Descrizione
DAVID PEEL & THE LOWER EAST SIDE
have a marijuana
Disco LP 33 giri , 1976, elektra / wea / charter line W 42071, italia
ECCELLENTI CONDIZIONI, vinyl ex++/NM , cover ex++/NM , shrink but open
David Peel is a New York-based
musician who first recorded in the late 1960s, with Harold Black, Billy
Jo White and Larry Adams performing as The Lower East Side Band. Though
his raw, acoustic “street rock” with lyrics about marijuana and “bad cops” appealed mostly to hippies at first, the sound and DIY ethic make him an important, if little-credited, early performer of punk rock. He has performed with artists ranging from B. B. King to the Plastic Ono Band. The band was one of the first to regularly perform on cable TV in Manhattan on the public access channel of Manhattan Cable Television, as well as at the first Smoke-In Concerts sponsored by the Yippies in New York City in Central Park. John Lennon mentioned Peel in the song “New York City”. Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono subsequently produced Peel’s third album, The Pope Smokes Dope. Concerned about major label censorship, Peel founded Orange Records to release his own recordings and also those of other independent artists such as: GG Allin & The Jabbers and Mozarts People.
As of 2006 Peel is still actively recording and performing his music,
planning the release of a CD-ROM-based book of photographs and enjoying
a new audience through online services such as iTunes. Peel has
appeared in various films as himself, including Please Stand By (1974),
Rude Awakening (1989) and High Times Potluck (2004).
- Interprete: David Peel & The Lower East Side
- Etichetta: Elektra / Wea / Charter Line
- Catalogo: W 42071
- Data di pubblicazione: 1976
- Matrici : W.42071.A / W.42071.B
- Supporto:vinile 33 giri:
- Tipo audio: stereo
- Dimensioni: 30 cm.
- Facciate: 2
- Butterfly label, white paper inner sleeve
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BB KING & DAVID PEEL AT THE MAR Y SOL FESTIVAL — 1972 — PUERTO RICO
Il Lower East Side fu, per la New York degli
anni ’60, l’Inferno e il Paradiso: per quelle
vie si agitavano freaks, drogati, folli colti
da allucinazioni mistiche, dissidenti politici.
Tra questi residui di una società fagocitante
trovarono sbocco naturale le ramificazioni della
scena underground che era sorta ai piedi dell’avanguardia
pop, spirito/Warhol e carne/Morrissey riuniti
insieme.
Nel Lower East Side crebbe quel Jim Carroll che
si divertiva ad annotare le sue giornate su un
diario dando così vita a quei “Basketball
Diaries” che sono tutt’oggi una delle più
sorprendenti e miracolose ipotesi letterarie del
secondo dopoguerra statunitense. Un nuovo mondo
artistico stava bussando alle porte e il precedente
si eclissava poco alla volta: ad appena due anni
di differenza muoiono Jack Kerouac e Neal Cassidy,
simbolo del vagabondare on the road al
di fuori di qualsiasi schematismo sociale gerarchico,
mentre Bob
Dylan passa dalle invettive politiche a storie
d’amore country e pop (“Lay Lady Lay”
su tutte). Una mattina un gruppo di persone del
Lower East Side vanno a protestare davanti a casa
di Dylan, definendolo un traditore e cercando
nei rifiuti palesamenti della sua accettazione
borghese della vita.
A capo di questo gruppo di invasati pazzoidi
c’è David Peel, giovane cantastorie che
ama circondarsi di barboni e che canta tutto quello
che l’America ha paura di ascoltare. Nel 1968
viene alla luce questo “Have a Marijuana”,
registrato per strada, in presa diretta, e destinato
a diventare un album a suo modo “maledetto”.
“Mother Where is My Father?” si apre
con urla inconsulte per poi precipitare in una
dimessa progressione folk, con sonagli e bonghetti
che si accompagnano alla chitarra e la voce sgraziata
di David Peel che irrompe carica di ironia e rabbia.
Sembra quasi di ascoltare una versione scarna,
improvvisata e assolutamente priva di tecnica
della lezione postmoderna che Frank Zappa sta
iniziando a divulgare nel mondo.
Un pezzo come “I Like Marijuana”, basato
su un vero e proprio delirante comizio di Peel
davanti alla sua “corte dei miracoli”
(che ulula e applaude alle frasi del suo vate),
sarebbe la coda perfetta alle digressioni agit-prop
dei Fugs di Ed Sanders e Tuli Kupferberg se non
fosse per quella tangibile sensazione di immediatezza.
Non c’è nulla di pensato a priori o di
costruito nella musica di Peel che ondeggia da
ripassi di ritmi appalacchiani a percussioni afro
fino a strutture che riprendono la base del blues.
E in questa ubriaca e straccata visione della
musica, urlata e strascicata, non può non
apparire il volto della destrutturazione dell’idea
di inno cara alla generazione punk (basta prendere
un brano come “Here Comes a Cop” e attaccare
la chitarra agli amplificatori per trovarsi davanti
ad un brano del 1977).
Eppure probabilmente l’idea era quella di riprendere
e attualizzare l’armonica e chitarra che fece
la fortuna dell’amato/odiato Dylan, ma anche di
altri simboli dell’elegia folk come Woody Guthrie
o Joe Hill. Una cosa è certa: “Happy
Mother Day” non avrebbe sfigurato assolutamente
in “London Calling”
dei Clash. Il folk parlato fa capolino in “I
Do My Bawling in the Bathroom”, mentre il
punto più alto dell’album risulta essere
probabilmente “Alphabet Song”, straordinaria
mistura di polka, disadattata voce salmodiante,
coretti ossessivi e testo che mescola dadaismo,
nenia infantile e surrealismo. Questo delirio
mentale, formale e musicale si chiude sull’acclamazione
finale di “We Love You”, deformazione
dei canti sacri e al contempo elevazione a mito
dell’idea estremizzata di coralità.
