by Robert Wilkinson
We kick off our musical birthday weekend with a very eclectic lineup of performers. Our main stage features short sets by our many birthday talents!
We’ll begin our show with a few gigantic hits by Fayette Pinkney (January 10, 1948 – June 27, 2009) founding member of “The Three Degrees,” the originators of the Philly Sound in the 70s!
The first hit in 1974 was also known as the theme From Soul Train. The first version is 3 minutes and 44 of “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia),” and another extended version was issued which was 5 minutes and 48 of “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia),”
Later in 1974, they hit big with this one! “When Will I See You Again”
We’ll close this short set with a hit from 1975 on TOTP, “Take Good Care of Yourself”
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Our next short set features the music of Curt Boettcher (January 7, 1944 – June 14, 1987), songwriter and producer of some legendary acts in the 60’s! He died way too young of AIDS because the hospital crew didn't want to touch his blood. And the band played on....
He produced these two smash hits for the Association in 1966! “Along Comes Mary” and “Cherish,” two from their first album Along Comes ... The Association
For a little slice of history, here's the Association live in 1966 performing "Cherish," and here they are on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" in 1967 performing "Along Comes Mary." For an added treat, they were the lead-off band at the legendary Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967! Here’s their absolutely GREAT live performance of "Along Comes Mary" and “Cherish.”
The same year, he produced these two Tommy Roe hits! “Sweet Pea” and “Hooray for Hazel”
Around that time he joined up with Gary Usher (of Beach Boy writing fame) and they created a legendary group, Sagittarius, who had one classic album! Present Tense
His next project is said to be a lost classic! By the Millennium, their album titled Begin
Our closer is a tune he did with the Millennium which he produced in a 1970 remake by the Association of “Just About the Same”
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Our next short set features the music of Scott Walker (born Noel Scott Engel; January 9, 1943 – March 22, 2019) of the Walker Brothers, one of the great vocal groups of the 60s. Ivor Raymonde was the music director for the Walker Brothers’ first two albums. You can hear it in the production. The first album went out under two different labels with two different song lists.
3 years ago I had a 35 minute Smash label album titled Introducing the Walker Brothers, but it’s disappeared. However, I found it retiled as the album Take It Easy With the Walker Brothers which was released November 1965. This band’s vocals were truly outstanding! This is the original album with bonus tracks, making for a solid hour of great tunes.
From that album, here's their version of the 1962 Jerry Butler smash hit written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, reinterpreted by the Walker Brothers! “Make It Easy on Yourself”
Their second major hit, not included on their original second album. This one was big! “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Any More.” Here’s a video performance from Ready Steady Go done to a backing track of “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Any More”
It was included on their third album, The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Any More
We’ll close with this May 1966 live performance on Beat Club! This is a live b/w clip of them singing to backing tracks. ”Land of a Thousand Dances,” followed by ”The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Any More” and close with ”Baby You Don’t Have to Tell Me.”
For our encore, from 1976, an 11:40 European tv appearance. The music starts about 2:45. The Walker Brothers 1976 TV appearance.
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Our next set is much longer, and features the music of “the Last Madman of Rock and Roll,” the amazing Paul Revere (born Paul Revere Dick January 7, 1938-October 4, 2014). Paul and Mark Lindsay (March 9, 1942) co-founded Paul Revere and the Raiders in 1960, and once they were signed by Columbia Records in 1965, the Raiders started a long run of proto-punk garage rock classics.
Called “America’s Rolling Stones,” they had a pounding, driving rock and roll energy fused with R&B along with a dynamic and funny stage show. They were also the very popular house band on the tv show Where the Action Is, and racked up 4 hits in the Top Ten, with front man Mark Lindsey also having a successful solo #1 hit toward the end of the run with “Indian Reservation.”
So today we celebrate one of America’s great live shows! These clips should give you a sense of just how funny and talented they truly were!
First, from Hullabaloo in November 1965, this stomping tune made it to #46 on the charts! “Steppin’ Out.”
They came back a few months later in February 1966 in a rare performance when they weren’t wearing those Revolutionary War outfits. This was their first true hit that went all the way to #11, “Just Like Me.” Here’s another lip synched performance on tv where they’re very young and clearly going through their “antic” schtick. “Just Like Me.” And here’s the studio version! “Just Like Me”
Just before they broke big with “Just Like Me,” they had introduced themselves to the world with this song, which Paul claims they did first, even before the Kingsmen, whose version charted higher. “Louie Louie”
A lip synched performance of their biggest hit, complete with a horse on stage! “Kicks”
Here’s another performance with Mark doing real vocals over a backing track of the great Barry Mann-Cynthia Weil tune that went to #4. “Kicks”
This surfaced this year! From an ABC tv special in 1967, PR&TR lip-synching and goofing around to the studio version of their #6 smash hit “Hungry”
Here’s the uncensored version Columbia wouldn’t release because of the reference to being stoned. “Hungry”
From 1966, a lip synched performance on The Hollywood Palace television show of a tune that went to #20, “The Great Airplane Strike”
Also in 1966, on Dick Clark’s tv show, the guys do their schtick performing “Get It On”
From 1967, Mark, Paul, and the boys clowning around to their hit that went all the way to #4, “Good Thing.” (You can hear why there were comparisons to the Rolling Stones, who were in their Between the Buttons era!)
