Customer Reviews

Indian Reservation / Collage

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I agree with the reviewer who said it would have made more sense to pair Indian Reservation with the Country Wine album on this CD. But at least the Indian Reservation album, probably the Raiders' best overall, is finally on CD. The delay in releasing it may have been partly because the title song was available on so many various artists CD compilations. But this album had much more going for it. In keeping with the times, this was the Raiders' "social conscience" album with covers of songs such as "Heaven Help Us All," "Eve of Destruction" and "Prince of Peace" joining the title track. And Mark Lindsay's voice was at its peak here, as he outsings Steve Wonder and Barry McGuire's original versions of those classics.

There is also some great drum work (probably by studio legend Hal Blaine) on "Come in, You'll Get Pneumonia."

Blaine definitely plays the drums on the "Indian Reservation" song (Lindsay has said Blaine kept the dust covers on his drums for that song to get the proper muffled sound), but some of the actual Raiders played on that album as well, something that didn't happen often after the group's first year. This was probably the Raiders' strongest overall lineup, though, as bass player Keith Allison had a solo career before joining the Raiders and guitarist Freddy Weller had numerous country hits while and after he was with the Raiders, as well as having been a studio guitarist before joining them (playing on Billy Joe Royal's 1965 hit, "Down in the Boondocks," among others). Weller has said he's not sure which tracks he played on for this album but Allison claims to have played the keyboards on "Indian Reservation" (including the strong signature closing) as well as bass on several songs. Keyboardist Paul Revere's main contribution to this album was promoting it, as his motorcycle tour of radio stations across the country has been credited with helping the title song reach No. 1 on the Billboard charts.

Of the 10 songs on the Indian Reservation album, the only weak one is the aptly named "The Turkey." It is also the only song on that album written by Lindsay, who must have been experiencing writer's block at the time after composing so many great hits for the group. But hey, even John Fogerty writes a bad song once in a while.

The Collage album is not as great, but this CD concludes with two dynamite bonus tracks from the Country Wine album, "Country Wine" and Power Blue Mercedes Queen." They and the first nine tracks from the Indian Reservation album are more than enough to give this CD five stars.

I have always enjoyed the last three Raiders albums. It was a real shame that the public responded so indifferently to "Collage," there was real potential in the budding Lindsay and Allison songwriting partnership. I don't know, but I get the feeling that the band participated in the studio more than they had done in the past. The drumming, most likely by Joe Correro, was stellar and Lindsay's inventive production created an album that still sounds great today.

Indian Reservation and Country Wine, which followed,were much more schizophrenic affairs, comprised of about 2/3 pop covers and 1/3 rockers. It would be nice if the tracks "Take a Stand," and "Golden Girls Sometimes" were also available.

At least RAVEN finally had the sense to release INDIAN RESERVATION on CD at last. This album was one of The Raider's biggest, as INDIAN RESERVATION gave them a #1 hit . The album has more hard rocking songs including a great cover of SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME, as well as more pop tunes, like their follow-up hit , BIRDS OF A FEATHER.

COLLAGE from 1970 is The Raider's most hard-rocking album with Mark Lindsay producing and the band branching out more with harder rock, socio-political songs and more experimenting with different textures, horns and sounds. No really big hit ever emerged from this very good endeavor , and for some reason the band re-recorded WE GOTTA ALL GET TOGETHER [ their top 50 1969 hit ] and 2 songs from their 1967 REVOLUTION album, GONE MOVIN' ON and TIGHTER. I prefer the originals of all 3 songs. It was the bands attempt to make new inroads as a rock band, but with no hit single, it didn't get many sales. Still good to hear though.

HOWEVER, Raven should have coupled the INDIAN RESERVATION album from 1971 with 1972's COUNTRY WINE album. This would have made more sense chronologically. But a big also is that COLLAGE has already been released on CD on Mark Lindsay's own label courtesy of Sony/BMG Special Products. Being that the SUNDAZED label stopped at the Paul Revere and The Raiders reissues with 1969's ALIAS PINK PUZZ, and COLLAGE already on CD, COUNTRY WINE would have made a perfect companion for a CD two-fer. Too bad they messed up the pairing. Now when will we get a " Best Of " Mark Lindsay CD with all his many 45 vinyl single only releases? That's a huge demand on the part of Linday & Raiders fans.

Hoping to expand to a more mature and broader audience, Mark Lindsay pulled out the stops to record the Collage album. In my mind, this is the penultimate Raiders album, and they recorded a lot of good albums. I've always personally enjoyed the album cuts over the singles on the Raider albums. FM radio of the day was trying their best to be "heavy" (mostly they had their collective heads up their collective rears) and because they couldn't get past the Revolutionary War outfits and the Action slapstick of Paul Revere & the Raiders, they wouldn't give Collage a fair play. So nobody really heard it, and it is a great album. Indian Reservation was recorded after Collage, but is on this disc first I suppose because it was a seller, following the Indian Reservation single success. The rest of the album is good, not great, with the exception of possibly Eve of Destruction and Leon Russell's song Prince of Peace, both being worthy of airplay also. A couple of songs from the last LP, Country Wine, were added to this disc. Collage is not currently available anywhere except maybe a collector's sale somewhere, so get this CD for that album.

