Mark Lindsay

This double-CD set presents a real conundrum, on a lot of levels. For starters, on its face, 55 songs may well seem like overkill to the casual fan who only knows or remembers (or thinks they only remember) five or six big hits by Paul Revere & the Raiders. And there are more modest single-CD collections to be found on this band that seem less daunting. But as it turns out - for those who give this set a try - Paul Revere & the Raiders did have just enough hits, when coupled with a sufficient number of respected album tracks and B-sides, to sustain a double-CD set. And that goes double for anyone who likes plain old rock & roll - even when this band got ambitious and a little bit progressive and serious, they never lost sight of the value of a great beat and carefully placed vocal and instrumental hooks, and they were always fun…

John D. Loudermilk's composition "Indian Reservation (Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)," a Native American protest song, doesn't have much to do with The Raiders' earlier music or image. But a hit is a hit is a hit, and the song went to number one in the summer of 1971, briefly resurrecting what had been a nearly moribund recording career for The Raiders…

Follow-up volumes appeared in 1993 and 1996, extending the time period to 1979 and with additional songs from the 1972-76 period, available on cassette or CD (ALL 25 volumes were issued in both formats). Each volume has twelve songs. Despite the greater capacity of compact discs, the running time of each of the volumes is no longer than the limit of vinyl records in the 1970s, from 38 to 45 minutes long.

By the time Paul Revere & the Raiders got around to recording Collage, the original group was down to Revere and singer Mark Lindsay, who not only produced but wrote or co-wrote nine of the 11 songs on this album….