Going back to the 60s, from Where the Action Is, PR&TR giving us their version of the Righteous Brothers’ hit written by Bill Medley! “Little Latin Lupe Lu” and from the same show, their version of the Jerry Lee Lewis classic “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”
Another “live” performance from 1967 of their #5 hit, “Him or Me”
From 1967 on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, a “live” performance of a tune that went to #22 on the charts, “Ups and Downs”
Mark had a solo #1 platinum hit in 1971, backed live by the band! Indian Reservation (Cherokee People)
Here’s a 9 minute video from 1979 with Dick Clark featuring Paul Revere and the Raiders. The live performance of their medley is bookended by the band sitting down with Dick and hanging out talking. We’re told it’s the first reunion of the band since their glory days! Medley – “Steppin’ Out,” “Kicks,” “Hungry,” “Good Thing”
Here’s a great 1986 live concert in Reno called “The Last Madman of Rock and Roll!” Here are the individual segments.
Paul Revere and the Raiders concert Pt 2 – “Good Thing,” “Hatman,” “Motown Medley,” and “Kicks”
Paul Revere and the Raiders concert Pt 3 – “Hungry,” “Just Like Me,” “Rock Paulanoff”
Paul Revere and the Raiders concert Pt 4 – “Louie Louie” and “Good Golly Miss Molly”
After finding the different segments, I found the whole 53 minute show in one clip. Paul Revere and the Raiders Live in Reno 1986
Last year I had the studio album The Spirit of ‘67 on one clip, but it’s disappeared. Still, this link will begin the album, and the rest of the tracks will load automatically. The Spirit of ‘67
Here’s a strange 9 minute clip of some antics of a show that never got aired! Mark Lindsay & Paul Revere - Funny clips from 'lost' Raiders show, 1967
An interesting intimate tribute site! Paul Revere and the Raiders.com
So muchas gracias for all the great tunes and shows across the years, Paul! When the "Last Mad Man of Rock and Roll" got the band rolling you gave us a bunch of tunes in the great American soundtrack of the 60s!!
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Our last set of this show features the awesome guitar playing of Jimmy Page (9 Jan 1944), expert studio guitar slinger before taking off with the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin! During his days as a superstar session guitar player, he put down licks on all kinds of stuff. He played on “Goldfinger” by Shirley Bassey, “It’s Not Unusual” by Tom Jones, “Downtown” by Petula Clark, and “With a Little Help from My Friends” by Joe Cocker.
He also did studio work for bands, playing on “Gloria” and “Baby Please Don’t Go” by Them, the Nashville Teens’ “Tobacco Road,” Herman’s Hermits’ “Silhouettes” and “Can’t Your Hear My Heartbeat,” and as many know, “Sunshine Superman” and "Hurdy Gurdy Man" by Donovan. You can hear his work on some early Who, Kinks, and Rolling Stones' tunes as well.
Our first number is an example of his studio work. In 1964, Brenda Lee went to England to create this fantastic hit song, featuring Jimmy Page on guitar and Bobby Graham on drums with Mickie Most producing. Yes, these are his licks! “Is It True” (#17 US and UK).
In May 1966, the Everly Brothers went to England and cut an album that year featuring the Hollies, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Elton John! Welcome to those incredible harmonies cranking out British hits from the era! It begins with the great Spencer Davis hit “Somebody Help Me” and autoloads from there. For your enjoyment, Two Yanks in England
Also in May 1966 just before he joined the Yardbirds, he wrote and played on this Jeff Beck classic which features Jimmy, Jeff, John Paul Jones on bass, Keith Moon on drums, and Nicky Hopkins on piano, the awesome “Beck’s Bolero.”
In 1966, the Yardbirds added Jimmy Page on bass, and the classic lineup was born! Here’s 7 minutes of live performance footage from that year! “Train Kept A Rollin’,” Shapes of Things to Come,” and “Over Under Sideways Down”
In this 1966 Milton Berle Show clip, the Yardbirds with Jeff and Jimmy Page on twin lead guitars lip-synch to the original studio version of “Happenings Ten Years’ Time Ago”
From the movie Blow Up, the Yardbirds featuring both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page in a classic performance where Jeff is featured smashing his guitar in a (staged) random fit of destruction! “The Train Kept A Rollin’”
Here’s a fantastic live performance clip from 1967 on Beat Club featuring Jimmy Page on lead cranking out one of the most psychedelic raveup tunes of 1967, “Happenings Ten Years’ Time Ago”
This is a rare glimpse into the period when the Yardbirds were breaking up and Led Zeppelin was beginning to form. From the French tv show Bouton Rouge in March 1968, “The Train Kept A Rollin’” They also did this for the first time, and you can see why Jimmy decided to replace Keith Relf with Robert Plant. “Dazed and Confused”
A few months later in January 1969 they released the first Led Zeppelin album, which I consider the best of all of them! Led Zeppelin
From March 1969, Led Zeppelin live at Gladsaxe Teen Club in Denmark cranking out a set of “Communication Breakdown,” “Dazed and Confused,” “Babe I'm Gonna Leave You,” and “How Many More Times”
In late 1969 they released Led Zeppelin II, considered one of the first true “metal” albums! Led Zeppelin II
From that groundbreaking album, the gigantic hit which took the world by storm! “Whole Lotta Love”
From January 9, 1970, at Jimmy’s birthday at the Royal Albert Hall, an entire hour and 43 of early Led Zeppelin very live! Led Zeppelin Live at the Royal Albert Hall – 1970
Live in 1972, a mashup of two performances is the “official” video of “Immigrant Song”
(Because we've all heard all the later LZ material a thousand times, I'll skip that material this year.)
At this point, we’ll close the show with a fantastic 2009 performance at the 25th anniversary of Jeff Beck being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, here’s Jimmy and his old bandmate from the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck, doing one of Jeff's signature tunes which Jimmy wrote, "Beck's Bolero” and "Immigrant Song."
And now the superstar tribute that closes that show! Featuring Jeff, Jimmy, Flea, Ron Wood, Joe Perry and a bunch of other major league talent, here’s the band doing the old Yardbirds rave up standard, "The Train Kept A-Rollin’"
© Copyright 2025 Robert Wilkinson
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