David Peel
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David Peel is a NYC based musician who has stayed amazingly true to his unique personal vision since the late 1960s and in the early 21st century still shows no sign of slowing down. Though his raw, acoustic "street" music with lyrics about marijuana and "pigs" appealed mostly to hippies at first, the sound and DIY aesthetic make him an important if little-credited father of punk rock, and he has performed with artists ranging from B. B. King to GG Allin.
Originally recorded with back up from Harold Black and Billy Jo White, the backup band performed under the name the Lower East Side/Band that after 1972 and the droping out of Harold and Billy jo, included Moses, Eddie, Andi "Punk" Anderson (they were some of the first to perform regularly on cable TV in Manhattan that was broadcast on the public access channel of the Manhattan Cable TV Co.), and the first Smoke-in Concerts sponsered by the Yippies in New York City.
Andi "Punk" has continued to work as an independent musician and artist (who after he took a guitar lesson from Ross the Boss (Ross Boss Friedman) The Dictators went on to work with Doug Holland of the bands Cromags and Kraut, Richard Sohl of the Patti Smith Group, and read poetry at "the St. Mark's Church on the Bowery, New Year's Eve Poetry Reading" with Allen Ginsberg, and Patti Smith, Gregory Corso, Peter Orlovsky, Lou Reed, and John Cale.
John Lennon mentioned Peel in the song New York City:
- Standing on the corner
- Just me and yoko ono
- We was waiting for jerry to land
- Up come a man with the guitar
- in his hand
- Singing "have a marijuana if you can"
- His name was Davis Peel
- And we found that he was real
- He sang "The pope smokes dope everyday"
- Up come a police man shoved us up the street
- Singin, "power to the people today!"
...and Lennon and Yoko Ono produced Peel's third album, The Pope Smokes Dope.
Concerned about major label censorship, Peel founded Orange Records to release his recordings, and also those of other artists such as GG Allin and John Draper ("Captain Crunch" of phone phreaking phame). As of 2004 he is still actively recording and performing his music and planning to release a 20 CD box set in Summer 2005.
Peel has appeared in various films as himself, including Rude Awakening (1989) and High Times Potluck (2004)
External links
- The "Official online shrine"
- David's homepage
- Video clip of Peel performing in 1989 (RealPlayer required)