Some of you may have noted the recent passing of Paul Revere of Paul Revere and the Raiders. You can read a write up about Revere here. What many folks probably do not know is that Revere [the blond in the album cover above] had a Mennonite background. Here is a brief summary that I cut and pasted from a couple of sources:
Paul Revere Dick, the youngest of five children, was born on January 7, 1938, in Harvard, Nebraska, and raised on a farm near Caldwell, Idaho. As a Mennonite, Paul registered for the draft as a conscientious objector. Just after his band achieved their initial success in 1961, Paul was drafted by the U.S. military but was assigned a I-W status as a CO and served his alternative service as a cook at a mental institution at Wilsonville, Oregon. Prior to his time with the Raiders, Paul attended barber college, opened his own barber shop, and also opened a drive-in restaurant, the Reed 'n' Bell, in Caldwell, Idaho.
Burial:
Hillcrest Memorial Gardens
Caldwell
Canyon County
Idaho, USA
Sometime during my college years at Goshen, a group of us traveled to South Bend to see Paul Revere and the Raiders, and to say that Paul was high energy would be an understatement. Here are then and now videos of one of their big hits.
They also demonstrated a bit of social consciousness
Also, most do not know that the Raiders recorded Louie, Louie before the Kingsmen
3 comments:
Phil Volk, of the original Raiders, came a knockin' on my door one time in the early 1970's when I lived in North Hollywood. He was accompanied by Roy Brewer, long time friend and associate of Ronald Reagan. Turns out Phil and Roy were Jehovah's Witnesses stopping by to save my soul. I did not turn them away. Had a brief conversation and accepted their literature, and met a few times later with Roy Brewer, who once took me on a private tour of Disney Studios where he worked as a trailer editor.
BB - good that you actually remembered :-)
It seems to me that Paul must have been the brains and perhaps creative force behind the Raiders - Mark Lindsay carried the day on the vocals and I don't see too much wizardry on Paul's keyboard.
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