1.
Paul Revere & the Raiders
–
Paul Revere & the Raiders is an American rock band that saw considerable U. S. mainstream success in the second half of the 1960s and early 1970s. Among their hits were the songs Kicks, Hungry, Him Or Me – Whats It Gonna Be. initially based in Boise, Idaho, the Raiders began as an instrumental rock band led by organist and founder Paul Revere Dick. The band relocated to Portland, Oregon, when Revere returned from serving in the forces in 1962. In his early 20s, Revere owned several restaurants in Caldwell, Idaho, the circumstance of their meeting was later referred to in the tongue-in-cheek song Legend of Paul Revere, recorded by the group. Lindsay joined Reveres band in 1958, originally called the Downbeats, they changed their name to Paul Revere & the Raiders in 1960 on the eve of their first record release for Gardena Records. The band garnered their first hit in the Pacific Northwest in 1961, with the instrumental Like, the record had enough national appeal that it peaked at No.38 on the Billboard chart on April 17,1961. When Revere was drafted for service, he became a conscientious objector and worked as a cook at a mental institution for a year. During the same period, Lindsay pumped gas in Wilsonville. On the strength of their Top 40 single, Lindsay toured the U. S. in the summer of 1961 with a band that featured Leon Russell taking Reveres place on piano. By summer 1962, Revere and Lindsay were working again in Oregon with a version of the Raiders that featured Mike Smitty Smith. Around this time, KISN DJ Roger Hart, who was producing teen dances, was looking for a band to hire, Hart had a casual conversation with a bank teller who told him about a band called Paul Revere-something. Hart obtained Reveres phone number and they met for lunch, Hart hired the band for one of his teen dances. Soon afterward, Hart became the personal manager. It was Hart who suggested they record Louie Louie, for which Hart paid them about $50, producing the song and placing it on his Sandē label, according to Lindsay, the Raiders were a bunch of white-bread kids doing their best to sound black. We got signed to Columbia on the strength of sounding like this, whether the Raiders or the Kingsmen recorded Louie Louie first is not certain, however, both groups recorded it in the same studio in Portland, Oregon, in April 1963. By then, the Raiders included Revere, Lindsay, Smith, guitarist Drake Levin, and bassist Mike Doc Holliday, in 1965, the Raiders began recording a string of garage rock classics. Their first major hit, Just Like Me was one of the first rock records to feature a distinctive, double-tracked guitar solo. The band appeared regularly in the U. S. on national television, most notably on Dick Clarks Where the Action Is, Happening 68, and Its Happening, the latter two co-hosted by Revere and Lindsay
2.
Midnight Ride (album)
–
Midnight Ride is the fifth studio album by American pop rock group Paul Revere & the Raiders, released by Columbia Records. Produced by Terry Melcher and released in May 1966, the featured the U. S. top five single Kicks. The album also includes Steppin Stone, a song The Monkees covered, the album is unique in the bands discography in that it contains songwriting credits by all five bandmembers. The album also marked the end of the relationship with the Brill Building music publishing house. Midnight Ride peaked at nine on the U. S. Billboard 200 albums chart. The album was certified gold in the U. S. on March 20,1967, music critic Bruce Eder said the album marked just about the pinnacle of Paul Revere & the Raiders history as a source of great albums. The album was described in Billboard magazine as a package of hard driving, pulsating rockers, serene Dominic of the Phoenix New Times called the album proof that squandered not a minute of that massive TV exposure. It is listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die by Robert Dimery, in 1986 the song Kicks was covered by the Monkees as an album track on their album Then & Now. Midnight Ride was remastered and re-released on February 1,2000 by Sundazed Records with bonus tracks
3.
