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Mark Lindsay's OFFICIAL Page For Fans

From: Mark Lindsay - Holly Knowles, we had times both good and bad, like in most relationships, and they’re all part of my life experience whether I like it or not. Reflecting that the 1973 era was an especially sad time in my life is recognizing the reality of that time, not bitterness. I came across this flyer today and it really resonated with me, bringing back a flood of gut-wrenching memories. I remember very few shows individually, but this one was such a nadir that it rips me up even today.

I was suicidal. I had had 2 solo hit records with Arizona and Silver Bird, but the accountants said I had no royalties coming because they were cross-collateralized with the Raider account which was in a deficit. I was paying for a “debt” that both of us owed. All of my songwriting royalties from songs released on Columbia were paying off that debt as well. We were taking gigs at such a low rate that after expenses and paying the Raider members, our production company partnership sometimes made less than one band member. There were other issues - I owned 50% of a million dollars+ of real estate with Paul and couldn’t touch it or sell it, they said. I saw no way out from a black hole after I’d worked my a** off for years and years. I couldn’t get any answers or help other than the equivalent of “that’s the way it is, don’t bother us.” It was a very, very dark time.

Getting our business affairs settled and separated in the early 2000’s was a godsend. There was an issue almost weekly after we split in 1975 as we couldn’t agree on anything to do with our business interests and it was a constant fight. We couldn’t have agreed on the color of the sky. Any professional could have seen that coming as we split, even if we couldn’t, and should have fixed it all then. Finally, we could remove the constant sources of friction and move on.

I reached out to Paul before his passing but he wouldn’t take my call, so I think you’re misunderstanding where I was and am. I was always open to a reunion on stage that was fair and equitable to both of us, but he was not. That was his choice to make and we were both happy doing what we did separately. Towards the end, I did the best I could, sending him texts reflecting on how lucky 2 guys from Idaho were and trying to recount our happy times together. I wish we could have talked; it was Paul’s choice to make that we didn’t, and I’m ok with that.

I’m very, very grateful for the life I have now, but it wasn’t easy getting here, and it’s a miracle that I did.

Mark Lindsay's OFFICIAL Page For Fans

Bill Spaulding, Paul contributed to the chords on our pre-Columbia stuff, which we wrote as a group, but anything credited as Lindsay-Revere was written by me. It was part of our agreement. That ended in 1966 after Terry Melcher asked why that that was fair…but I did continue to give Paul 1/2 the publishing, until we finally separated our affairs in the early 2000s. Paul never wrote any song by himself; it wasn’t his thing.

Mark Lindsay - Facebook 5/3/20 Do any of you recall me talking 3-4 years ago about Henry, the Canada Goose with the severely injured leg? I tried to get bird rehab to take him (no), so used to feed him nutritious seeded bread to help him through the worst of it. He’d come when I called him, although with great difficulty.

Slowly, he appeared to get a bit better, but could never put weight on the injured leg, which began to develop a thickened spot at the joint. He’d usually stand on his good leg, sometimes strangely balancing with the tip of his other foot. But he could get around on the ground with a limp/flutter and was noticeable on the lake by his crooked path. The other geese ostracized him because he was “different.”

We saw him a few times the year after the injury, always alone, but that was it. Nature took its course, we sadly decided. Poor Henry.

This morning, Deb and I were up early to get to my 7am, 3x weekly ankle physical therapy sessions. (This is a follow-up to my earlier stem cell treatment, designed to strengthen the ankle muscles.) We looked out at the lake, and I pointed out a new batch of baby Canada goslings, but she’d picked up the binocs and was zeroing in on a lone goose several yards away which was standing...strangely. And then he limp/fluttered a few yards.

To make a long story short, after a 2-year absence, Henry has returned! We were stunned.

I’m telling you this story (a) because this made me extremely happy and I hope it makes you happy, and (b) to remind you that even if things look dark, there’s always hope.

Have a great Monday, a great week, a great forever!!

Raw rock 'n' roll done Mark Lindsay style: Inside 'Life Out Loud'

April 10, 2015 10:47 PM 

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Watch the official promo for "Life Out Loud," Mark Lindsay's first album of original material in two decades. The former Paul Revere and the Raiders mastermind is one of the few '60s artists who hasn't lost his distinctive voice or songwriting muse.

Image Credit: Photography by Tom Leparskas; Video Credit: Bongo Boy Records

"Let’s say you do a live show, get so into the music that you forget where you’re at, come offstage, and have no idea what happened. That’s happened to me maybe 25 times in all the thousands of shows I’ve done in my career. Recording Life Out Loud was just like that."

