Music Monday: “Arizona” from 1970. Where is the midwest?
Posted By RichC on August 12, 2024
First … Happy Birthday Brenda. We’ll celebrate with KDAE over the weekend in a few days.
Where is the Midwest in the United States? Someone posted a map from the WSJ that mentioned it is geographically not where most people think it is — or where they call themselves Midwesterners.
I outlined in yellow where “I think” the midwest is — I’m pretty much with the majority, although geographically off.
As for a Music Monday song, here’s one that I heard last week by Mark Lindsay from Paul Revere and the Raiders (see YouTube video below) and his 1970 solo hit, “Arizona” written by Kenny Young. I haven’t heard it for a while and although Arizona is NOT in the Midwest, it is a memorable song from my early music listening years in the 1970s.
| Mark Lindsay | “Arizona” 1970 |
Long-ish MARK LINDSAY BIO from the website in case it disappears some day, I’ll included it below:
The original lead singer and co-founder of Paul Revere & the Raiders, Mark Lindsay was born in Oregon but raised in Idaho, where he began his career as the rockabilly singer in Freddy Chapman’s Idaho Playboys. His bandmates were the guitar-playing brothers Dick and “Mooney” White.
The White Brothers had another gig playing rock and roll in the Red Hughes Band. Red later hired Paul Revere Dick on piano to join them. One night at the IOOF Hall in Caldwell, Idaho, Mark Lindsay showed up to listen, but he soon ripped off his glasses and made his way blindly to the stage, then impulsively asked if he could sing a song. He did, relished the crowd response for a few moments, and then – overcome with shyness – hastily left the hall.
The next morning, Mark was back at his job at McClure’s Bakery. Covered in flour and with his coke- bottle glasses back on, he was soon visited by Revere, who had come in to pick up buns for his hamburger stand. While Mark wrapped the order, Revere started talking about an incident that had happened at the dance that he played the night before. “It was the weirdest thing!” said Revere. “In the middle of the show, this skinny kid with a crazy look in his eye came up to the stage and asked to sing a song. So we let him.” Mark, knowing full well who the stranger was, casually asked,“How was he?” “Not bad,” Revere admitted. “It was ME!” replied Mark. Thus began the Lindsay-Revere association.
Mark began sitting in regularly with the Red Hughes band and began to attract his own following, which Red did not appreciate. It all came to a head the night Red took his date to the prom, and showed up late to the gig. Mark was on stage rocking out with the band when Red came in the door, and he was furious. That night he delivered an ultimatum to the band. “If you ever let Lindsay on the stage again, I’ll fire the whole band!”
With that demand, the band quit, and approached Mark about starting a new band with him as lead singer. They were nameless for a few months, but then called themselves The Downbeats, after Mark noticed a Downbeat magazine on his sax teacher’s coffee table and suggested it.
The group recorded some demos and got their first contract with Gardena Records in 1961. Owner John Guss, after reviewing the document, noticed the full name of Paul Revere Dick and suggested it would make a good gimmick. And thus the band was christened Paul Revere and the Raiders.
Their recording of “Louie Louie” led to a contract with Columbia Records in 1963, and seventeen Top 20 hits later, with Mark Lindsay on all the Raider hits’ lead vocals (plus his solo hit “Arizona”), it’s still hard for him to believe that a shy, skinny, geeky farm kid could have been so lucky. “Indian Reservation,” “Kicks,” “Hungry,” and “Good Thing” and many others have become radio classics. Mark also produced all of the Raiders’ music from 1968 forward.
Mark and the Raiders are the most televised band in history, with over 700 original network appearances on shows including “Where the Action Is” (daily, 1965-67), followed by the Lindsay-co-hosted “Happening” (daily, then Saturdays, 1968-69), and including the top shows of the era, such as Ed Sullivan, the Smothers Brothers, Batman, and the Tonight Show.
Mark continued his TV presence over the years, with appearances on Oprah Winfrey, “Married With Children” and other shows.
In 2019, acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino released “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” and used four Raider songs in the movie, plus a video clip of Mark hosting and performing on a 1969 TV segment of “Happening.” Three of those songs — Mark wrote two and co-wrote one — made it to the soundtrack, and Tarantino thanked Mark Lindsay in the liner notes – the only musician thus honored.
Recently, Mark’s solo hit “Silver Bird” was used twice in pivotal scenes in the Netflix feature “Gray Man”, and re-entered the Billboard charts as a result. Other recent movies using music he created includes, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” (Birds of a Feather, over opening credits), “Arizona” (Arizona), Licorice Pizza (Indian Reservation), and others.
And Mark has continued to create new music.
His recording of “Treat Her Right” with Los Straitjackets was cited by author Stephen King in his column for Entertainment Weekly. “This remake of Roy Head’s 1965 soul hit smokes. And Mark Lindsay sounds so good, you just gotta wonder where he was all those years.”
Mark’s 2013 CD, Life Out Loud, produced two singles that both garnered accolades from Little Steven and were picked for Coolest Song in the World on his Underground Garage radio show.
Teaming up with Susan Cowsill, Mark released his first- ever duet project in 2016, titled “Love Is Strange” and featuring the classic “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.”
Mark is just finishing a recording project which includes performances by Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson from Cheap Trick, Joe Walsh, and Gregg Bissonette from Ringo’s All-Starr band, among other luminaries. 2023 will also see the release of his new “Summer of Love” project as well as a large selection of music from the vaults.
Also in the works is “Where the Action Was,” a 10-part television docu-series on the history of music culture in Los Angeles during the sixties, which Mark is hosting. He is also part of another upcoming documentary which is still under production by a major film company.
Mark spent two years hosting a radio show on legendary KISN-AM in Portland Oregon, followed by a move to K-HITS 106.7 (KLTH-FM, part of CBS), where he took his Saturday night show to the top of the ratings for that time slot.
In 2022, he was honored to join Little Steven’s Underground Garage family as the host of American Revolution, featuring the best music created by artists from the USA, and airing on both Saturdays and Sundays on SiriusXM’s Channel 21.
Mark toured extensively as a solo artist over the years, but paused for a while due to the pandemic, and then decided to address an ankle that he’s sprained or broken many times over the years. After surgery and finally getting the all-clear, Mark will be back on stage in 2025, beginning with a return to the Flower Power Cruise, and following dates throughout the summer and fall.
He resides in Florida with his wife of thirty-plus years and two giant Maine Coons, and he never ever sits still.
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