1977 - Live
A recording from 1977 that came out in 1994
The first "Redbone" live album was recorded the same year as "Cycles" came out. But it remained unprinted until 1994.
That was a good surprise for me because that was the time I rediscovered Redbone. And this album shows their plain power, virtuosity and magestic. So I think this is a good testimony of what they were at the end of their first period. It's a shame no live recording appeared from the first period. The few video that exist are showing a band with an incredible power and sense of music and rythm and groove.
The songs
Don't Say No (lead vocal : Pat & Lolly)
Witch Queen of New Orleans (lead vocal : Pat)
Give Our Love Another Try (lead vocal : Pat)
Maggie (lead vocal : Lolly)
Come and Get Your Love
Gamble (Take a Chance on Me) (lead vocal : Lolly)
Far Out Party At Gazzarri's (instrumental)
The Band Members
Corpus Christi
Lolly Vegas: vocals, guitar
Pat Vegas: vocals, bass
Gabriel Katona: keyboards, vocals
Jack White: drums
Plato T. Jones: percussion
Gazzarri's
Lolly Vegas: vocals, guitar
Pat Vegas: vocals, bass
Aloiso Aguiar: keyboards
Eddie Summers: drums
Produced by Jerry Goldstein for Avenue Records
Recording Engineer - Chris Huston
Mixing Engineer - Kevin Beamish
Mixed by Kevin Beamish & Frank Rand
Mixed at Preferred Sound, Calabasas, California
Mastered by Dave Collins at A & M Mastering
Art Direction and Design - Wade Lageose I Malcolm Kirton for Art Hotel
Project Coordination - Frank Rand I Abbey Anna
©1977, ©1994 Avenue Records,
Manufactured & Distributed by WEA.
Rhino Records. Recorded live in Corpus Christie, Texas and Los Angeles, California in 1977.
The inner sleeve explanations
Pat and Lolly Vegas are the heart of Red bone. They are backed in Corpus Christi, Texas, by Gabriel Katona, keyboards; Jack White, drums; and Plato T. Jones, percussion. At Gazzarri's in Los Angeles, California, they are backed by Aloisio Aguiar, keyboards and Eddie Summers, drums. The group defies categorization. Hard rock? Definitely! Latin? You Bet! Soul? Without A Doubt! All of these influences (and more) are combined by these Native American brothers to create a distinctive Redbone sound.
If the music is tough to define, audiences and record buyers are not academically bothered by Redbone's eclecticism. "Come and Get Your Love" was a Gold single; "Maggie" and "The Witch Qyeen Of New Orleans" were two other radio and concert favorites. Six years on the Epic label produced as many albums.
Pat says, "You've got to have guts in this business." As teenage musicians in the early 1960's, the brash Vegas brothers took risks.
"Monterey, California, is our hometown, and it's a great place for music," Lolly explains. "It's not for nothing that there's the Monterey Jazz and Pop Festivals - the best musicians in the world pass through town. I was fourteen, Pat was sixteen when we started playing with some of these cats. We'd just go up to them in clubs and sit in. In retrospect, I guess we should have been a little scared to sit in with Oscar Peterson and other players of his caliber, but we had so much confidence. We knew we were great."
"Actually," Pat continues, "it was probably a conceited position to take at the time, but if we hadn't had that confidence we wouldn't have gotten a chance to play with these guys. The bottom line," he reasons, "is that we learned a lot."
Lolly's lead guitar work is evidence of continued study of all kinds of music. As a child, he got a great push from his grandfather, a fellow guitar player. "Grandpa's guitar sat on top of an armoire in our house, and he said that I could play it when I could reach it. It was inspired incentive, believe me. I stood on tiptoes for years."
The brothers, unlike many top music groups, actually enjoy going out on the road. "We look forward to it," Pat declares. "A record is one thing, but playing for people is another. The record business is not a good place to work only in the void of the studio. You've got to have both." As two brothers in a ten children home (five brothers, five sisters), Pat and Lolly know the meaning of activity. "Each kid was into something else," says Lolly, "sports, school, music - each of us had to keep on top of our particular aspirations. In grade school, I had high hopes of becoming a coconut salesman, or the owner of a junkyard. The family thought that was okay, but I had to be the best coconut salesman or have the best junkyard. As a musician, those standards are still inbred."
"We don't think about long-range goals," says Pat Vegas. "If your head is way ahead of yourself you get distracted. We try to keep our future plans limited. Concentrating on the moment makes things happen faster and more effectively."