Recorded - early 1971
Released - February 12, 1971
#1 for week of July 24, 1971.
"Listen my children and you shall hear, of the musical career of Paul Revere. For those of you born in 1974 or later's, I am of course referring to Paul Revere and the Raiders".
The Raiders were an Idaho-based band led of course by piano player Paul Revere. The group put out their first records as far back as 1960, and featured one of the most revolving-door band lineups in music history. I'm not even going to try to document all the members that have been in this band as this review would take up pages and pages. For all intents and purposes, it is Paul Revere and singer Mark Lindsey that were the core of the band.
Although The Raiders are very much an "Oldies" group, they did score several smash hits that have aged rather well. Much of The Raiders' chart material ranges from garage rock, "Just Like Me", "Steppin' Out", "Good Thing", to entertaining but unoriginal numbers (The Rolling Stones-esque "The Great Airplane Strike"). The group never exactly went psychedelic, instead they went more of a bubblegum rock route for the last few years of the 1960's. By this point, the hits were starting to dry up, and it would seem that the band was finished.
In 1971, Mark Lindsey recorded a cover of John D. Loudermilk's "Indian Reservation", as an intended solo single. The song ended up being credited to just "The Raiders" as Paul Revere had no involvement in the recording. In an unexpected twist of fate, the song crept its way up to the top of the pop charts, and gave these Idahoans their first and only #1 hit.
Mark Lindsey based his cover off of another cover version, by English singer Don Fardon who had been a member of the British garage rock band The Sorrows. If you listen to the latter band's "Take A Heart", and compare it to "Indian Reservation", you can hear several musical similarities.
The instrumental backing of "Indian Reservation" is actually quite complex. "Indian Reservation" features a strong drum track, that makes liberal use of tom toms and bass drums. However, the ever present string section can be a bit over the top at times. Because of this aspect as well as the song's historical overtone, I'm not really sure what genre to classify the tune as. Historical pop perhaps?
I find personally that the Don Fardon version best captures the sorrows the Native Americans faced. Regardless, The Raiders do a fine interpretation of the song, even if I find their vocal performance to be a bit too showband-ish at times.
One major issue that prevents me from calling this a stone cold classic is the sheer lack of authenticity. The Raiders, as well as composer John Loudermilk weren't even remotely Native American. In essence, they are singing about a topic that never directly affected them. The song is thus, an outsider's perspective, on another group of people.
Yet, we have come a long way since "Running Bear" and "Mr. Custer". Both songs have already been covered on this blog, and both are a bit uncomfortably non P.C. in terms of the portrayal of Native Americans. By contrast, "Indian Reservation" is a more respectful telling of one of the darker moments of American history.
"Indian Reservation" would end up being The Raiders' last hit. By 1973, none of their single releases even charted. Despite this lack of future success, Paul Revere alone remains from the original group and he and his current Raiders continue to provide their audience with more than a few "Kicks".
Final Verdict - "Indian Reservation" is certainly a unique sounding entry to the 1971 pop charts. Still I find myself preferring The Raiders more garage-rocky hits from 1965-1966. Perhaps with a less over-the-top string and vocal arrangement, this could have been an even better song. As it stands, the song is certainly worth a listen.
Coming Up Next - "You've Got A Friend" by James Taylor.
Until Next Time, I'm Dr. Rock and I feel like kicks just keep getting harder to find -
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