Rock music
–
It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by blues, rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of genres such as electric blues and folk. Musically, rock has centered on the guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar. Typically, rock is song-based music usually with a 4/4 time signature using a verse-chorus form, like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. Punk was an influence into the 1980s on the subsequent development of subgenres, including new wave, post-punk. From the 1990s alternative rock began to rock music and break through into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the visually distinctive goth and emo subcultures and this trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, Hammond organ and synthesizers. The basic rock instrumentation was adapted from the blues band instrumentation. A group of musicians performing rock music is termed a rock band or rock group, Rock music is traditionally built on a foundation of simple unsyncopated rhythms in a 4/4 meter, with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies are often derived from older musical modes, including the Dorian and Mixolydian, harmonies range from the common triad to parallel fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock, because of its complex history and tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that it is impossible to bind rock music to a rigidly delineated musical definition. These themes were inherited from a variety of sources, including the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music and rhythm, as a result, it has been seen as articulating the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality, according to Simon Frith rock was something more than pop, something more than rock and roll. Rock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with the concept of art as artistic expression, original. The foundations of music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music, with country. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music for a multi-racial audience, debate surrounds which record should be considered the first rock and roll record. Other artists with rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis
4.
Songwriter
–
A songwriter is an individual who writes the lyrics, melodies and chord progressions for songs, typically for a popular music genre such as rock or country music. A songwriter can also be called a composer, although the term tends to be used mainly for individuals from the classical music genre. The pressure from the industry to produce popular hits means that songwriting is often an activity for which the tasks are distributed between a number of people. For example, a songwriter who excels at writing lyrics might be paired with a songwriter with a gift for creating original melodies, pop songs may be written by group members from the band or by staff writers – songwriters directly employed by music publishers. Some songwriters serve as their own publishers, while others have outside publishers. The old-style apprenticeship approach to learning how to write songs is being supplemented by university degrees and college diplomas, a knowledge of modern music technology, songwriting elements and business skills are necessary requirements to make a songwriting career in the 2010s. Several music colleges offer songwriting diplomas and degrees with music business modules, the legal power to grant these permissions may be bought, sold or transferred. This is governed by international copyright law, song pitching can be done on a songwriters behalf by their publisher or independently using tip sheets like RowFax, the MusicRow publication and SongQuarters. Skills associated with song-writing include entrepreneurism and creativity, songwriters who sign an exclusive songwriting agreement with a publisher are called staff writers. In the Nashville country music scene, there is a staff writer culture where contracted writers work normal 9-to-5 hours at the publishing office and are paid a regular salary. This salary is in effect the writers draw, an advance on future earnings, the publisher owns the copyright of songs written during the term of the agreement for a designated period, after which the songwriter can reclaim the copyright. In an interview with HitQuarters, songwriter Dave Berg extolled the benefits of the set-up, unlike contracted writers, some staff writers operate as employees for their respective publishers. Under the terms of work for hire agreements, the compositions created are fully owned by the publisher. In Nashville, young writers are often encouraged to avoid these types of contracts. Staff writers are common across the industry, but without the more office-like working arrangements favored in Nashville. All the major publishers employ writers under contract, songwriter Allan Eshuijs described his staff writer contract at Universal Music Publishing as a starter deal. His success under the arrangement eventually allowed him to found his own publishing company, so that he could. keep as much as possible, songwriters are also often skilled musicians. In addition to selling their songs and musical concepts for other artists to sing, songwriters need to create a number of elements for a song
5.
