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The Redbone Biography is based on an interview with Pat and Tony - source unknown

REDBONE

The world first heard of Native American rockers Redbone in 1971, when thousands of young music fans got caught in the groove of their catchy Top Three hit “The Witch Queen Of New Orleans”. But sibling front men Pat and Lolly Vegas had a solid music career behind them that spanned almost 10 years, ranging from surf and hotrod music to go-go sounds, a raft of session work for names like Sony and Cher, Dobie Gray and even Elvis Presley, and songwriting credits for the likes of P.J. Proby and Bobbie Gentry.

 Like most musicians, they came up the hard way, supporting other acts at clubs and festivals. But nearly 30 years after hitting the top, Redbone is still on the road, fronted by original members Pat Vegas and Tony Bellamy. Compilations and reissues abound. Their original vinyl’s are among the most sought-after, if not highly priced, items on the market, there’s a rash of compilations on offer, some with previously unreleased cuts, and there’s a possibility of new singles and albums in the pipeline.

 So what’s the story? Pat and Lolly Vasquez were born in Fresno, California, of Native American (Yaqui/Shoshone) and Mexican descent. Little is known about their early years, although the abrasive “Jerico” on their third album, “Message From A Drum” (1971) a.k.a. “The Witch Queen Of New Orleans” in Europe, depicts an apparent ghetto upbringing: “There’s a neighborhood on the edge of Fresno/ down by the ocean road and city dump/ The people there living in tents and cardboard lean-tos/ The babies ain’t got no shoes – that’s not funny”. Was it really that grim? Did Pat and Lolly really “hang out by the honky-tonk and roll the winos”? “We were in a gang of Native Americans and Mexicans,” recalls Pat Vegas today, “a bunch of bad asses, you know? Lolly and I would stand there playing guitar while our buddies would roll the winos and come back with money and buy us drinks. We didn’t say ‘Don’t do that!’ – we’d have got our asses kicked.” Early press releases spoke how the brothers worked in migrant camps picking cotton or apricots between early club engagements in Fresno, but it wasn’t long before they moved further afield. After gaining valuable experience at the Monterey Jazz and Pop festivals sitting in with such artist as Oscar Peterson, they headed for LA, where they scored local hits in 1963 as The Avantis with their surf anthems “Gypsy Surfer/ Wax ‘Em Down’(Chancellor) and “The Phantom Surfer”(Regency), now extremely rare even on compilations. “Chancellor Records had Frankie Avalon, Fabian and Bobby Rydell,” recalls Pat. 

“(Label boss) Bob Marcussi came out to the West coast from Philadelphia. When he heard us play – it was me on bass, Lolly on guitar and a drummer called Mike Kowalski who’s now with the Beach Boys -  he said “Come into the studio and record, I’ve got a couple of songs I want you to listen to. ‘I said ‘Why don’t you listen to a couple of ours?’

 We played “Wax ‘Em Down” and “Gypsy Surfer” and he loved ‘em. So we went in and recorded them, and the next thing we knew we were on tour with the Beach Boys.” Among the numerous labels that cashed in on the surf/hotrod boom were Warner Bros – (Lolly and I were also part of The Routers (“Let’s Go”),’offers Pat, and the Mar-kets (“Surf Stomp” and “Batman”). Remember “Out Of Limits”? We wrote three of the songs on that album’) – and Bob Keane’s Del-Fi Records, which assembled three session groups of pickup musicians dubbed The Darts, The de-Fenders and The Deuce Coupes, the last featuring the Vasquez brothers.  “Bob Keane said ‘I’m going to record an album and I need you guys to come in and be the group, ‘”Pat recalls. “We said ‘But we’re the Avantis.’ and he said ‘Yeah, but I’ll pay you well!’ “He breaks off to laugh. “It was an offer we couldn’t refuse. So we went into the studio and recorded “Hotrodders Choice”.  Organized by Gold Star Studios engineer Stan Ross, the dates included famous LA sessioneers Glen Campbell, David Gates, Hal Blaine, Tommy Tedesco and Leon Russell, known then as Russell ridges. The Deuce Coupes sessions took place around August 1963, with singles like “Dawn Patrol”, “Double A Fueller” and “Satan’s Chariot” appearing from September. Other Pat and Lolly surf manifestations from this period include a single on Sapien Records entitled “Big Surf”, released under the name the Sharks, and a 1964 single entitled “The Robot Walk” on Apogee, although sources are unclear as to just what name this was released under. In 1965 the duo appeared in the movie “It’s A Bikini World”, but surf music was on the ebb, and they dropped the Avantis/Deuce Coupes moniker in favor of the hipper, ‘go-go ‘ – inspired Vegas tag that they retain today.

