"Charlie Freak" is a song written and preformed by Steely Dan. It appears on Pretzel Logic. Steely Dan is an American jazz rock band based around musicians and songwriters Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. ... Pretzel Logic is a Steely Dan album originally released in 1974. ...

It is about a homeless drug user who sells his prized possession, a simple golden ring, to the narrator of the song to finance his addictions. This cash buys him enough of his drug of choice for "Charlie" to over dose and die. The narrator rushes to the morgue when he hears that Charlie has died and returns the ring to the corpse. Charlie Freak is still one of Steely Dan's most popular songs.