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Watch Native American rock band Redbone perform "Come out and get your love" (1974) [1]
['Elías Villoro']
Date: 2023-01-21
In the opening scene of Guardians of the Galaxy, Star-Lord, played by Chris Pratt, punches a button on his Walkman and slides, dances, and saunters to the music, at one point using a rat as a faux microphone. The song is "Come out and get your love" by Redbone, recorded in 1974.
From Brown N Proud LA comes this repost video of Redbone, singing a live version of 1974.
"Out of thousands of acts that earned hits in the 1970s, one stands apart from all others for a unique accomplishment. Redbone, which scored a pop hit in the U.S. in 1974 with "Come and Get Your Love," were the first Native American band to achieve a Top 5 single on the Hot 100. Redbone had taken its name from a Cajun term for multi-racial individuals or culture and the members of Redbone drew from Yaqui, Shoshone, and Mexican heritage as well with roots in Texas, Louisiana and California. The group's core musicians, brothers Patrick and Candido "Lolly" Vasquez-Vegas, were born in Coalinga, Calif. (near Fresno), moved to Los Angeles in 1959 and performed for a decade on the club scene as Pat and Lolly Vegas before founding Redbone. Their guitarist, pianist and vocalist was Robert Anthony Avila, though he went by the stage name Tony Bellamy."
In 2020, Penguin/Random House published Christian Staebler and Sonia Paoloni's Redbone: The True Story of a Native American Rock Band. Illustrated by Thibault Balahy, Redbone is "the riveting, powerful story of the Native American civil rights movement and the resulting struggle for identity told through the high-flying career of West Coast rock 'n' roll pioneers Redbone. They influenced The Doors and jammed with Jimmy Hendrix before he was "Jimi," and the idea of a band made up of all Native Americans soon followed. Determined to control their creative vision and maintain their cultural identity, they eventually signed a deal with Epic Records in 1969. But as the American Indian Movement gained momentum the band took a stand, choosing pride in their ancestry over continued commercial reward."
Check out this interview with Pat Vegas discussing his personal history – his mother's father's sister was Lola Beltrán, Mexico's most famous ranchera singer, and the history of the band: "Many think the song ["Come out and get your love"] is just about a man singing to a woman. It is, but it's also about the coming together of different peoples."
The song "We Were All Wounded At Wounded Knee," with the heart-beat drum, is a lesson in history and power, survival, and thriving.
We were all wounded at wounded knee
You and me
We were all wounded at wounded knee
You and me
In the name of manifest destiny
You and me you and me you and me.
They made us many promises
But always broke their word
They penned us in like Buffalo
Drove us like a heard
And finally on the reservation
We were going for our preservation
We were all wiped out by the seventh Calvary
You and me you and me.
Now we make our promises
We won't break our word
Well sing, sing, sing out our story
Till the truth is heard
There's a whole new generation
Which will dream of veneration
Who were not wiped out by the seventh Calvary
You and me you and me."
[END]
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