Monday June 13, 2022 “Indian Reservation” The Raiders/Mark Lyndsay
In June of 1876 Gen.George Custar and his men embarked on a mission to drive the Native Americans further west as part of the US government’s ongoing land grab policy. Just for the sake of better identification, Native Americans of course had no idea what that term might have meant, Native American, as they referred to themselves to what would be the English language equivalent of the ‘human beings’.
Not a good day for Custar and his men at his ‘last stand’ but it sparked an idea to spend some time with Native American/Indian related music for this week.
The Raiders started out as Paul Revere and the Raiders when keyboardist and band founder Paul Revere Dick (he must have had a tough childhood) put the group together. Originally known as the Downbeats, they became a very popular band in the Pacific Northwest often competing for gigs with those “Louie Louie” guys The Kingsmen. Paul Revere and the Raiders actually recorded aversion of “Louie Louie” in the same studio as The Kingsmen and there is some controversy as to who actually recorded it first.
They would relocate to LA and connect with producer Terry Melcher (Doris Day’s son) and create the sound that would become identified with Paul Revere and the Raiders. Their new sound would also bring them to the attention of Dick Clark who was putting together an afternoon TV series Where the Action Is which led to a gig as essentially the house band on that show.
This connection got them great material from songwriters like Jerry Goffin/Carole King and Jeff Barry/Ellie Greenwich which would generate twenty consecutive top twenty hits and record sales that exceeded thirty million copies. Today’s song, “Indian Reservation” is their only number one song.
The outro on "Indian Reservation" bears a strong resemblance to the outro on the earlier Janis Ian song "Society's Child".
Stay safe and well…and that’s Kenny Rogers doing the intro for The Raiders in the video.