Redbone--The First Rock Band of the First Nations

Most listeners know Redbone primarily for one reason...

”Come and Get Your Love” was a Top 40 hit in 1974 and enjoyed a 2014 resurgence when it was prominently featured in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

But on the approach of Thanksgiving, it is perhaps more pertinent to note that Redbone is also the first Native American rock band to score a Top 5 hit.

And while you wouldn’t know it from their classic shag-carpet-and-daisy-decal-70’s smash, their heritage figured heavily into their sound.

Across 7 proper albums, Redbone forged an utterly unique brand of indigenous American R&B. At the front of the band were brothers Pat and Lolly Vegas—of Yaqui, Shoshone, and Mexican heritage. In fact, throughout its history, the band was composed exclusively of musicians from indigenous American, Mexican and Cajun backgrounds.

Redbone brewed these influences into a swampy voodoo stew that stands apart from anything else of the era.

But first, a quick history.

Viva Vas Vegas

Brothers Pat and Lolly Vasquez-Vegas were born in Coalinga, California just outside of Fresno. They started gigging together in the late ‘50s. By the early ‘60s, they built a solid reputation for shredding surf tunes on Sunset Boulevard.

At the time, their manager warned them that the world “was not yet ready to embrace a duo of Mexican musicians playing surfing music.”

It was thus that they became Pat and Lolly Vegas, fixtures in L.A., regular performers on Shindig!, and studio stalwarts backing musicians like Tina Turner, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley.

They also released a single album as Pat and Lolly Vegas from the Haunted House in 1966. It plays like a pretty standard Saturday night R&B revue, replete with fiery Wilson Pickett, James Brown and Marvin Gaye covers. 

Folks Got Somethin’ Goin’

It was also during this period that Pat and Lolly established themselves as serious songwriters.

In 1967, P.J. Proby landed his only Top 40 hit with a brassy recording of their “Niki Hoeky”. It has also been covered by the Aretha Franklin, Bobby Rush, and The Ventures.

But I’d prefer to direct you to this killer 1968 version by the sultry Bobbie Gentry.

The Vegas Experience

In 1970, the Vegas brothers decided the world was finally ready to see them as they truly were. They formed a quartet and called themselves Redbone—a Cajun word for an individual of mixed ethnicity. As legend has it, the brothers were inspired by Jimi Hendrix to form a rock band. In return, Hendrix (who, by some accounts, was part-Cherokee) has said that Lolly Vegas was among his favorite guitarists in the world. 

There may be some evidence of cross-pollination…

Redbone Gets Epic

Redbone signed with Epic records and released their self-titled debut in 1970. Though they hadn’t yet landed a hit, they did appear alongside Senator Edmund Muskie, consumer advocate Ralph Nader, and legendary beat poet Allen Ginsberg at the inaugural Earth Day celebration in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park.

It wasn’t until their third record, Message from a Drum in 1972, that Redbone landed their first hit, reaching #21 on the charts with “The Witch Queen of New Orleans”.

Wounded Knee

This next section requires a reflection on America’s dark past, as does any story from Native American history.

In 1890, the United States army massacred 300 Lakota people near Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

In 1973, approximately 200 Oglala Lakota tribe members, along with other participants in the American Indian Movement (AIM), seized the town of Wounded Knee. Among other demands, they called for the federal government to fulfill unmet treaty obligations, to renogotiate unfair treaties, and to advance equitable treatment of Native Americans.

Over the course of a 71-day occupation, two tribe members and a civil rights activist were killed; and a U.S. marshal was shot and paralyzed.

In 1973, Redbone released a song memorializing the event:

“Wounded Knee” charted in some European countries–remarkably even reaching #1 in the Netherlands. But it did not chart in the U.S., where many radio stations refused to play it due to its frank confrontation of a sore subject. 

One year later, “Come and Get Your Love” hit 8-track decks, reached #5, and spent 24 weeks occupying the charts.

Redbone would never again revisit this height of success. But today, lone surviving member Pat Vegas continues to tour and record. 

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Here is a by-no-means-comprehensive mix of songs by Native American artists, as well as bands featuring noteworthy Native American members. We’ll have to revisit this topic in the future so I can tell you about the band XIT, which was, by some accounts, the first 100% Native American rock band.