50 Years Ago, "Come And Get Your Love" Put Native Culture On The Bandstand

[TTL News 308]

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Fifty years ago this month, President Richard Nixon wasfacing impeachment. Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home run record. Leaders of the American Indian Movement were on trial after the armed standoff at Wounded Knee. And the song "Come and Get Your Love" was one of the biggest hits on the radio.

This soulful pop tune by the band Redbone was, in some ways, related to what was going on politically. It became the first song by an all-Native and Mexican American band to crack the Billboard Top 10, peaking at No. 5 on April 13, 1974.

Since its release on Redbone's 1973 album Wovoka, "Come and Get Your Love" has been used in commercials, on TV shows including the Netflix seriesF Is for Family and in movies. The song captured a new generation of fans in 2014, when actor Chris Pratt danced to it in the opening scene of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.

Musician Stevie Salas remembers first hearing "Come and Get Your Love" as a sixth grader in Oceanside, Calif., where it came on during a school dance. Salas, who is Apache, has played guitar with musicians such as Rod Stewart, Bootsy Collins, Mick Jagger and Justin Timberlake. He's also an executive producer on a documentary about Native musicians calledRumble: Indians Who Rocked The World. But back in sixth grade, he had no idea the musicians behind "Come and Get Your Love" were Native and Mexican American — until he saw them on TV.

"Redbone came on and they were all dressed like Natives. I mean, that was just mind-blowing," Salas recalls. "But at the same time, you'd see people dressed like that, you know, on Halloween. So I don't know, are they real Indians? It's like that. But they sure look cool."

 

Read more, and see the video, HERE.