1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 63. Paul Revere and the Raiders – Midnight Ride (1966)

 

The keyboard player for this band is actually called Paul Revere, lending the band and the album title an excuse for a whole Revolutionary War theme, including the costumes that they (still) wear on stage. The sound is midway between folk/country rock and psychedelia, a little bit early Kinks, a little bit Animals - jangly yet also fuzzy. There’s an anti-drug message to the excellent track Kicks, ironic in light of my comments for the past few bands and how drug-(ab)use fuelled their changes in sound.

The best known song on here is probably I’m Not Your Stepping Stone, thanks mainly to the Monkees cover rather than this original version. It’s an okay album and the tunes are good, but it’s another one where I wonder why it was included in the list since other bands do the same thing but with more historical impact. Unless I’m such a complete musical pleb and everybody else has heard of Paul Revere and the Raiders and their important role in music history.

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