David Peel was a legend in his own mind & in the minds of a generation, He died April 6, 2017 at age 74. What a life. His raw, acoustic "street rock" with lyrics about marijuana & "bad cops" appealed mostly to hippies or the culturally disenfranchised. In 1968, Peel was contracted by Elektra Records when he was first discovered. He recorded two albums for the label. His album Have a Marijuana peaked at No. 186 on the Billboard chart.
Peel was rediscovered by John Lennon in 1971 as the early seventies continued its swing towards the youth revolution. Lennon befriended Peel when David was playing with his ragtag hippie band in New York's Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. Lennon produced The Pope Smokes Dope for Peel. The album was banned in many countries & since has become a cult classic sought by collectors worldwide.
As the acoustic hippie counterculture shifted into the aggressive late-1970s punk movement, Peel adapted his anti-establishment ethos. This release stands as an obscure bridge between 1960s underground fringe-folk (such as The Fugs) & the raw New York punk.
Determinedly low-fi, accompanied by squalling banks of angry guitars & no drums, here Peel ramps up the stoner howl he had been using since the mid-60s into a sneering double-tracked monotone which almost sounds like punk parody,
David, not with the Lower East Side but with The Death-O-Lettes.
Side A -
The Devil’s Prayer
King of Punk
Uptight Manhattan
Marijuana
Murder Burgers
Punk Rock
Side B -
In the Beginning
The Master Race
Who Killed Brian Jones
He's Called a Cop
A Mother Mother F.
Weirder & weirder,
NØ










































