Saturday, November 7, 2015

Fleshtones – "Pickin' Pickin'" (1994)


If she knew, if she knew, if she knew
What I was doing here with you 
She would die!

Actually, the Fleshtones didn't get it quite right.  Here's how those lyrics should read:

If she knew, if she knew, if she knew
What I was doing here with you
SHE WOULD KILL ME!

(And I would probably deserve it.)

The Fleshtones formed in Queens in 1976.  Later that year, they performed at the legendary New York City punk-new wave venue, CBGB.  (The band's members ranged in age from 18 to 21 when they went on stage that night.)


The Fleshtones played regularly not only at CBGB, but at other well-known New York clubs like Max's Kansas City, Club 57, and the Danceteria.  They were the first band to be booked to play at the original 9:30 Club in Washington when it opened in 1980.

The group's second album, Roman Gods, made it to #174 on the Billboard album chart.  That was the highest chart position any of the Fleshtones' 25 albums attained, but the band never gave up.  

According to Peter Buck of R.E.M., "every night for the last 30 years [the Fleshtones] have consistently been the best live band on earth."  But as the New York Post once said, the band's "Sisyphean chase of fame" has been rewarded "only with a raging cult following."

  
The Fleshtones are the subject of Joe Bonomo's 2007 book, Sweat: The Story of the Fleshtones, America's Garage BandClick here to buy that book from Amazon. 


"Pickin' Pickin'" was released in 1994 on the Fleshtones' Beautiful Light album.

Here's "Pickin' Pickin'":



Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

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