Featuring Mark Lindsay's psychedelic tennis shoes, the 2013 cover of "Life Out Loud," the rock 'n' roller's first album of original material since "Video Dreams" appeared with relatively little notice in 1996. Image Credit: Courtesy of Bongo Boy Records

In the ultimate installment of an ongoing interview series debuting exclusively in this "Jeremy's Classic Rock Notes" column, vital song originatorMark Lindsay dishes on how Doughboys guitarist-producer-songwriter Gar Francis convinced him to terminate his decades-long sabbatical from the recording studio and tackle his seventh solo album, Life Out Loud, available on Bongo Boy Records [it will be reissued on a major label in fall 2015 with three bonus tracks].

The return to rockin' form album was unabashedly recorded organically via vintage '60s gear. Lindsay pushed the retro factor one step further by preserving musical integrity with one take rhythm tracks and vocals, virtually unheard of in today's soulless Auto-Tuned atmosphere.

Little Steven Van Zandt, the stalwart rhythm guitarist-backing vocalist for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band since 1975's landmark Born to Run, believed in Lindsay's talent so much that he generously sang on lead single "Like Nothing That You've Seen."

The erstwhile vocalist-songwriter-producer-arranger-studio wizard of Paul Revere and the Raiders also offers an intimate account on his musical homage to the racy blockbuster Fifty Shades of Grey, confirms an unreleased 17-song screenplay-soundtrack, what fans can expect to hear on his upcoming two albums (culminating a trilogy started by Life Out Loud), lifelong passions, and the quintessential perfect day. Catch the dedicated exerciser, shamefully not a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, this summer when he revives his association with the Happy Together '60s package tour.

In case you wish to revisit the previous installment of the interview, entitled "Been Too Long on the Road: Solo Stats with Songwriting Gypsy Mark Lindsay," simply click on the highlighted link.

The Mark Lindsay Interview (Part Seven, Conclusion)

What was the impetus behind tackling Life Out Loud, your first album of new material in roughly 17 years?

I’ve done a couple of things here and there [e.g. “Treat Her Right”]. Gar Francis, the leader and guitarist for the Doughboys, asked me to play sax and add backing vocals to the Doughboys’ “It’s a Cryin’ Shame” [released Oct. 16, 2012, on their Shakin’ Our Souls album].

Gar later said, “Do you ever collaborate with anybody?” I replied, “If you send me something down to Florida, we’ll see” (I was living there at the time). Gar emailed me a demo track with a bit of melody on it. I did some lyrics, put a vocal on it, and returned the song to him.

It worked, so we started collaborating. In about two or three months we had approximately 20 songs. I really liked a song that Gar had written a few years earlier for Shakin’ Our Soulscalled “Rush on You,” so I tackled it. That’s the only song that we didn’t write together.

We soon began recording at House of Vibes—just like the good ‘ole days. Gar and I co-produced the album. Before the first session, I distinctly remember Gar telling me, “I grew up listening to your voice. When you were 19 or 20 and really rockin’—that’s how I want you to sing.” “Well, I’ll give it a try” [laughs].

I was singing live with the band in the vocal booth. They were so smokin’ that after the first take I came out of the booth. Everybody had big smiles on their faces. I sidled up to engineer Kurt Reil, who also owns House of Vibes and drums and sings in a fantastic New Jersey rock band called the Grip Weeds, and asked, “Was that okay?” His simply reply? “Yeah, we’re not even going to listen to that. Next song.”

We rolled right through the material in two days flat. They were all first takes and vocals. During the last week of May 2013 we finished mixing and mastering the album [it was available for purchase less than a month later on June 8 via CD Baby or digitally via Amazon or iTunes].

It’s got that 20-year-old energy on it. I could have done it in 1967 right after I recorded “Hungry.” That’s kind of what the record sounds like. It was a lot of fun.

I commend you for being able to record the songs in one take. That recording technique seems to be a lost art in modern times.

I can’t take all the credit for it. I will say the band made me do it. For instance, let’s say you do a live show, get so into the music that you forget where you’re at, come offstage, and have no idea what happened. That’s happened to me maybe 25 times in all the thousands of shows I’ve done in my career. Recording this album was just like that.

When the tape was over, I had no idea what I had done. It was just all spontaneous. The rough, basic tracks were so good we kept those as the master and just overdubbed additional instruments and backing vocals on top of them without remixing [overdubs, mixing, and mastering were completed in five days].

It’s not perfect. You can hear guitar leakage or me talking to the band in the background. The vocals aren’t perfect either. I didn’t want to redo them again because they’re so honest. There’s something very real about the guys playing and me singing.

It’s almost like the listener is in the studio with me or being privy to a live concert as far as I’m concerned. I thought it better to be honest than polish it up and make it sound like everything else today. Whether people like it or not, that’s up to them. All I can say is that it’s very real and I like it [laughs].

Are the Doughboys the backing musicians on Life Out Loud?