 They also joined Leon Russell and Delaney Bramlett in the Shindogs, the house band on ABC TV’s youth music program “Shindig”, which ran from 1964 to 1966, as well as doing session work with Sonny and Cher and on the Elvis Presley “Kissin’Cousins” soundtrack (although recorded by Presley in Memphis or Nashville, the tapes were shipped to LA for overdubs at MGM Studios in Culver City). They were also holding down a residency at LA’s Haunted House disco, which inspired their solo debut, “Pat And Lolly Vegas At The Haunted House”.  Released on Mercury records, the ‘Haunted House’ album was produced by Snuff Garret and Leon Russell, but despite its garage mixture of rock and soul covers such as “Satisfaction” and “Midnight Hour” and some laid-back originals, it did not sell well. As well as live and session work – they played on Dobie Gray’s “In Crowd” and “Look At Me” Sessions – the pair were accomplished songwriters, finding success with the dance single “Nicky Hoeky”, taken to number 23 in the pop charts by P.J. Proby in January 1967 and also recorded by Bobbie Gentry and Duane Eddy.

 It was while playing a residency at Gazzarri’s nightclub in LA that they met guitarist Tony Bellamy. A Yaqui Indian who joined them backing such luminaries as John Lee Hooker, Odetta and The Everly Brothers. “I played and danced flamenco,” said Bellamy, who came from a family of dancers and entertainers. “In the early years I worked for Dobie Gray, then I was with Peter and the Wolves who later became Moby Grape. That’s when I met Pat and Lolly. I thought ‘God, I like the way these guys play,’ and when we played together it was like magic. We just jelled. “Tony was right there in Gazzarri’s,” adds Pat. “He wasn’t even playing guitar – he was the bass player with Moby Grape.

 He sat in with us on guitar and he sounded great.” Bellamy was to be a crucial part of a new project: a Native American rock band that would eventually find its expression in Redbone. “Jimi Hendrix was a friend of ours,” explains Pat, “and he was half Indian. Once he knew that we were Indian too he used to come and hang with us because of that.  Jimi made me aware of my roots: He’d say ‘Native American is beautiful, man, be proud of that. “Lolly and I decided we were going to get back to our roots. Everybody said ‘No, man, that ain’t gonna made it, that ain’t gonna happen. Indians don’t sing. ‘I stopped talking to people because they were trying to talk me out of it. But we took Tony from Gazzarri’s, moved into a house and rehearsed for one year straight. “Going along” means continuing with live and TV work – “We did a lot of voice over’s, a lot of commercials,” says Pat – and of course there is no shortage of Redbone compilations to help fans relive the band’s 1970s heyday (collections on Sony and Curb are the most recent, with three newly recorded tracks appearing on “Great Songs; Come And Get Your Love”) 

Undeterred, the band resumed working and in May of 1998 appeared as special guest presenters at the Native American Music Awards (NAMA), even getting coverage in Billboard Magazine. Still working live – “There are 200 Native American casinos across the US, ”says Pat, “and we’ve worked each and every one of them,”- the line-up now comprises Pat Vegas on bass and vocals, Tony Bellamy on guitar and vocals, David Garland on keyboards and Arturo Perez’s cousin, Joe Gonzales, on drums. “We ‘re supposed to be doing a tour with the NAMA awards,” says Tony of the band’s live plans, ‘where we can take Redbone out with the rest of the awards show and do a European tour. We’re getting that up now; I think it’s going to start in Austria.” Most interesting of all is the prospect of a new album and a Bellamy solo. “I’ve been saving some songs of my own,” says Tony proudly. “The single is a Native American song that I wrote with Garrett Saracho called “We All Nations”. It names all the tribes. I’m not sure what band name it will go out under yet, but it’s being released by EMI Holland.

