1971 -
Message from a Drum
Second year, second hit
The third "Redbone" album contains their second hit: "The Witch Queen of New-Orleans". Another great song, maybe one of the best in the whole Rock History. But the album is much more then that. Wonderful guitar parts, swirling around, overwhelming, taking you far ("Emotions").
Listen, relisten and listen again…
James Flemming Rasmussen remembers : “It was Pat and Lolly Vegas, who hired me to produce the string session. Pat and Lolly were friends of mine, I had known them, since I first came to Hollywood, in 1965. Pat and Lolly were at that time, playing on a Club in Hollywood, and in the daytime, we went in the studio, trying to make some music together. Later in 1969, I produced a hit record “Echo Park”, with an artist called Keith Barbour. On that production, I hired the string session from LA symphony orchestra, and that way Pat and Lolly knew my work with strings. So a few years later, they recorded Witch Queen, then Pat they contacted me, to help them work with a string arrangement on that song.”
The songs
Message from a Drum (lead vocal : Pat) - Lyrics
Niji Trance (lead vocal : Tony)
Sun Never Shines on the Lonely (lead : Lolly) - Lyrics
Maxsplivitz (instrumental)
Emotions (lead vocal : Lolly + instrumental)
Jerico (lead vocal : Lolly)- Lyrics
Witch Queen of New Orleans (lead vocal : Pat) - Lyrics
When You Got Trouble (lead vocal : Pat)
Perico (instrumental)
Fate (lead vocal : Lolly)
One Monkey (lead vocal : Lolly)
The Band Members
Lolly Vegas: vocals, guitar, organ
Pat Vegas: vocals, bass, guitar, piano
Tony Bellamy: vocal, guitar, dobro
Pete DePoe: drums, percussion, backing vocals
Produced by Pat and Lolly Vegas
Strings and Woodwinds arranged and conducted
by Pete Robinson
String session to Witch Queen of New Orleans produced by James Flemming Rasmussen.
Recordists : Willie Greer, John Fiore, Sy Mitchell,
Alex Kazanegras, Roy Segal, George Engfer
Cover design: Ed Lee, Dana Nordhausen
Back photo: Emerson-Loew
EPIC EPC 477945-2
43 years after he did the string session on Witchqueen of New Orleans
Lyrics
Message from a Drum
When the ones you thought you knew
Turn their backs on you.
Another side of life to face.
Some heavy due to pay.
‘Cause it hurts to find some people unkind
Yes it hurts to find some people unkind.
All in time our wounds are healed
By those very ones.
You forget this other side
When good outweighs the bad ?
‘Till it hurts to find some people unkind
‘Till it hurts to find some people unkind.
Can you win or lose what you’ve really got
Or had?
When your eyes can see through mine
There is no need for words.
La, la la....
The Sun never shines on the lonely
Listen to the window of your former life
For the sound of the you that was before.
Deep behind the shadows of your conscious mind
You can see what you were that made it be
For the sun never shines upon the lonely
Cos they’re only passing time
Yes the sun never shines upon the lonely
Was their moment lost in time?
Did you ever wonder why the rich get rich
Was it luck or a payment that they earned?
Woven from the fabric of another day
Is the pain and the madness love or joy?
For the sun never shines upon the lonely
‘cos they’re victimes of themselves.
For the sun never shines upon the lonely
‘Cos their morning comes at night.
Realigne your senses with the universe
Be aware of the forces of beyond.
Look into your heartbeat and re-aim the truth
Let the dawn of your yesterdays and go !
For the sun never shines upon the lonely
It’s just mostly wind and rain.
Yes the sun never shines upon the lonely
So they stumble, fall and cry.
For the sun never shines upon the lonely
‘Cos they’re only passing time.
Yes the sun never shines upon the lonely
Was their moment lost in time?
Jerico
There’s a neighborhood on the edge of Fresno.Down by the Old Snake Road and the city dump.
People there livin’ in tents, and cardboard lean-to’s;
The babies ain’t got no shoes; that’s not funny. Jerico-oh oh, Jerico-oh oh, Jerico-oh oh, Jerico. When I was a boy growin’ up in Fresno,
The place that I called home was Jerico.
My Mama cooked with kerosine when she set the table.
Kids drank bathed-in water, sometimes Koolaid. Jerico-oh oh, Jerico-oh oh, Jerico-oh oh, Jerico. Kids would bust your lip if you couldn’t fight.
Runnin’ with my friends, drinkin’ and stealin’.
We’d hang out by the Honky Tonk, and we’d roll a wino;
The people in the church next door, singin’ “Thank you Jesus!” Jerico-oh oh, Jerico-oh oh, Jerico-oh oh, Jerico. Wee Willie Young taught me to play the guitar.
He used to play the Blues, ‘til his life went bad.
I started playin’ in bars when I was fifteen.
My younger brother, Pat, was right there with me. Jerico-oh oh, Jerico-oh oh, Jerico-oh oh, Jerico. You think you're kinda rocky if you're Jerico
They are livin' in a hole down in Jerico
Killin' in the valley down in Jerico
All the pigs they're stickin' down in Jerico
And all the rootin', pickin' down in Jerico
And your mama and your papa down in Jerico
And you're here understandin' Jerico
Hippin' and stickin' down in Jerico
An' cookin' and a-kickin' down in Jerico
Cookin' in a chippy down in Jerico
When it was polk and wheat down in Jerico
And all the folk visit the Pen down in Jerico
It was funky as a doggie down in Jerico.
The Witch Queen of New Orleans
Marie
Marie
la
voodoo veau
she'll put a spell on you.
Marie
Marie
la
voodoo veau
she'll put a spell on you.
Marie
Marie
la
voodoo veau
she's the witch-queen oh
of New Orleans
of New Orleans.
I'm gonna tell you a story
strange as it now seems
of zombie voodoo gris gris
and the witch-queen of New Orleans.
She lived in a magic possessed
by the devils skew
from a shack near the swamp lands
made of mud be brick.
Marie stirred her witches brew.
Marie
Marie...
Dime or a nickel anyone could buy
voodoo of any kind
she had potions and lotions herb
and tanna leaves guaranteed to blow your mind
early one mornin' into mucky swamp
dew vanished Marie with hate in her eyes
tho' she'll never return all the cajuns knew
a witch-queen never dies.