Earlier this year, my friend Andrew Pejack sent me a special message…
Hi Eric ! Not sure if you have this LL version, from SJ’s own Eagle Buckett. He released an album ‘Black Diamond Street’, and then had a 2nd album in the works, which had LL on it. The 2nd album was never officially released, because he passed away. -Andrew
Eagle Buckett was a friend of ours that passed away back in 2010. Back in the late 1980s, Eagle was in charge of booking various musical bands to play at Marsugi’s – San Jose’s most exciting nightclub at the time. It was a vibrant scene, and Eagle was the first of a handful of booking agents to bring in a lot of up-and-coming bands that later became major headliners in the rock ‘n’ roll universe.
Over the years, Eagle was a regular part of the San Jose music scene, working various jobs at different venues- either mixing audio or basic property maintenance, as well doing his own music whenever possible. In addition to his music, he was also writing a lot of little science fiction adventures that were published in one of the local entertainment papers.
His passing left a big hole in the music community, as he had a lot of friends that cared deeply about him.
Anyways, Andrew gave me a copy of Eagle’s recording of LOUIE LOUIE, which I loved. As it turned out, I actually shot video of Eagle many years before I got to know him at Marsugi’s. It didn’t even dawn on me that I even had this footage of him at the KFJC Maximum LOUIE LOUIE event, back when he was probably still using his original name of Arnold Valdez.
Thanks to Andrew, I was able to obtain this music of Eagle, including his album “Black Diamond Street,” which I’d never heard before. Andrew also helped me connect with some of Eagle’s other friends, which was wonderful.
Here’s Eagle’s version of LOUIE LOUIE…
… and here’s an Eagle original – the title track from his album “Black Diamond Street.”
As fate would have it, we just lost Andrew Pejack last week – May 22.
Andrew was another great guy that was also a big part of the San Jose music community. He was a musician with Beachkrieg– a highly entertaining German surf band. He was also manager and fan club coordinator for our friend, the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, aka Norman Carl Odam.
Andrew was a super talented guy with wicked sense of humor.
One of his funny pranks got a lot of attention on the internet…
Andrew played the role of “Baron Von Krieg” in Beachkrieg.
I’m grateful I captured some video of this fine band at the 2011 Halloween Spookenanny in San Francisco.
As quoted on his own Facebook wall…
“Once met, never forgotten.” – Andrew Pejack
Truer words were never written.
Rest in peace, Andrew.
Rest in peace, Eagle.
UPDATE – June 11:
a clip from Andrew’s wake, courtesy of Angeline King!