Come and Get Your Love (At Last)
August 8, 2020 4:44 PM   Subscribe

Redbone releases an official music video for "Come and Get Your Love" (SLYT) more than four decades after becoming "the first Native American band to achieve a Top 5 single on the Billboard Hot 100." Read more about the song, the band, and the visual artistry: Why 'Come and Get Your Love' now? After 46 years 'the time has come' (Sandra Hale Schulman, Indian Country Today).
posted by MonkeyToes (29 comments total) 61 users marked this as a favorite
 
I don't know enough to parse this video, but I was struck by its joy and hope you'll like it too. If you've seen an article discussing the imagery in more detail, please share it here.
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:46 PM on August 8, 2020 [8 favorites]


Well THAT was awesome! Really really cool. Loved the UFOs. Also the happy ending.

I confess to also really enjoying the performance version on The Midnight Special from 1974 - which I may have learned about from the fabulous documentary Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World.

This is a great thing, MonkeyToes - thank you for posting it!
posted by kristi at 4:57 PM on August 8, 2020 [16 favorites]


That was excellent.
posted by alex_skazat at 4:59 PM on August 8, 2020


Damn, that was awesome.

I'd been kinda puzzled in the last six or so months when this tune suddenly turned up in my Youtube feed in several reaction videos, mostly because why this song? It was such a staple in the early 70s on pop radio, and stayed on the "oldies" format for a few decades more until the oldies format started jettisoning the early 70s. It was always a catchy tune.

A well deserved revival, I say.
posted by 2N2222 at 6:19 PM on August 8, 2020 [1 favorite]


It shows up in Guardians of the Galaxy which probably give it a well-deserved boost.
posted by leslies at 6:35 PM on August 8, 2020 [20 favorites]


(It is also the song Starlord sings and dances to in the opening scene of the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie so that may also account for some of its recent appearances on Youtube.)

(And that’s what I get for not previewing.)
posted by skycrashesdown at 6:37 PM on August 8, 2020 [3 favorites]


This is absolutely fabulous work that deepens the song a lot, and honors the band. Thanks for posting. I am a bar musician and I can tell you there’s no crowd that can’t be induced to joyful singing along by that song.
posted by spitbull at 6:49 PM on August 8, 2020 [12 favorites]


Also showcased in "F is for Family".
posted by team lowkey at 7:52 PM on August 8, 2020 [3 favorites]


That was fantastic. Thanks for sharing!
posted by sundrop at 8:27 PM on August 8, 2020


Ditto on the old radio staple, I was wondering where I heard this a lot and checked soundtracks (and nope not the recent GOtG. Probably just burned into my brain from ages ago.

But that's not how multi-stage rockets work damn it.
posted by zengargoyle at 8:51 PM on August 8, 2020 [3 favorites]


Admittedly this song came out when I was in primary school, but it took me a really long time to sort out the artist behind it was not Leon Redbone. But give me some credit for being a second-grader who knew who Leon Redbone was.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:13 PM on August 8, 2020 [17 favorites]


I adore this song and agree this new video is joyous. Love it. It made me tear up in a good way. Thank you so much for sharing it!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 9:16 PM on August 8, 2020 [3 favorites]


Oh as to why it’s in the zeitgeist, part of it is a huge surge of interest in the history of Native American and more broadly Indigenous popular music. We are in an explosion of books and films and reissues and reevaluations — some of the best of it by Native scholars and artists. Redbone is ripe for re-framing. And deserves it.

But part of it is that Come and Get Your Love was used — in a bizarre EDM/muzakky instrumental version — for a heavy advertising campaign across internet, radio, and satellite radio (not sure about TV) throughout much of 2019 by a then spiraling JC Penney.

I know because I used that fact — it was earworming all over the place for a while, it’s that catchy even in a shitty version as background music — to talk the other members of the band I was in at the time into letting me do it. They thought it was sort of cheesy and poppy for our classic rock/modern pop mix, but they let me put it in the set and ... boom. It became an instant crowd pleaser, with those simple and shouted call and response background vocals — HE-ey! — clearly resonant with vocable-rich Native American vocal practice.
posted by spitbull at 9:45 PM on August 8, 2020 [5 favorites]


Yeah, besides being the song Star Lord dances around to at the beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy, the tape deck in the first seconds of the video is probably as close as they could have gotten to one in Star Lord’s ship without Disney’s lawyers sending a nastygram about it.

Seems like “The comic book movies nerds like our stuff, and we’re cashing in!” is the only reason they would need to give.
posted by sideshow at 9:57 PM on August 8, 2020


Oh the plot thickens. JC Penney did indeed use the song for a television campaign. And apparently there they used the actual original track, albeit cut up to just the hooks. On internet and radio they used an instrumental version that sounded really cheesy.

Here’s one of the many ads. (Ispot.tv)
posted by spitbull at 10:03 PM on August 8, 2020 [1 favorite]


i had a really rough week. thank you so much for posting this, MonkeyToes. made everything seem OK.
posted by lapolla at 10:06 PM on August 8, 2020 [3 favorites]


It's a visually striking and interesting animation, to be sure.