 “Production assignments still beckoned. Jim Ford was a singer-songwriter who had worked with Bobby Womack and Brinsley Schwartz, and he had co-written ‘Nicky Hoeky” with Pat and Lolly in ’66. Now he was working on what is in to date his only album. “Harlan County”, for White Whale Records, and invited Pat, Lolly and Tony to produce it with him. The album is precursor to the Redbone sound; all three played on the album, and Lolly’s composition “Working My Way To LA” is one of the two tracks that he also arranged. After this Pat, Lolly and Tony devoted all their time to their new project – all they needed to complete their Native American rock combo was a drummer. We found a drummer called Wayne Bibbey, “said Pat, “but Bobby Womack, who was an old friend of ours, heard that we were putting together a Native American rock group. He said ‘Man, I got the perfect drummer for you. He’s a guy by the name of Pete “Last Walking Bear” Depoe. “‘Depoe was a Cheyenne ceremonial drummer from an Indian reservation at Neah Bay near Seattle, Washington. “Bobby said ‘I’ll give you my drummer and you give me yours,’” laughs Pat. “Sure enough we switched drummers and that was the beginning of Redbone”. Signed to CBS’s Epic subsidiary in 1969, the band took its name from the Cajun epithet “Rehbon”, meaning half-breed, and its self titled debut album, released in 1970, was an extraordinary affair. A sparse double LP featuring bass, drums and two guitars and a minimalist production, its emphasis on things Cajun was evident on brooding tracks like “Danse Calinda”, a reworked, respell “Nicky Hokey” and the first single, “Crazy Cajun Cakewalk Band”, Pat and Lolly may have come up through surf and go-go sounds, but they were also influenced by the music of African Americans in their childhood neighborhood, many of whom were originally from Louisiana. Penned largely by the Vegas brothers, the music was a lumbering, deeply soulful hybrid in which Pat’s primitive, rumbling bass lines and Depoe’s furious improvisational drumming underpinned the interplay between Lolly Vegas’ Leslie guitar and Tony Bellamy’s raucous and exclusive use of wah-wah pedal. “When I played flamenco it was a very rhythmic type of music,” explains Tony. “I incorporated those rhythms into pop music with wah-wah. Instead of just going back and forth I’d play a counter rhythm down there. I spent a lot of years mastering rhythm and it was a big part of the Redbone sound.” The album also established the band’s penchant for extended jams, with long tracks like “Jambone”, “Suite Mode” and “Things Go Better” appearing at the end of three of its four sides. “We would play for hours, “laught Bellamy. “It was like a movie score that would never stop. Two of those cuts were 27 or 28 minutes long – we had to cut 'em to get ém on the album, figure out where to splice them so it wouldn’t sound like a chop.” 1970 also saw the release of Redbone’s second album, “Potlatch”, which included their first chart single, “Maggie”. It also featured the band’s first Native chant, courtesy of Depoe, followed by the rollicking “13^th Hour”, the protest anthem “Alcatraz”, which recalled the native American occupation of the island prison in 1969, some experimentation with woodwinds on the balladic “Who Can Say” and the now obligatory long jam “Without Reservation”. The album stayed in the Billboard charts for four months, while “Maggie” pointed the way to approaching international success.

