Paul Revere & the Raiders' "The Great Airplane Strike" and "Action"

As I alluded to in my last post, I just listened to Paul Revere & the Raiders' Greatest Hits.  I found two different instances of what I think are their imitations of other musicians' styles.

First, "The Great Airplane Strike," which has some Dylanesque qualities in the lyrics.  More specifically, it's a lot like "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" from Bringing It All Back Home.  They're both long, involved stories told in past tense.  Additionally, both feature a series of characters that the singer/narrator has conversations with.  I realize that's kind of a broad statement, but those conversations are narrated in the same way - in a very brief fashion in which inflections of said are frequently used.

Part of the second verse of "The Great Airplane Strike":

The man said I could ride the wing and I said that was fine
He said I could fund your reservation and put the plane on hold
He comes back and said sorry but that wing space's just been sold

The sixth verse of "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" (found here):

Well, I rapped upon a house
With the U.S. flag upon display
I said, “Could you help me out
I got some friends down the way”
The man says, “Get out of here
I’ll tear you limb from limb”
I said, “You know they refused Jesus, too”
He said, “You’re not Him
Get out of here before I break your bones
I ain’t your pop”
I decided to have him arrested
And I went looking for a cop

Both songs are also very loosely connected in a narrative sense.  Almost any verse of Bob Dylan's song provides an example, but the best example in Paul Revere & the Raiders' is the fire the singer/narrator builds in the washroom, to which the panicked janitor replies, "That's all right" once the situation is explained.  I guess it's a lack of real-world reactions and situations that the songs have in common.

Even the title "The Great Airplane Strike" seems to suggest some of Dylan's more protest-influenced songs from a few years earlier.

According to the liner notes, "The Great Airplane Strike" was recorded on 18 July 1966, well after "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream," but still while Dylan was in his electric and enigmatic period.

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Second, "Action" seems to be a nod to the style of the early Beach Boys.  At the beginning and ending of the song, there are layers of vocals.  The last syllable of "Oh, baby, come on" is sustained while the line "Let me take you where the action is" comes in.  And then "Oh, baby, come on" starts again before "Let me take you where the action is" has quite finished.

This same technique is used on the Beach Boys' "Catch a Wave."  In the second verse, the line "all the surfers going strong" turns into a single held note that supports the next line - "they said it wouldn't last too long."

During the verses of "Action," the backing vocals are just "ooh"s in a style reminiscent of the Beach Boys.  Particularly in the first verse, this association is strengthened through the line "In every little town across the U.S.A.," recalling the Beach Boys' "Surfin' U.S.A." and its catalogue of places.  Two other verses include the line "Dance, dance, dance," which - obviously - is the title of "Dance, Dance, Dance," which appeared on the Beach Boys' Today!

Looking at the data in the liner notes provides more credence for this pastiche.  "Action" was recorded on 5 August 1965, well after "Surfin' U.S.A." and "Catch a Wave" and a few months after Today!  Furthermore, one of the writers is "S. Venet," the brother of Nik Venet, who produced some of the Beach Boys' early material.

Chuck Berry's "Havana Moon"

Two days ago, I listened to Chuck Berry's The Great Twenty-Eight.  While listening to it, I noticed some similarities between "Havana Moon" and "Louie, Louie," which has been done by many artists (most famously the Kingsmen).  I just listened to the version by Paul Revere & the Raiders, and I decided to finally write something about these connections, but in researching the songs, I've gotten a bit confused by the chronology.

According to the Wikipedia article for "Louie, Louie," Richard Berry who wrote the song "cited Chuck Berry's "Havana Moon" and his exposure to Latin American music for the song's speech pattern and references to Jamaica."  It also says that he wrote it in 1955.  The liner notes for The Great Twenty-Eight list the recording date for "Havana Moon" as October 1956.  The only way I can think of that these data can be reconciled is if Chuck Berry had performed "Havana Moon" on tours for a few years before he recorded it.  Otherwise, Richard Berry is listing as an influence a song that wouldn't have been written at the time he wrote "Louie, Louie."

In any case, there are similarities between the songs.  Paul Revere & the Raiders' version is a bit scant as far as lyrics go, and it's the only "complete" version I have, so this won't be exhaustive.  Lyrically, both songs employ a type of pidgin English, often substituting me for I.  "Louie, Louie" contains the lines, "Me gotta go" and "Me find little girl" (although I do have a version by the Troggs, done in a medley, in which the line is just "a fine little girl").  Chuck Berry's song carries this syntax throughout.  For example, here's the first verse:

Me all alone with jug of rum
Me stand and wait for boat to come
Is long the night, is quiet the dock
The boat she late since 12 o'clock

Both songs deal with trying to start a romance and talk about sailing, and I think they also mention rum.  Neither version I have contains a mention of rum, but from what I remember of hearing the Kingsmen's version on the radio, it's in there.