Hm, the corner street light is out at the moment. That's good, because I'm not dodging the shafts of glare bursting thru the blinds while I pointless up some blog. Although I suppose it's not so good for security. Oh well.
But I digress. The point of this post is to impose a few veddeos by the first rock band I remember being aware of -- Redbone. Not Leon ... the Native Merkin R&B group.
Why Redbone? Well, my mother, Ma Moss, is kind of ... I dunno how to put it ... an Indian freak. I guess you could call her an amateur Native American Studies scholar, of sorts ... but I think the truth is that she's besmitten by some kind of fetish. But let's not go there.
Anyway, from an early age ... I think you could call it "birth" ... I was indoctrinated into some twisted sort of suburban wannabe American Indian Movement ethos. And, to tie it up quickly, Redbone was part of that. Cuz Ma Moss had all their rekkids, and the likes of the following made sure that a young Stronger Than Dirt was pissed off about Wounded Knee before he even knew what it was:
Redbone - Wounded Knee
Redbone also had a strong Cajun identity. They had a pretty solid hit (charting higher in the UK but getting some attention over here) with this original number, which brought a little New Orleans swamp sound to the potlatch (although this was not on their album named "Potlatch," but now I'm tripping over my own metaphors):
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Redbone - Witch Queen of New Orleans
The Redbone song I remember best is one of the first pop songs I can recall hearing on the radio and having around the house on LP when it was a hit. This one has been covered by a couple of artists in more recent years, and Cyndi Lauper quoted its chorus in a 1994 remake of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." It's probably their least "Indian" tune. And it was all over WLS and WCFL all the time for a while. From 1974:
Redbone - Come and Get Your Love
1 comment:
> Three if by Redbone,
> Two if by Three Dog Night
Ah yes, Paul Revere and the Raiders, one of my favorite conscientious objecting Mennonite bands who played to the mentally challenged during their mandatory public service stints.
It just occurrred to me that to the youngsters, it must look like these bands were "our" "contemporaries," even though we were little kids when this stuff came out. After some period of aging in a dark cellar, decades get mashed all up with each other from the perspective of 30 years, and the next thing you know, the "Sunny" radio franchise in town will be playing Madonna along side the Replacements, under the banner of "all the songs you grew up loving!" Much like a Sunny 1520 AM now does with their Tommy Dorsey followed by a Christopher Cross.
Or is it just me. I'm alone on this one aren't I. Well screwwww yewwwwww, Messers We're Not Laid Back West Coasterners and Proud of Its!
I'll take my verbal ball and bat and march off to the can (the bathroom) to listen to The Band (the band) and read my Rolling Stone (the magazine) while pinching myself a good loaf (the ordure!)
Love (the sentiment,)
No Eraser Head (neither the movie nor the cassette component, or the band, which never existed anyway. But perhaps the myth.)
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