Paul Revere & The Raiders Kicks (1983) {edsel Uk} 24 Bit 96khz Vinyl Rip Plus Redbook CD Version

Midnight Ride marked just about the pinnacle of Paul Revere & the Raiders' history as a source of great albums. Even more to their credit, most of the music on Midnight Ride was written by the bandmembers themselves, and not just Mark Lindsay and Paul Revere, but Phil Volk, Drake Levin, and Mike Smith getting a shared songwriting credit. The irony is that this was the last album on which that egalitarian spirit was to dominate; alongside the tight, hard, eminently danceable rock & roll sounds that comprise about two-thirds of this album, there are signs of the softer, more introspective balladry that lead singer Mark Lindsay was starting to favor in his songwriting ("Little Girl in the Fourth Row," etc.)…

Hungry for Kicks: Singles & Choice Cuts 1965-69 does an effective job of chronicling the majority of Paul Revere & the Raiders' biggest hits from the mid- to late '60s. Most of the familiar radio tracks are featured, including "Kicks," "Hungry," and "Good Thing." Also included are the 45 versions of seven tracks and several great album cuts, many of equal quality to the hits. Tracks like "Why? Why? Why? (Is It So Hard)," "Ballad of a Useless Man," and "Louise" are would-be chart-toppers that got away. What separates this set from similar PR&R compilations is the omission of the R&B cover versions that were prevalent on their original LPs. Raucous and fun as they are, the discarded R&B covers leave the listener focused on the Raiders as an innovative pop band as opposed to the kings of frat party rock. Rev-Ola did a fantastic job putting this package together, with rare photos, picture sleeves, and informative liner notes.

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…

The Spirit of '67, Paul Revere and the Raiders' third gold-selling, Top Ten album to be released in 1966, marked the triumph of the group's in-house writing team of lead singer Mark Lindsay, Paul Revere, and producer Terry Melcher. "Hungry," the Top Ten follow-up to "Kicks," was written, like the earlier hit, by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, but Lindsay-Revere-Melcher then hit the Top 40 with "The Great Airplane Strike" and the Top Ten with "Good Thing." (Actually, Revere was not a writer on "Good Thing," as subsequent releases indicated.) Those hits anchored this collection, which was filled out by showcases for bassist Phil Volk and drummer Mark Smith (guitarist Drake Levin had been replaced by Jim Valley), plus some secondary material by the group's leaders…