If you were in the cool crowd in mid-eighties Minneapolis you were all over a band called Charlie Pickett and the Eggs. Charlie Pickett was this dude from Florida who had a hell-rockin' band that played hopped up greasy bar rock about drug addicts, whores, and love gone wrong. Think Rolling Stones circa 1969-72 but filtered through late 70's and early 80's punk.
He signed to the Minneapolis label Twin-Tone (home of the Replacements, Soul Asylum, etc), got a little radio play up here and played a bunch of shows. In fact I got to sing one of his songs at the Uptown Bar show. I was up front at the stage and Pickett saw me singing the words to American Travel Lust and he thrust a mic into my face and I got to sing the last two verses! One of my rock highlights for sure. He released an album on Twin Tone to middling reviews. I moved to Washington D.C. and I lost track of him.
It always gnawed on me that I didn't have any digital versions of Pickett's songs, especially his cool e.p. Cowboy Junkie Au Go Go. Every so often I would google or check e-bay for anything Charlie Pickett related but to no avail. It seemed like he dropped off the musical map. He obviously wasn't making any music or releasing anything under the Charlie Pickett name.
Finally in early mid-June I was rummaging through the Bloodshot Records web site, clicked their artist line-up and saw Charlie Pickett! Apparently Bloodshot was able to get the rights to Pickett's music from the various labels he recorded from and put together a 19-song greatest hits package. It arrived a couple of days ago and boy the memories came flooding back.
Of course I latched on to the songs I knew from 25 years ago: Marlboro Country, But I Didn't, Overton, American Travel Lust. But there really isn't a bad song in bunch. As I said above, 1969-72 Rolling Stones was a huge influence and Pickett even sounds like Jagger in a couple of songs.
Reading the liner notes, it appears that Pickett stopped making music in the early 90's. Too much turmoil for too little payback. There was the sad lament, that if he had just held on a little longer, popular culture would have caught on to what Picket was trying to do. Certainly the Alt.Country movement of the 90's would have swept up Charlie Pickett and who knows maybe we'd be putting Charlie Pickett in the same category as the Drive By Truckers or the Old 97's. It doesn't really matter, I finally have my Charlie Pickett on my I-Pod and can sing along with American Travel Lust (a hey hey hey) anytime I want.
Nice! I gotta get my hands on this. Not only was Charlie's music cool, he was too. Super nice guy. Free, we were definitely at those same 400 Bar shows. You probably even bought your beers from Ponyboy. Mine were free. Heh.
I'm goin' back (he's goin' back) to Marlborough Country
Er, Marlboro. Hell, I smoked 'em, but I can't spell it.
Charlie Pickett and the Eggs Rule. I preferred Charlie to the Replacements, the Huskers, the Jayhawks, etc. I have been looking for a Charlie CD for years, although I lovinging (and sparingly) spin my vinyl from time to time. It still saddens me that they didn't make it.
Error, is right, if you were in the Entry in the between 83-85, I served your drinks. If you were at the 400 between 85-90, I served your drinks. He's also correct that Charlie was (and I'm sure still is) a stand up guy. I was lucky enough to call Charlie a friend back in the old days. We even went to a ZZ Top show together (he was a lifetime member of their fanclub which entitled us to back stage passes).
Two of my favorite Charlie memories are singing "My little sister has a motorbike...", more harmonic shrieking really, w/Ernie Batson @ a Mofo/Egg show in the Entry (Ernie and I were a little lit up and right in front of the stage and Charlie gave us the mic) and the time that Charlie added a little more rock and roll to the rockinest show. Pre-show, Charlie told me he that he was going to "lose" his slide during a song and was then going to yell, "Mr. Bartender, do you have a slide?" That was my cue to smash a Special Export bottle and pass the broken neck of the bottle up to the stage and Charlie finished the song using the neck of the broken bottle. I get goose bumps thinking about it.
Charlie's a lawyer in FLA and still plays occasionally.
Hey thanks for stopping by Ponyboy I am sure I undertipped you at The Entry and 400 a couple of times. Hopefully I overtipped at least once.
One wild night at the 400 I was with a bunch of friends and we were hitting each others bottles of beer to cause them to foam up and spill. We did this enough times with enough broken bottles that we got thrown out. This was a Friday night in August. It was really muggy and I didn't drive my car at all that weekend. When I got into my car to go to work Monday morning, it absolutely reeked of stale beer. Now mind you I didn't have any beer in the car, it was from my clothes!!
Hope both you guys pick up the Charlie Pickett disc. Maybe it will encourage a tour?!
No problem on the undertipping, I made a pretty good living off spilling whiskey.
If I'm the one that bounced your ass out of the 400 and on to Cedar Avenue, please accept my humblest and most profound apologies.
Although, I supported Charlie and the MC3, for me, it fell apart when he and the Eggs parted ways. (The Eggs became Daisy Chain or something like that...The Daisys? I don't recall). I guess Smack will do that to a band. They were all sweet guys, though.
Dude, I cannot tell you how excited I am. I cannot wait to get back to the casa and download this bad boy. (I'm going the MP3 route because I want it now.) MANY, MANY thanks for alerting the general population to this CD's existence. I had lost all hope.
Oh, as for fave records..., I love "Cowboy Junkie," but it's "Live at the Button" for me. Man, I went through numerous copies of that disc. Beer spills and other party mishaps (and high use) made for a short-lived record.
Thanks for last night, Free. I feel like I should send flowers or something, but that would probably make you feel pressured and awkward.
After I got home last night, I downloaded Pickett on to the iPhone, put some movie about a mouse with a sword on the DVD player, got my Sancho Panzas and lighter, an iced tea and went outdoors.
I cued up ol' Charlie and I was grinnin' like a half-wit for the next couple of hours.
What. A. Band(s).
Thanks for posting a CD that everyone should hear and should have heard 25 years ago.
No problem Ponyboy, I was hopin' you'd still like me in the morning :o)
What I hope is those who hadn't heard of Charlie Pickett and the Eggs check this out (ahem I'm looking at you Jeff T.)