Charlie's first release after ther Live at the
Button LP continued with the same personel (Pickett,
Johnny
Salton on guitar, Dave
Froshnider on bass and John (Stix) Galway on drums) making their first
collective studio effort. Anyone paying attention could easily see he
had reached his first plateau as a recording artist, while the Eggs had
become a beautifully sloppy and soulful backing band willing to play it
as straight or as out as necessary to get the point across. From the Louie
Louie lowdown hoedown of Marlboro Country to the stinging Liked It Alot,
rightly described by Robert
Christgau as one of the bitterest post-free-love songs you've
ever heard.
Charlies focus on rock n roll roots, as well as almost
clinical fascination with the debauched underbelly of rock n
roll life make for an envigorating and sometimes startling collection
of tunes. Unfortunately, some aspects of that underbelly became all too
real: We had spent the summer gigging the the Northeast and were
centered in NYC. Seemed like every dope dealer in greater NY was waiting
for us. Johnny Salton developed a big uh, problem and he and I fell out.
He flew back to Miami the day before we were to leave for Minneapolis
to play the 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis and audition for the Twin-Tone
records folks. I asked Mike Pettit (Miami guy, Psycho Daisies) to pay
bass and asked Dave Froshneider to switch to lead guitar. WITH NO PRACTICE
in that line-up (Johnny Galway on drums), we left for our first show,
the Jockey
Club.
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