yield 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."

Any regrets for calling the band Paul Revere? (Keyboardist Paul Revere Dick prolonged to tour without Mark using the Raiders name)

"In the beginning, way back to the starting before we got on Cbs, we signed our first description ageement on a puny label called Gardena and the owner said, 'You got to sign the ageement and sign your full legal name,' so my full legal name is Mark Allen Lindsay and I signed my name and then every person else signed their name and Paul's name was 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. every person knows Paul Revere's ride come on.'

He said, 'I'm going to call this band Paul Revere & the Nightriders 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 description came out, our first description said Paul Revere & the Nightriders. And although the name (Using Paul Revere) did cause some obscuring but it's probably a lot like The Dave Clark Five where Mike Smith was the lead singer and Dave Clark (the drummer) was the name of the band."

There are so many bands running nearby 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're going 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 no ifs ands or buts finding 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 good do it or I won't do "Kicks."

I'll assuredly tell them that. My popular Paul Revere & the Raiders tune has always been "Good Thing."

"Yea we'll be doing that, I love that tune, 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 do sound like in the day or good 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 no ifs ands or buts good care of yourself. (Mark is 69 years old)

"Well, I walk six miles a day; I get up nearby 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 practice an additional one hour when I get back home. So when I went in for a checkup recently my physician said, 'Whatever you're doing don't stop it' (After getting a new bodily his physician said you could be 25 years old)."

After Paul Revere & the Raiders you worked as an A&R menagerial with United Artist Records?

"Yea, I conception I was qualified, I'd been an Artist, Producer, Writer, a Publisher, so I conception I knew how to pick songs and it was a lot of fun and I did pick some hits. I had a great run there until Capitol bought the business 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 was 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-nine hundred thousand, and the third singular 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 puny too raucous for our format.' an additional one 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 puny studio in my house. I went home, got out a razor blade and made 17 dissimilar practice 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 practice edit for their station - now, with digital stuff, of course every person makes their own practice 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?

"We talk occasionally; 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 dissimilar direction with more of a comedic flare, roughly 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 habitancy 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 involving but it's not the Raiders that I remember. But as long as he's putting habitancy 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 someone 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 house and Their Wacky house Business. Order your copy Now at http://rayshasho.com/ -You'll Live it!

You can experience Ray Shasho at rockraymond.shasho@gmail.com

Mark Lindsay - Paul Revere and the Raiders Charismatic Superstar - One on One

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