Redbone (band)
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Redbone was a rock band founded in 1968 in Los Angeles by musicians of Native American descent , which was particularly successful internationally during the first half of the 1970s.
Band history
The initiators of Redbone were the brothers Lolly Vegas (real name Candido Albelando Vasquez, born October 2, 1939 in Los Angeles, California ; † March 4, 2010 ibid - vocals , guitar ) and Pat Vegas (real name Patrick Morales Vasquez, born March 17 1941 (or 1946) in Coalinga , California - vocals, bass ). Since the early 1960s, the two brothers made recordings together under different band and project names such as The Avantis or The Sharks and from 1964 under their stage name Vegas. For example, in 1966 the LP Pat & Lolly Vegas at the Haunted House , which, in addition to self-written titles, contains cover versions of hits by Wilson Pickett , James Brown or the Rolling Stones . As a studio musician, they took part in the recordings of Elvis Presley and Sonny & Cher . The two brothers were also successful songwriters. The title Niki Hoeky (also spelled Niki Hokey ) was recorded by several well-known artists such as Bobbie Gentry , Aretha Franklin ( Lady Soul , 1968) or The Ventures ( Swamp Rock , 1969) and was a top 40 in the 1967 version of PJ Proby - Hit on the US Billboard charts .
In late 1968 they made with Tony Bellamy (born Robert Anthony Bellamy, * 12 September 1941 (or 1940) in Orange City , California - guitar, vocals) and Pete "Last Walking Bear" Depoe (* 1943 in Makah - Reserve in Neah Bay , Washington - drums ) eventually formed a band. In an ironic allusion to their ethnic origin, they chose the band name Redbone. In the francophone culture of the Cajuns ( Cajun Country , Louisiana ), “Rehbon” is a derogatory expression for a person of mixed ethnic origin. "Redbone" is the US-Americanized form. Drummer DePoe, who had learned to drum at ceremonies and powwows , is the only “real” Indian at Redbone who belongs to the Cheyenne Indian people . Some of the other band members have Latin American roots and various degrees of kinship with the Yaqui and Shoshone and call themselves city Indians.
They signed a record deal with the CBS sub-label Epic Records in 1969 and their self-titled debut double album was released in 1970 with exclusively self-written songs, including their own version by Niki Hoeky and the track Crazy Cajun Cakewalk Band, which was also released as a single . The cover of the album shows a red bone adorned with feathers. On August 26, 1970 they performed - still largely unknown in Europe - at the last and largest Isle of Wight Festival .
Redbone's music is a unique mix of rock , rhythm 'n' blues , funk , jazz , Cajun music , Latin American rhythms and elements of Indian tribal folklore . Her mostly self-written songs are often linguistically and thematically shaped by the Cajun culture, tell of tribal rites , North American Indian history and social injustice. They consistently emphasized their band image with authentic Indian clothing and appropriate stage equipment.
The second LP Potlatch was released at the end of 1970 . The song Alcatraz deals with the occupation of the island of Alcatraz by Indian activists ( Indians of All Tribes ) since November 20, 1969. a. was also supported by the rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival and ended on June 11, 1971 by eviction by the US government. With the decoupled single Maggie , the group achieved their first notable success in the American singles charts in late 1970 / early 1971. In early 1972, Maggie reached number 45 as a re-release in the German hit list.
From the third LP Message from a Drum (1971) comes the title The Witch Queen of New Orleans , in which the voodoo priestess Marie Laveau is sung about. The song developed into a worldwide hit parade in late 1971, reaching number 2 in the United Kingdom , number 13 in Germany, and number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 .
For family reasons, Pete DePoe only played drums on the five tracks on page 1 of the fourth album Already Here (1972). On page 2, Arturo Perez stepped in for him, who also played live for a short time. The single Fais Do was a small hit parade in the Netherlands.
The non-album track We Were All Wounded at Wounded Knee (1973) deals with the massacre at Wounded Knee ( South Dakota ) in 1890 by the 7th US Cavalry Regiment of members of the Minneconjou Indian tribe ( Lakota / Sioux ). The single was number 1 in the Netherlands' charts for 5 weeks and in Germany it came to number 21. In the USA the song was not published and was boycotted by many radio stations.
During the recordings for the fifth studio LP Wovoka 1973, drummer DePoe left the band for good and was replaced by Butch Rillera (born November 8, 1945). The slightly more pleasing song Come and Get Your Love, which was extracted from this album and played in a Latin American dance rhythm, was Redbone's most commercially successful single in 1974 at number 5 and sold over a million times.
Rillera had already left the group after the 1974 album Beaded Dreams Through Turquise Eyes and the place on the drums was replaced more often from then on. There was also keyboard player and percussionist Aloisio Aguiar. After the 1977 LP Cycles , however, Redbone became increasingly silent. In 1995 Lolly Vegas left the group for health reasons. A little later, the remaining original members Pat Vegas and Tony Bellamy split. Pat Vegas later toured occasionally with a newly formed group called Redbone, which from 2003 included Mark Guerrero.
Awards
Redbone was inducted into the NAMA Hall of Fame on October 4, 2008 .
Discography
Albums
- Redbone - 1970
- Potlatch - 1970
- Message from a Drum - 1971 (also released as The Witch Queen of New Orleans , 1972)
- Already Here - 1972
- Wovoka - 1973
- Beaded Dreams Through Turquise Eyes - 1974
- Come and Get Your Redbone - 1975
- The Best of Redbone - 1976
- Cycles - 1977
- Redbone Live - 1994 (recordings 1977)
- Great Songs (Come and Get Your Love) - 1995
- Golden Classics - 1996
- To the Bone - 1998
- Redbone and Wet Willie: Take Two - 2002
- The Essential Redbone - 2003
- One World - 2005
- Peacepipe - 2009
Singles
- Crazy Cajun Cakewalk Band - 1970
- Maggie - 1970, 1971 and 1972
- Light as a Feather - 1971
- The Witch Queen of New Orleans - 1971
- Message from a Drum - 1972
- Fais Thu - 1972
- When You Got Trouble - 1972
- Niji Trance - 1972
- Poison Ivy - 1973
- We Were All Wounded at Wounded Knee - 1973
- Wovoka - 1973
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Come and Get Your Love - 1974 (UK:
gold) - One More Time - 1974
- Suzi Girl - 1975
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i DE UK US
- ↑ US album charts: The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 , p. 868
- ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK US
- ^ Joel Whitburn: The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits . 7th edition. Billboard Books, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8230-7690-3 , p. 509.
- ↑ Barry Graves, Siegfried Schmidt-Joos: Das neue Rock Lexikon - Vol. 2 , Rowohlt, Reinbek 1990, ISBN 3-499-16321-7 , p. 656.
- ^ Band biography based on an interview with Peter DePoe in June 2003. Mark Guerrero, accessed April 14, 2009 .
- ↑ Band biography written by Bruce Walker. musicianguide.com, accessed April 14, 2009 .
- ↑ Pete "Last Walking Bear" DePoe. myspace.com, accessed April 14, 2009 . (long charging time!)
- ^ Band biography based on an interview with Butch Rillera from November 30, 2002. Mark Guerrero, accessed April 14, 2009 .
- ↑ List of number one hits in the Netherlands (1973)
- ^ NAMA Hall of Fame. Native American Music Awards, accessed April 12, 2009 .
Web links
- Redbone at Allmusic (English)
- Mark Guerrero's website - extensive Redbone biography
- AMG, Review of the Redbone album Potlatch (1970) - (engl.)