The Spirit Of '67
by Paul Revere And The Raiders

From Jboy56 01/03/2023 12:28 | #292470

This album sounds quite original and it already has some psychedelic vibes from the forthcoming summer of love

This 1966 album was Paul Revere and the Raiders’ 4th album with Terry Melchior as the producer.

In the recording-studio the group's music was increasingly the result of Mark Lindsay and Terry's Melchior's creative ambitions. Logically a lot of attention was on what was happening around in this exciting period of rock music history; especially what came from pioneers like The Beatles, The Beach Boys and the Byrds. This is very obvious on this album, where most tracks are characterized by a great care spent on both arrangements and production.

Aside from the hit single "Hungry," a Mann/Weil song, and the fine "Louise" written by Jesse Kincaid, are the songs are original Raiders compositions, with Mark Lindsay as the most prolific contributor.

The biggest hit on the album was the rocking but also vocally polished "Good Thing" written by Lindsay and Melchior. Great Beach Boys vocals on this altogether very interesting and varied rock composition.

The album's third and smallest hit was the Stones inspired "The Great Airplane Strike" credited Lindsay/Melchior/Revere – has a great deal in common with The Stones’ ” The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man”

Greatest ambitions might have been loaded into the album's ballads which contain ”Eleanor Rigby” strings arrangements, nice acoustic guitars and great vocals. Some may feel that lyrically some of these may not quite live up to the music.

Group members Philip Volk and Michael Smith each contribute a nice number. Volk's melodic "Why, Why, Why" is characterized by great guitar and fine vocal harmonies, while Smith’s "Our Candidate", could be considered a garage classic, recorded by The Standells among others.

Only major objection to this fine album is its short playing time - many albums at this time played under 30 minutes. Fortunately, there are versions where "Spirit of 67" is expanded with good bonus tracks; also the album can be found on the Raven release "Evolution two Revolution" where "Spirit of 67" is joined four other fine Raiders albums.