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Rainmakers 215, 214

ALBUMS: Rainmakers (1983)

MVC Rating: 3.5/$$$/

These Kansas guys jumped out of the speakers and gave little notice they were about to slice the Red Sea.

Holy Moses.

This came out about the time I started working here the first time around (1986). So my old old Birmingham fans may remember some of these tunes.

They sound a bit like Jason and Scorchers. And the lyrics seem political with some religious overtones. But not sure what about? Am I missing something here?

I did not put you here to suffer

I did not put you here to whine

I put you here to love one another

And get up and have a good time.

Other songs are a little more surprising, if not, if not disconcerting: ‘Big Fat Blond’ and ‘Government Cheese,” which throws this verse at you.

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Paul Revere and Raiders — 219, 218, 217, 216

ALBUMS : Alias Pink Puzz (1971);Midnight Ride (1966); Raider’s Indian Reservation 1971); Greatest Hits (1969);

MVC RATING: Puzz (3.5/$$); Midnight Ride(3.5/$$$); Raider’s Indian Reservation (4.0/$$$): Paul Revere and the Raiders Greatest Hits (4.0/$$$)

I can’t say I’ve ever been a huge Paul Revere and the Raiders fan. Their gimmick was they wore Revolutionary war costumes. Maybe they are relevant finally.

Indian Resevation was a big hit as was the anti-drug song, Kicks.

The Raiders could be categorized as the American flip side of the 1960’s British invaders with the Beatles, Stones, Who, Moody Blues, Herman’s Hermits and Chad and Jeremy.

Lead singer had a strong voice. I guess you have to when your main skill is waking a town up. They had an active 30 or longer-year career, with a number of personnel charges.

Why do I have four Paul Revere/Raiders albums? I’m not sure. They aren’t bad but not great either — they do now have a badge of honor as a few of their songs have been put in Quentin Tarantino movies. Tarantino has a knack of finding Billboard 60s and 70s songs to sneak into his movies.

Best album I think is Alias Pink Puzz–a little psychedelic, medium-boil, rock as we move into the 1970s.

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Rubber Rodeo — 229

ALBUMS: Rubber Radio (EP) )1982

MVC Rating 3.0/$$, (1982)

I will say this, thousands and thousnds upon thousands of inexplicable rock star names are out there and this is one that I can’t even scrape up a guess.

Rubber Radio is this one one , which debuted with ‘Rubber Rodeo in 1981.

Hmm. is there a Plastic Playgrounds?

Belushi and Dan Akroyd popularized an old soul 1950s hit –‘Rubber Biscuits,’ –and of course there was Birmingham singer Eddie Kendricks known for his hit record , ‘Rubber Band Man.’

Rubber Rodeo, on the other hand came out as a New Wave cow-punk band that was sweeping, nation, well maybe dustbrooming .the nation.

Despite some good press and a couple or so albums, they never bounced back.

Bounced back? From what? Well I was making a little joke there, but if you must know, rubber head, in the cow punk genre they just weren’t as good as Jason and Scorchers, Rank and File, Danny and Dusty and, got to mention some of X’s work..

And they were from Boston.

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Rare Earth — 233

ALBUM: Rare Earth (Superstar series) (1981 compilation)

MVC Rating: 3.5/$$$

It would be easy to dismiss this average white band as a great bar band and go with that. But they are actually a good bump above that description. They are an American band in the Grand Funk mode or blue-eyed rock and soul of Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels.

Rare Earth was from Detroit, and like Mitch Ryder’s great band, absorbed the Motor City’s soul music tradition.

Detroit Wheels had some funk and soul in their approach. Rare Earth was one of the first successful- all- white bands to be signed by Motown Records. (Others had been signed but never had a hit or achieved much success.) Some audiences called the band too white sounding and others called the band too black sounding, but a lot more liked the sound. One of their biggest hits was a cover of a Temptations song, ‘Get Ready’ which was a real jam — like 30 minutes of jam in concert. They were loud, both vocally and musically.

I saw them at an outdoor free concert in West Lafayette, Indiana, in around 1974 or 1975. Or, maybe that was the J. Geils Band (?). I don’t know. I do know I became familiar with Rare Earth’s songs around this time as they bombarded the radio airways.

‘Born to Wander,’ ‘Hey Big Brother,’ ‘(I Know) I’m Losing You’ and my favorite: ‘I just Want to Celebrate.’