I agree with everyone elses review that Raven should have put out "country wine" with "indian reservation"; however they released this in Australia where 'collage" was not released on cd at all. So for them it was a proper move. I talked to "sundazed records" who put out the rest of the "paul revere and the raiders" catalog from 1964-69, and they claimed that CBS had the tapes for "collage" , "indian reservation" , 'country wine" and a unreleased ablum, but they wanted too much money to put these four discs out. Obviously the Raven release has just proved them wrong. Of course they could still put out "country wine' and put that unreleased album on it as well. In fact I emailed Raven and suggested this as well. Just find them on the web and throw them a line. And throw one at Sundazed for being boneheaded about putting out these classics!.
As for these ablums on cd: 'collage" is the better of the two if you are a rock fan, there are a few true by any standard classic rock songs: "think twice" , 'just seventeen", 'boys in the band" and 'dr fine" the rest of the album is pretty good too, with a new version of the hit 'we gotta all get together" on it, and 'Indian reservation' is a good rock and pop mixture with two hits and of course the great classic number one song 'indian reservation" . A few songs sound like pure pop with lots of horns but most of them are good songs, a few I can't say are too great but that's ok. "country wine' is a even stronger album song wise in many respects.
Email raven! And this is classic rock from a underrated band that should be in the rock and roll hall of fame.
RAVEN came through 'country wine" is now on cd with 11 bonus tracks. and it's on amazon,com now!

I only knew the Paul Revere and the Raiders from oldies radio, but I found this used and very inexpensive. This is really well played, well assembled pop rock from 1970-71.

I'll leave it to the conversant to tell you about the band, but: I love the vocals, the writing is solid. If Gary Pucket had been more rock geared--he was on Columbia at the same time--he would have sounded a lot more like this and been a hell of a lot better off.
And if modern music had string and horn arrangements with care like this--standard practice then and glaringly absent now-I would listen to more of it.

Completely subjective review below my standards, but great music. Buy it

Finally, on CD, Indian Reservation. A great album by the Raiders. Sounds great !
And Collage, too ! Two of the Raiders' best ! ( in my opinion.) If you like the Raiders, you need to get this.
Now, if we could just get Country Wine on a CD.......

The Raiders Collage blew me away in 70 and so did this reissue. Totally lost by the public dispite rave reviews availale again on cd. Get it now before it goes away. Includes Just Seventeen,Gone,Movin' On and We Gotta All Get Together album version, not the single.

Sundazed did a nice job releasing all of the Raiders Columbia catalog on cd some years ago, but apparently weren't interested in their 70's material. Raven has picked things up where Sundazed left off, with the Raiders' 1970 album "Collage", their worst seller up to that point (unless you count their pre-CBS recordings); "Indian Reservation" turned things around, commercially, with the title cut being the only #1 single of their career. "Collage" leans in a heavier direction that previous Raiders albums, although they were never bubblegum, despite the costumes and onstage hijinks. From day one, Paul Revere and his band always rocked hard, in the tradition of great Northwest bands like the Wailers and the Sonics. The difference this time out is, rocking hard in 1965 meant all-out rockin' renditions of Ray Charles and Chuck Berry songs. In 1970, rocking hard meant Cream and Led Zeppelin. "Just Seventeen", "Sorceress with Blue Eyes" and "Dr. Fine" are probably the closest the Raiders ever got to that kind of hard rock. Keith Allison and Freddy Weller were the perfect complement as guitarists - Keith leaning more towards blues, and Freddy being more country. The Raiders' records always featured fine guitar work, and this album is no exception - check out "Think Twice" and "Boys in the Band", or the acoustic work on "Interlude" and "Wednesday's Child". Joe Correro, Jr.'s drum work is mind-blowing throughout - and unfortunately, this was his last recorded work with the group. The man he replaced, Mike "Smitty" Smith, replaced Joe in 1971, and may have played on some of the "Indian Reservation" sessions (Smitty himself recalled being on the session for "Birds of a Feather" in late 1970). The lyrics here definately lean towards the socially conscious vibe of the early 70's on tracks like "Prince of Peace", "Shape of Things to Come", "Eve of Destruction" and of course "Indian Reservation" (or, for that matter, "We Gotta All Get Together" and "Save the Country" on "Collage"). The image of the Raiders as loveable goofballs didn't stop "Indian Reservation" from being a huge hit, and the album itself did well, too, so why they were unable to sustain that success is a bit of a mystery. "Birds of a Feather" was a top 40 hit, and there is other strong material on the album. Mark Lindsay, as always, is capable of singing any type of material, from pop tunes like "Just Remember You're My Sunshine" to funkier things like "Take Me Home". Maybe the fault lies with Columbia - the Raiders had been selling millions of records for the label for years, maybe the label just came to take them for granted. It's never too late to discover great music, though. Thank you, Raven, for making this music available again.

I grew up on this album, well it was an album when I was a teen. I was glad to find it because I love it.