 An additional project that year saw the band working on a new album entitled “Keep On Keepin’On” by white soul singer and Epic label mate Brenda Patterson. As well utilizing Lolly’s talents as a producer, the album also featured Lolly, Pat, Tony and Pete in the role of backing band on a collection of songs ranging from traditional gospel standards such as “Ain’t No Grave” and “Who’s Going To Come To My Cross” to classic compositions by country great Hank Snow (I’m Movin’On),Al Kooper (I’Can’t Keep From Cryin’Sometimes) and Bob Dylan and The Band’s Rick Danko (This Wheel’s On Fire). Not to mention three Vegas originals in the form of “Why do You Do Me Like You Do Me?” (Pat and Lolly), Pat’s “Keep On Keepin’On” and Lolly’s “Red and Blue” from their first album.

Up to now the band’s appearance was nothing special – who wasn’t wearing beads and fringed buckskin jackets back then – but 1971 would see a transformation into Native American rock warriors, complete with feathers, war paint and bone necklaces, accompanied by more chanting and airing of native issues on records. Released on Epic in both stereo and quadraphonic, “Message From A Drum” was a tour de force, including long improvisations like “Fate” and “Emotions”, the autobiographical “Jerico” and their most famous single, “The Witch Queen Of New Orleans” did well in the US, but in Europe it was a smash, particularly in the UK where it spent 10 weeks in the chart, four at the Number Two slot. A second single, “When You Got Trouble”, received extensive airplay in the US, but the success of “The Witch Queen” was overwhelming, and resulted in the album’s UK release retitled after its hit single, along with a total sleeve redesign. The band played a string of critically acclaimed European concerts in London, Holland and Germany alongside acts like Traffic, The Faces and Alice Cooper. “Message/Witch Queen” would remain Redbone’s most inspired album, yet it was precisely at this moment of success that the band suffered its first line-up change with the departure of Pete Depoe. “Pete was a monster drummer,” recalls Pat, “But his dad died and he was the next in line, so he had to go and run his dad’s fishing business in Seattle. He couldn’t stay with us because his family was dependent on him.” While Depoe is credited with ‘sitting in’ on the love ballad “Power (Prelude To a Means)”, the band's 1972 album, a transitional set entitled “Already here”, saw Redbone with new drummer Arturo Perez. Despite an eight-minute instrumental closer, “Already Here (Brujo)”,  and a single entitled “Fais-Do” that recalled earlier Cajun influences, “Already Here” departed from  the funky swamp rock in favor of a lighter sound, and even included steel-laden country influences on “Speakeasy” and “Good Enough For Jesus”. It also featured a raunchy workout on the Lieber-Stoller classic “Poison Ivy”, an alternate mix of which was released as a radio single, and signposted the pop-dance direction the band would soon take. By the time “Wovoka “appeared in 1973, Arturo Perez had departed, making way for new tub-thumper Butch Rillera. “Arturo was great, “recalls Tony. “He really did good in there, but fame scared him away. Now, Butch; he was ready to be a star. He wanted the limelight and that’s what you have to do. You gotta be able to walk and talk rock’n’roll.” The second big album of their career, “Wovoka” included traditional chants, Native issues with “Clouds In My Sunshine “and “Liquid Truth “and an extended workout entitled “3^rd And Mad” written by Pat Vegas and Pete Depoe that featured Lolly on electric sitar. It also featured a guest appearance by Crusaders keyboard player Joe Sample, but the album’s main claim to fame was the million-selling single “Come And Get Your Love” reflected the band’s increasing pop-dance leanings and topped the US charts for weeks, becoming the disco smash of that summer. Yet while the song was included on the UK issue of the album, it was not released there as a single. Instead a totally new but less sophisticated recording of the same song was issued under the title “Hail”.

 A follow-up single, “Wovoka”, did less well than its US predecessor, but the European version of it also included an extra track, the politically oriented “We Were All Wounded At Wounded Knee”, recalling the massacre of a band of Sioux Indians by the seventh Cavalry in 1890. “CBS/Epic wouldn’t record it,” recalls Pat, “so I paid for it myself. They did me a favor and pressed up 500 copies, and I put it under my arm and carried it to Europe. I distributed it to the radio stations in Holland and before you knew it it was Number One across Europe. Then the record company was thrilled, right? But they still wouldn’t release it in the US, even on the album, and they still haven’t. It’s too political, too controversial. That’s bullshit; I think people have a right to know about these things.”