Yep. Basically all the guys in the band. The bass player, Mike Caruso, played on all the cuts. The drummer, Richard X Heyman, played on about half the cuts. Kurt Reil drummed on the other half. Of course, Gar was omnipresent—guitar and piano/organ on most everything. I sang on everything.

It’s pretty stripped down rock ‘n’ roll—rhythm guitar, bass, drums, lead guitar on top of it, and background vocals. I added baritone, tenor, and alto saxophone parts to “I Can’t Slow Down." I play a nice little sax rock solo on the cut [Mike McGinnis plays sax on the song, too]. Myke Scavone, the lead singer of the Doughboys, played harmonica on a few cuts. That’s it. It’s just like ‘60s rock ‘n’ roll today

What was special about recording Life Out Loud at House of Vibes Productions?

Kurt Reil has all the vintage ‘60s gear—e.g. tube microphones, processors, two equalizers, two limiters—in House of Vibes. Since I’ve had three or four home studios over the years, I also brought what I had in my storage area. Between the two of us, we have enough vintage gear to sound just like we did back in the day.

We didn’t record digitally—we went right to two-inch tape. For today’s kids who grew up listening to digital, they’re used to it and that’s fine. But it’s more organic sounding if you can record the songs in analog format on the front end like we used to do on vinyl. I’m encouraged by the fact that more kids are getting into vinyl.

Sure, it all has to be transferred to digital eventually because it’s gonna be widely disseminated on CD or MP3’s. I can still detect quite a difference upon listening if the artist tracked in analog using vintage recording equipment versus doing everything digitally.

How did you convince Little Steven Van Zandt to appear on “Like Nothing That You’ve Seen?”

We recorded this song prior to the main album sessions. After I recorded my vocal, I went back to my home base in Florida. Gar took the song to Little Steven (best known as the rhythm guitarist for Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band as well as a cast member on HBO’s The Sopranos).

Little Steven said, “That’s good. But we’ve waited 30 years for a new Mark Lindsay single. I want this to be really good. Bring the song to me. I’ve got ideas for some background parts.” Little Steven did indeed add background vocals to it. He and Gar remixed it, too.

I’m very grateful for the heavy rotation that Little Steven gave “Like Nothing That You’ve Seen” on his Underground Garage Sirius XM channel [the rocker was released as an advance single on Feb. 14, 2013].

What’s the story behind bonus track “Merry Go Round (Christian’s Song?”

Thirteen of the songs are just kick ass rock ‘n’ roll. As for the 14th cut, Gar and I wrote a song that just didn’t fit on the album. It was more of a ballad.

There is a very popular novel called Fifty Shades of Grey [2011]. Every woman in America has read it and probably a lot of guys, including me [laughs]. I was sleeping on the couch in the studio and woke up around five a.m. one morning and went, “I got it!” In ten minutes I rewrote the lyrics to “Merry Go Round (Christian’s Song).”

If you read Fifty Shades of Grey, the song will make perfect sense. If you didn’t read the book, then it probably doesn’t make sense [the movie version did big business at the box office in February 2015]. The liner notes say, “I was gonna put 13 songs on, but for those of you who are into Fifty Shades of Grey, here’s a 14th bonus cut called ‘Merry Go Round.’” There’s something for everybody on the record. I hope.

Have you got plans for another album?

I’ve got plans for the next two [laughs]. It’s a trilogy concept. Life Out Loud is just total rock and roll. The next one is gonna be a little more Latin dance flavored. The third one is gonna be—I won’t say Steely Dan-ish—but a little more sophisticated. I’m going far afield here but yes I have plans that will keep me busy for the next five or ten years at least.

What is your perfect day?

Oh boy. You would have to ask me in 20 years because I have a lot of days that are good days. I don’t know what a perfect day would be. Nothing is totally perfect. Everything has a little edge to it.

Nevertheless, I’ll try to answer. The perfect day would just be one where I got up, wrote a hit song [laughs], took a nap, got back up, and wrote another hit song. How about that? A two-hit song day. Sounds pretty perfect to me.

Please throw in some of your hobbies as well.

Gee, I guess I’m a writer at heart. I’m working on a couple of other non-musical projects including a screenplay. I can’t stop now. I’m writing more than I ever have in my life. I have got a tiger by the tail, and I’m just gonna run with it.

Can you share any additional details regarding that screenplay?

I did about 17 songs that were kind of like a soundtrack. I liked the songs but you know what? I was thinking about them and this play began to come out. The characters came to life. They started talking to me, so I started writing down what they said.

It’s still a work in progress. The music is already there, as the 17 songs are finished. If the screenplay doesn’t work, the music will basically come out anyway. That’s already in the can. We’ll see what happens.

NEWS FLASH!! Here is a MARK LINDSAY INTERVIEW 1985 LEGENDS FOR LIBERTY SHOW. Actually the day before the show. ENJOY!!!