Before he became Patti Smith’s lead guitarist, Lenny Kaye compiled the 2 album set, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era. Released in 1972, the two-LP set covered American garage rock and psychedelia from the years from 1965-1968 and was a major influence on punk rock. Rhino Records reissued an expanded version of the set in 1998, with 118 tracks in total. I’m profiling and rating each of these 118 tracks, working backwards.
Track 108: Just Like Me by Paul Revere & the Raiders
Release Date: 1965
From: Boise, Idaho
Aphoristical Rating: 10/10
JUST LIKE ME – Paul Revere & The Raiders [2:23]
Featuring Vocal by Mark Lindsay
(Richard Dey/Roger Hart)
Personnel/MARK LINDSAY: vocals * DRAKE LEVIN: guitar, vocals * PAUL REVERE: organ, vocals * PHIL “FANG” VOLK: bass, vocals * MIKE “SMITTY” SMITH: drums
Produced by TERRY MELCHER
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA
Columbia single #4-43461 (11/65); Pop #11
Paul Revere & the Raiders are just about the only act on Nuggets that I own a CD by. I liberated a copy of their 1967 Greatest Hits from the bargain bin almost twenty years ago, and have enjoyed it ever since. They enjoyed more prolonged success than most Nuggets acts, with a flurry of hits in the mid-1960s, and a number one comeback hit, 1971’s ‘Indian Reservation’.
Paul Revere & the Raiders released their first single in 1960 but 1965’s ‘Just Like Me’ marked a major uptick in their fortunes, almost cracking the US top ten. The band had a distinctive visual aesthetic, dressing like American revolutionaries, and took their name from the famous American patriot. Keyboardist Paul Revere was actually born Paul Revere Dick – he merely dropped his surname to create his stage name.
They’re more advanced than a lot of the other Nuggets acts – Drake Levin’s guitar solo is double-tracked, Mark Lindsay is a commanding vocalist, able to switch to a full-blooded roar, while Revere’s organ playing is sophisticated. The song isn’t especially original, with echoes of ‘Louie Louie’ and early Kinks, but there’s enough happening to make it a garage-rock classic.
The classic lineup of Paul Revere and the Raiders didn’t last long – Levin, drummer Mike Smith, and bassist Phil Volk all left the band at the height of their popularity. Mark Lindsay stayed with the band until the mid-1970s. The band is still active, despite the death of Revere in 2014; they’ve recorded 17 studio albums, although the most recent, Paul Revere Rides Again, dates back to 1983.
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This is one of my favorites too. I think it’s their best one except for Kicks maybe. Paul Revere was actually a pretty big singles act in the 60s so they’re not quite like everyone else on Nuggets. They were on a major label and they were given pretty good Brill Building material and stuff like that.
Their Greatest Hiits is one of the only albums from a Nuggets artist that I actually owned also. Maybe one or two others.
Yeah, this and Louie Louie feel like cheating, even if they’re totally garage rock.
And they even had The Byrds’ producer. And I can tell they were heavily promoted because theres a zillion YouTube clips of them on all these TV shows. They were all over the place.
One of my favorites of their songs too.
I think I like Kicks best. But are a few classics from that era.
Yes, Kicks is my favorite too.
I never thought of them in that way because I’ve heard them so much that I didn’t think about it…but listening to them…yea they are…a bit better quality but they did have a garage band sound…I’ve always liked Lindsay’s voice.
They’re like a response to the British invasion too – you’d think they’d listened to a bit of early Kinks.
It may not be super original, but this is a pretty cool tune. I didn’t know double-neck electric guitars already existed in 1965. I think Levin’s guitar solo is great. I also love the sound of Revere’s organ, which looks like a Vox Continental.
Have you heard their other stuff? They’re not a major 1960s band, but they have other good cuts like ‘Kicks’ and ‘Stepping Stone’.
I mostly know them by name and images of the band in their outfits. I think somewhere I got a ’60s sampler on CD, which includes one of their tunes.
I think The Turtles were the only other guys on Nuggets who were like big pop stars with lots of hits and stuff. That’s the only other album I ever had by any of these bands. It was called Happy Together: The Turtles Greatest Hits. lol. It was excellent too.
It took me a while to realise the Turtles/Zappa connection – I only know the song Happy Together.
It’s funny, I can remember where / when I was when I picked up a copy of ‘Midnight Ride’ – also a bargain bin find, a $6 LP, no buyers remorse here either!
Oh cool, I’ve never heard the original records.
Did you know that Kicks was written about Gerry Goffin by his colleagues Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil because he was all fucked up on LSD in the mid sixties? Isn’t that weird? And they offered it to The Animals first but they rejected the song. I don’t know why because they had a huge hit with We Gotta Get Outta This Place by Mann/Weil. That was a humungous mistake.
I did read about the Goffin thing, but didn’t know about The Animals – I can’t imagine Eric Burdon singing it.
Yep yep yep!
This groups were always stealing riffs etc. This one doesn’t bother me in fact I really did it. Perfect time capsule form that time plus it still works for me today.
It’s very well executed.
i seen them away back. Fun night.