 Following the success of “Come And Get Your Love” the foursome played the disco card to the hilt and released their sixth and final album for Epic in 1974. “Beaded Dreams Through Turquoise Eyes” featured lightweight, string-laden, soul- influenced numbers such as “Beautiful Illusion”, “I’ll Never Stop Loving You” and “Blood Sweat And Tears”, while two disco-oriented singles, “One More Time” and “Suzie Girl”, attempted to repeat the “Come And Get Your Love” formula, with limited success. There were a couple of rockier numbers, “Interstate Highway 101”and “Only You And Rock’n’Roll”, but even the extended closer, “Moon When Four Eclipse”, couldn’t disguise the fact that Redbone’s inspiration was wearing thin. As is usual at contract‘s end, a double compilation album entitled “Come And Get Your Redbone” was released the following year, featuring only two cuts from their debut album and none from “Beaded dreams”.

 There were no previously unreleased tracks, and the sleeve art consisted only of alternative shots from the “Beaded Dreams” cover shoot and a crude reproduction of the “Redbone” gatefold. In 1977 Redbone reappeared, minus Tony and Butch, but with the addition of Aloisio Aguiar on keyboards and percussion, with a jazz-funk styled offering entitled “Cycles” on RCA featuring several long, disco-styled workouts that sought to exploit the late ‘70s dance craze. “Lolly and I were in limbo,” reflects Pat philosophically. “Then Linda Creed, who was a fan from philadelphia who had written “Betcha By Golly Wow” for the Stylistics and “The Greatest Love Of All” for Whitney Houston, signed with the West Coast company called Far Out Productions which was working with War. She said “Look, I just signed a production deal with Far Out and I want you and Lolly to come and talk to them.’ So we did and that’s how we came to record Cycles.”

“I kicked back for a couple of years,” said Tony of this period. “It was hard, because it’s difficult being a star one day and not the next. In the early ‘80s Butch and I put a 13-piece band together called Bimbam. It was a phenomenal group; we had five horns and two guitar players, one of whom is now with Alabama, and on keyboards we had Paul William’s producer and arranger David Garland. Butch and I sang lead vocals.

Meanwhile the Vegas brothers were still with Far Out. Although recorded in 1977, “Redbone Live”, taped  in Corpus Christi and Los Angeles while supporting War, did not emerge until 1994, when it appeared on Jerry Goldstein’s Avenue Records via Rhino. Mixing hits from the classic period with funky up-tunes from “Cycles” it also featured open-ended workout entitled “Far Out Party At Gazzarri’s” with Aloisio Aguiar on keyboards and Eddie Summers on drums. After that the Vegas’s worked live both as a duo and solo, a little was heard of them with the exception of occasional voice-overs for TV documentaries such as “The West Was Lost” and The History Channel’s “Biography” programs on historical figure like Sioux Chief Sitting Bull. But in 1997 the internet rumbled with news of a reunion and new tour dates. “Pat and I were together again in the early ‘90s, “says Tony Bellamy, “Lolly had his own group and when he heard that Pat and I were together he came to listen to our band and he said ‘Yeah, I like it again,’ So we pulled the band back together again. All we had to do was get Pete back, but when we finally got him it was too late and bowed out of it again. “He’s really from the reservation, very nervous, and he can’t be around people too long. He couldn’t handle that part of it. But as far as the music was concerned you could put blinders on and he was beautiful,” laughs Tony. The line-up also included White Mountain Apache Garrett Saracho on keyboards, and Depoe was replaced by drummer Thunderhand Joe Gonzales. The band hit the road again all set up to go into the studio to record new material when illness forced Lolly to leave the line-up. “Lolly had a stroke,” Pat reports soberly. And Butch Rillera has an aneurysm. Butch is now walking with a cane, like my brother, Lolly. It’s terrible, but that’s the way has dealt the hand. You have to live with it and have to go along.”