Bisognerebbe forse cercare di capire quanta consapevolezza
ci fosse alla base del progetto…o forse no.
In fin dei conti quello che resta è una
delle più convincenti ed estreme dimostrazioni
di anarchia concettuale e di rigetto della società
occidentale in ogni sua forma – album che nega
l’idea stessa di gruppo e di singolo, e che non
ha alcuna pretesa commerciale (tanto da finire
ben presto nel dimenticatoio) – come sintetizza
angelicamente il titolo. Mentre il sistema statunitense
pone sul denaro buona parte del suo American
Dream David Peel afferma semplicemente “Have
a Marijuana”. E buona pace ai benpensanti.
This
is the the debut record by New York street musician and John Lennon
protégé David Peel. It is a relatively short recording, Peel plays
guitar and sings (mainly about marijuana), it’s all live, as much of a
an attempt to get the raw sound of the band on tape as “Kick Out the
Jams” by MC5. Fugs parallels are hard to avoid, and there is the same
type of parody here-“I Like Marijuana” actually got kind of popular,
I’ve heard it on Rock stations (!), it’s a parody of “I Like Peanut
Butter”, and no ways near as bad taste as the lesser known “I Like
Diarrhea” by MT Heads…anyway, Peel & co. have had a tendency to
rehash the same riffs over & over on subsequent albums (with
admittedly different musical contexts), but this is the firstest and
the rawest of the batch, “Show Me the Way to Get Stoned” is a killer,
nothing bad on here at all, a great piece of underground wildness
caught on tape before the majors realized the market was too small to
get rich on. {review by Carl Slim}.
Perhaps it’s because Peel, a
marginal figure born to be a cultural relic, is a much more
interesting, exciting and entertaining ’60s icon than all the
overblown, bloated characters like David Crosby and Grace Slick. Unlike
them, Peel never came in from off the streets. In fact, he can still be
found singing these songs in New York’s Tompkins Square Park to this
day. And while that’s mildly pathetic, it’s also heartening. When he
sings about smoking some grass and getting harassed by lame cops (the
topic of just about every track) you tend to believe him.
Track Listings
1. Mother Where Is My Father?
2. I Like Marijuana
3. Here Comes a Cop
4. I’ve Got Some Grass
5. Happy Mother’s Day
6. Up Against the Wall
7. I Do My Bawling in the Bathroom
8. Alphabet Song
9. Show Me the Way to Get Stoned
10. We Love You
personnel :
Bass –
Guitar [12 String] –
Guitar, Vocals –
Tambourine, Congas, Vocals –
Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica –
DAVID PEEL
the official online shrine
DAVID PEEL is a survivor from a time in history when political anarchists were
considered heroes. David Peel came from a period when people were interested
in “fighting the system” instead of joining it….
A man once considered the “Woodie Gutherie of Yippie Politics”, Peel has
changed with the times, adapting this music to the “Rock of the 80’s”. From
the man who wrote such classics as: “Up Against The Wall”, “The Pope Smokes
Dope”, and “I’m A Runaways’, comes a continuation of the same raw, driving
force that forsaw the punk movement before JOHNNY LYDON (aka ROTTEN) or STIV
BATORS ever stepped onto a stage. (Some people claim that the CLASH song
“White Riot” is a direct swipe of the Peel song “I’m Going To Start Another
Riot”) Unlike other rockers, David Peel chose NOT to live life as a typical
rock star, prefering to direct his profits into the good of his community,
namely, THE LOWER EAST SIDE.
His third album, The Pope Smokes Dope, produced
by JOHN LENNON and YOKO ONO, propelled him into celebrity status, given the
extremely rare honor/dishonor of being banned by every country in the world,
except America and Canada.
David Peel with Yoko Ono and John Lennon
David Peel has performed on a wide variety of venues with such acts as: THE
PLASTIC ONO BAND, CHUCK BERRY, IGGY POP & THE STOOGES, EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER,
FRANK ZAPPA & THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION, THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET, ROD STEWART,
MC5, STEVIE WONDER, and ALICE COOPER, as well as appearing on THE DAVID FROST
SHOW and THE DICK CAVETT SHOW.
David Peel with Mick Jagger
Aware of the pressure of censorship from the larger record companies that he
had recorded with (Peel was with both Electra and Apple), David Peel chose to
form his own independent label, ORANGE RECORDS LTD, free of the usual
restrictions considered taboo by the larger labels. ORANGE RECORDS has
successfully provided an alternative musical outlet for approximately ten
years. With the creation of ORANGE RECORDS WEST, these unique recordings can
now be obtained at more record stores now than ever possible. Musicians on
previous ORANGE RECORDS have included: JOHN LENNON, YOKO ONO, G.G. ALLIN,
WAYNE KRAMER, MOZARTS PEOPLE, LESLIE FRADKIN, CAPTAIN CRUNCH, and many others.
David Peel’s album 1984 is a major highlight in what has been a very
colorful career in musical expression. Based on GEORGE ORWELL’s classic
novel, this album offers an uncompromising vision of present day modern
technology. Produced by David Peel with G.G. ALLIN and ALAN CHAPPLE, this
record is a brilliant array of electronic sounds, featuring the lead guitar of
WAYNE KRAMER of the original MCS. This is truly heavy radical metal punk in
its finest hour….
DOUBLETHINK ABOUT IT………………
Bologna , 1977 : sulla consolle di RADIO ALICE, la mitica radio simbolo del movimento,
troneggia l’ altro leggendario LP di David Peel THE POPE SMOKES DOPE