The YouTube comments are full of commenters asserting that the work fails to credit an artist from whose work the commenters believe the style of the animation to be derived. I'm not familiar enough to say whether that's true, but would like to know more about it if it is. Does anybody know what's up with that?
posted by Nerd of the North at 11:21 PM on August 8, 2020 [1 favorite]


delightful animation
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 2:30 AM on August 9, 2020


Here is a twitter thread with more information on that, Nerd of the North. Definitely there is some inspiration from the art of Frank Buffalo Hyde, and maybe they should have been more upfront about it, but I don't see a strong case for art being stolen or incorrectly credited. The thread itself suggests that some of the themes are widely used in the context of Native American Futurism (bigfoot, for example).
posted by fmoralesc at 2:36 AM on August 9, 2020 [4 favorites]


I just want to second kristi's recommendation of Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World.

I saw it recently on kanopy and was blown away by the connections it made between Indigenous peoples, black slavery, and the blending of the two people's music and the subsequent course of "American" music.

Really, really interesting.
posted by kaymac at 5:51 AM on August 9, 2020 [7 favorites]


Loved this song when I was a kid, was thrilled when it showed up in Guardians of the Galaxy, and now this animation/video takes it to a whole new level of awesome! Thank you so much for the post Monkey Toes. Can't wait to explore more of the band and the work of "Emmy-nominated director, Juan Bedolla, and award-winning Native artist, Brent Learned"!
posted by pjsky at 7:44 AM on August 9, 2020


Needs more Sasquatch (1:38). But still a delightful interlude.
posted by TrishaU at 9:44 AM on August 9, 2020


I have never known this as anything more than a catchy 70s pop-rock song, thanks so much for this post, that video made me really happy. And the comments suggesting Rumble!

Time to check out their discography (All Music), too. Seven albums in the 70s (!), with their 8th and final album (Wikipedia) coming out in 2005.

YouTube playlists:
Redbone (1970)
Potlatch (Expanded Edition) (1970)
The Witch Queen of New Orleans (aka Message from a Drum) [Expanded Edition] (1971)
Already Here (Expanded Edition) (1972)
Wovoka (1973)
Beaded Dreams Through Turquoise Eyes (Expanded Edition) (1974)
Cycles (1977)
Redbone Live (1994)
Peace Pipe (2005)
"We Were All Wounded at Wounded Knee (Rewind Version)" [single] (2018?)

There are some official music videos mixed into those playlists.

And for more from the band, here's their official website.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:18 AM on August 9, 2020 [7 favorites]


That was super cool! That made me happy on a bunch of levels. First it was a visual treat and a creative inspiration, then it was a blast to the past to a fun song I used to enjoy but knew nothing about, and lastly I learned stuff about the artists. Thanks Monkeytoes!
posted by WalkerWestridge at 11:41 AM on August 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


Here is a twitter thread with more information on that, Nerd of the North. Definitely there is some inspiration from the art of Frank Buffalo Hyde, and maybe they should have been more upfront about it, but I don't see a strong case for art being stolen or incorrectly credited. The thread itself suggests that some of the themes are widely used in the context of Native American Futurism (bigfoot, for example).
posted by fmoralesc at 5:36 AM on August 9

Thanks for that link, and I agree with your assessment. While some of those references are a little on the nose, others really aren't. Here's another article about the Indigenous artists behind the video that I think provides some context. (Also, check out the awesome face mask PSA art at the end.)

Like you say, Native American Futurism is a thing and Frank Buffalo Hyde's not the only artist developing that style. This video used a lot of approaches that are central to the look and seen in all kinds of other artists' work. Off the top of my head, a lot of the stylized block lettering and color schemes in the video reminded me of Jeffrey Gibson. A Tribe Called Red uses chopped and warped B&W photographs of Native Americans in their video backdrops. And the abstract intergalactic parts made me think of Skawennati's work. I don't think any of those artists were plagiarized, they're all just doing cool shit in the same space. heh

Anyway. Native American Futurism is awesome and so is this video and thanks for sharing it!
posted by ZaphodB at 11:53 AM on August 9, 2020 [8 favorites]


Thank you, Monkeytoes. I'm reading about Indigenous Futurism right now.
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:14 PM on August 9, 2020 [4 favorites]


I'd love to see this become a thing; taking popular songs from all eras that never had a video attached to them, and getting various talented people and studios (both live action and animation) to work with the bands/music companies/copywrite holders in order to create fresh videos for each song.

This could result in introducing older songs to the newer generation and helping to create renewed interest in the artists, which could result in more profit for the bands, artists and music companies.

In the end, I think it would be a win/win situation for everyone.

Of course, you may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm sure I'm not the only one...
posted by Quasimike at 10:15 AM on August 10, 2020


I'd love to see this become a thing; taking popular songs from all eras that never had a video attached to them

Here's one that Rush did for The Spirit of Radio, dedicated to Neil and a hat tip to all the DJs that helped make them famous. It's pretty great.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:23 PM on August 10, 2020 [1 favorite]


I'd love to see this become a thing; taking popular songs from all eras that never had a video attached to them

Legacy Recordings is making it so: “Legacy has unprecedented access to works by the most significant musical artists of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, many of which have never had correlated visual content,” the company said on Wednesday in a media release. “Over the next weeks, months and years, Legacy’s curatorial staff will comb the archives for appropriate musical content for new visual components. The label will be revisiting major hits and much-loved songs from the pre-video era and commissioning contemporary artists to create engaging new visual content.”
posted by MonkeyToes at 1:29 PM on August 10, 2020


« Older A convergence of artistic forces   |   Brian Posehn has a Posse—6'X"—666 lbs Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments