Like politics, pop music also makes for strange bedfellows. Stay with me...
Today's paper brought news of the death of Lolly Vegas, 70, guitarist for the Native American band, Redbone, whose 1974 hit, "Come and Get Your Love," is one of the most insidious earworms in pop music history (http://www.exploratorium.edu/music/questions/earworm.html). But it turns out that Lolly (seated in photo) and his brother Pat have a pretty interesting backstory. They real surname was Vasquez and they were born and grew up in the Central California Valley of mixed Yaqui/Shoshone and Mexican descent. They moved to LA in 1963 and tried to cash in on the surf rock craze in a series of bands before becoming session musicians alongside the likes of Leon Russell and Delaney Bramlett, backing everyone from Sonny & Cher to Elvis Presley.
According to pop music lore, it was Jimi Hendrix who encouraged them to form an all-Native American band. Redbone's first hit was "Maggie" (1970), followed the next year by "The Witch Queen of New Orleans." And "Witch Queen" is a clue to a mystery I have yet to figure out. The Vegas brothers had a thing for Louisiana. "Redbone" is reportedly Cajun slang for "half-breed," and another song they wrote, "Niki Hoeky," is set in Louisiana. It could be that, like their earlier attempt to capitalize on the surf rock craze, they were trying to latch onto the "swamp rock" success of Creedence Clearwater Revival and Tony Joe White. In any case, here's the strange bedfellows connection: "Niki Hoeky" was recorded by Aretha Franklin on her great 1968 album, "Lady Soul." Would love to know how the Vegas brothers' song made its way to her.
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