Paul Revere & The Raiders: The Spirit of '67 (nov. 1966)

ALBUM REVIEW (am, + bonus tracks)

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anchored this collection, which was filled out by showcases for bassist Phil VolkMark Smith (guitarist Drake Levin had been replaced by Jim Valley), plus some secondary material by the group's leaders. As usual, they were listening closely to their peers, and much of the material had the twangy guitar-rock sound common to 1966, though some of the experimental eclecticism that would lead to the elaborate productions of 1967's Sgt. Pepper psychedelic era was also apparent in songs like "Oh! To Be a Man" and "Undecided Man" (the latter a near-copy of the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby"). This stylistic trend-following did not bode well for the future, but for the moment Paul Revere and the Raiders were riding high. The CD reissue on Sundazed adds three bonus cuts, including the 45-single version of "The Great Airplane Strike," and an alternate version of "Hungry."

ALTHOUGH THE TITLE SAYS 67´THE ALBUM WAS RELEASED ON NOVEMBER OF 1966 ! A DETAIL ... OK SO ... HERE`S ANOTHER GREAT ALBUM OF THIS AMAZING BAND... YEAH ... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ... + THE BONUS TRACKS ...

LINK: WHY ! ? WHY ! ? WHY ! (IS IT SO HARD)