Boyce and Hart
–
Sidney Thomas Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart were a prolific songwriting duo, best known for the songs they wrote for The Monkees. Harts father was a minister and he himself served in the Army after leaving high school. Upon discharge, he travelled to Los Angeles seeking a career as a singer, Boyce was separately pursuing a career as a singer. After being rejected numerous times, Boyce took his fathers suggestion to write a song called Be My Guest for rock and he waited six hours at Dominos hotel room to present him with the demo, and got Domino to promise to listen to the song. The song hit #8 in the US and #11 in the UK, becoming Dominos biggest hit there in several years and their partnership made a breakthrough with a song recorded by Chubby Checker, Lazy Elsie Molly, in 1964. They went on to write hits for Jay & the Americans, Paul Revere, the latter two songs provided the Monkees with hit B-sides in 1967. The duo also wrote the song of the daytime soap Days of Our Lives. At one point in this period, Hart also co-wrote Hurt So Bad for Little Anthony & the Imperials with Teddy Randazzo and his songwriting partner. In late 1965, they wrote, produced and performed the soundtrack of the pilot for The Monkees, in 1966, despite some conflicts with Don Kirshner, who was the shows musical supervisor, they were retained in essentially the same role. The Monkees themselves re-recorded their vocals over Boyce and Harts when it time to release the songs. Kirshner suddenly relieved Boyce and Hart as producers, by claiming they were using studio time booked for Monkees songs to record tracks for their own solo project, every original Monkees album included Boyce and Hart songs. The duo also had five charting singles, the most well-known of these was I Wonder What Shes Doing Tonight and it sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Out and About and Alice Long were their other Top 40 hits, in each of the three sitcom guest appearances, their music was featured including two covers they did on The Flying Nun. Boyce and Hart also had filmed video promos for their songs Out and About and they also provided the music score for a TV movie called Threes a Crowd starring Larry Hagman and Jessica Walter. Boyce and Hart also did promos for the U. S. Army Reserve and this included the creation of two Coca-Cola commercial jingles, one being a powerful psychedelic song, Wake Up Girl, while the other was their single Smilin with totally different lyrics. In 1971 a sitcom named Getting Together appeared on ABC-TV, starring Bobby Sherman, the series was reportedly based loosely on Boyce and Harts partnership. At this point, they decided to work on solo projects. In the mid-1970s, Boyce and Hart reunited with Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz, performing the songs Boyce, legally prohibited from using the Monkees name, they called themselves Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart
6.
Record producer
–
A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu
7.
Terry Melcher
–
Melcher is also known for his involvement with murder-conspirator Charles Manson, being one of the targets of the Manson Family during the late 1960s. He was the child of actress/singer Doris Day, his father was Days first husband Al Jorden. Melchers major contributions were producing the Byrds first two albums Mr. Tambourine Man and Turn, Turn. as well as most of the hit recordings of Paul Revere & the Raiders and the Gentle Soul. In the 1960s, Melcher was acquainted with the Beach Boys, Melcher later produced several singles for the Beach Boys between the 1980s and the 1990s, including Kokomo, which topped US record charts. Melcher was born Terrence P. Jorden in New York City to trombonist Al Jorden and his wife, known as Terry, the boy was named by his mother after the hero of her favorite childhood comic strip, Terry and the Pirates. Before the birth, Day was planning to divorce Al Jorden, due to his alleged abuse, upon learning of his wifes pregnancy, Jorden had demanded that Day get an abortion. Shortly after giving birth, Day filed for divorce and left the infant with her mother in Ohio, Doris went back to touring with big band leader Les Brown and after the divorce, Jorden visited his son infrequently and had little presence in his life. After divorcing her husband, saxophonist George Weidler, Day married Martin Melcher. Melcher adopted Terry, giving the child his surname, in his freshman and sophomore high school years, Terry attended the Loomis Chaffee School in Connecticut, then returned to California for his junior and senior years at Beverly Hills High. He subsequently attended Principia College in Illinois for a short time, after Martin Melchers death in 1968, Day discovered that Martin had mismanaged or embezzled twenty million dollars from her. According to Terry, Martin also mistreated him as a child, in the early 1960s, Terry Melcher and Bruce Johnston formed the vocal duet Bruce & Terry. The duo had hits like Custom Machine and Summer Means Fun, Melcher and Johnston also created another group, the Rip Chords, which had a Top 10 hit with Hey, Little Cobra. Later, Johnston would join the Beach Boys, by the mid-1960s, Melcher had joined the staff of Columbia Records and went on to work with the Byrds. He produced their hit cover versions of Bob Dylans Mr. Tambourine Man, Turn. as well as their respective albums. Melcher also worked with Paul Revere & the Raiders, Wayne Newton, Frankie Laine, Jimmy Boyd, Pat Boone, Glen Campbell, Mark Lindsay and he was instrumental in signing another L. A. band, the Rising Sons, led by Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder. Melcher was also a member of the Monterey Pop Foundation. In 1968, Beach Boy Dennis Wilson introduced Melcher to ex-con, Manson and his family had been living in Wilsons house at 14400 Sunset Boulevard after Wilson had picked up hitchhiking Manson family members Patricia Krenwinkel and Ella Jo Bailey. Wilson expressed interest in Mansons music and even recorded two of Mansons songs with the Beach Boys, for a time, Melcher was interested in recording Mansons music as well as making a film about the family and their hippie commune existence
