DAVID PEEL

John Lennon once compared Peel to artist, Pablo Picasso. The former Beatle confided in Andy Warhol’s "INTERVIEW" magazine, that "producing David Peel was the highest point in his life".

John Lennon recalled first seeing David Peel, and his street assembled version of the "Lower East Side Band", performing in front of a large crowd in Washington Square Park, in 1971. "He was shouting, why do you have to pay to see stars?" says Lennon. "I was embarrassed. I thought surely he must know I’m here. Yoko and I loved his music, his spirit and his philosophy of the street."

Ignoring the objections by "certain" former members of The Beatles, John and Yoko still signed Peel to Apple Records.

David’s first effort for Apple - an album entitled "The Pope Smokes Dope", which had immediately set off an International furor. The record was banned in nearly every country of the world, except for the United States, Canada and Japan. The controversy was a bit reminiscent of Lennon’s offhanded remark that The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus Christ."

Peel was also instrumental in getting John and Yoko to perform at the famous "One to One" concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City, joining with them and others at the end of the show singing "Give Peace A Chance". He also shared the stage with John and Yoko at the "John Sinclair Benefit" (TEN FOR TWO) - (University of Michigan’s Chrysler Auditorium) in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

John and Yoko also recorded and produced a composition for Peel entitled "Amerika", the theme song for the Jack Milton film - "Please Stand By", in which Peel portrays, and stars as a media hippie revolutionary, who hijacks a network television van and jams the airwaves with unauthorized broadcasts to the nation. "The airwaves belong to the people!" The song however was never released by Apple Records.

At one point in their relationship, David Peel, John Lennon and Yoko Ono seemed practically inseparable - so much so that John and Yoko thought that they should have used David Peel’s photograph as the middle picture on their "Some Time In New York City" record label, which depicts the metamorphosis of John Lennon into Yoko Ono. John noted that Peel always wore round sunglasses that were a perfect duplicate of the glasses that had become John Lennon’s trademark and Lennon took to wearing Peel’s black leather jacket - a jacket similar to the kind that The Beatles used to wear while performing in Hamburg, Germany, and back at the "Cavern", a small club in Liverpool, England - where it all began.
In any event, this closeness in appearance caused Bob Dylan to refer to a photograph of David Peel as John Lennon, which also fooled the FBI . A photo of Peel identified as Lennon turned up in the John Lennon FBI and CIA security risk files. (This was when Lennon was fighting the U.S. Government for his right to stay in the United States). John does immortalize David Peel on the "Some Time In New City" album, by mentioning his name, and his rantings, on the track "New York City".

It’s been over thirty-five years since David Peel began his professional music career on the streets of New York City. His songs have been heard and hailed all over the world. They are extremely candid and contemporary, without censorship - a music heritage of his life, that will live on forever. There are many people who weren’t around during the sixties renaissance. They now want to know who David Peel is, and are curious and eager to find out.

David Peel is perhaps one of the best underground street-rock-singers in the world. We only know a small part of what really happened to the "Rock’n’ Roll Outlaw" in the years since he began his musical career in Washington Square Park.

John, Yoko, and David - During their most political times, they recorded, played rock concerts, and appeared on national television together. Peel’s commitment toward his alternative lifestyle with John and Yoko, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, friends and bandmates - is a part of rock history that will never be forgotten.

There are similarities which link Peel’s work with the new sounds of the nineties - and with this new century. David’s music has always had the spirit of rebellion - part of his maniac energy. His hard-edged, and radical songs stem from the Vietnam War period and the "Flower Power" days of Peace.

David Peel in film: He also sang his song "I like Marijuana" in the motion picture " Rude Awakening " (1989). The music director for the film was Paul Rothchild. Formerly the record producer of the classic rock group "The Doors". Cheech Marin of Cheech & Chong), Eric Roberts, Robert Carradine, Julie Hagerty and Louise Lasser were the major stars in the film. Even Jerry Rubin makes an appearance in the David Peel sequence. Other films in which David Peel appears in, include the High Times motion picture: " Potluck " (2002), with Frank Adonis, Tommy Chong, & Frank Gorshen; " Medicine Ball Caravan " (1971), with appearances by Delaney & Bonnie and Alice Cooper, and as mentioned previously, " Please Stand By ". More recently, Peel and the Lower East Side Band, perform as The Plastic Ono Lower East Side Band, in the motion picture "The U.S. Vs. John Lennon, at the John Sinclair Freedom Rally.

On December 10, 1971, a John Sinclair Freedom Rally was held at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Sinclair was a Michigan pro-pot activist who was sentenced to 12 1/2 years for possession of a single joint. Yippie Jerry Rubin organized the event, originally as part of a series of events, leading up to the 1972 Republican convention.

On the bill were Michigan natives Stevie Wonder and Bob Seeger, Phil Ochs, Steve Miller, Commander Cody, David Peel & The Plastic Ono Apple Band, poet Allen Ginsburg, Chicago Eight members David Dellinger, Renne Davis and Bobby Seale (ungagged), and, in his first American performance since the break up of the Beatles, John Lennon with Yoko Ono.
Stevie Wonder, aged 21, came on at 2:30 AM and said, "This is to any undercover agents in the crowd" and played "Somebody’s Watching You." Later a FOIA investigation revealed FBI agents were taking down every word. Lennon came out, announced, "The Pope Smokes Dope" and performed his composition "The Ballad of John Sinclair" and three other original songs with Yoko & The Plastic Ono Band. Two days later, an appellate court freed Sinclair on bail.

Afterwards, Phil Ochs was wiretapped and followed, and the INS initiated proceedings to deport Lennon because of an old pot bust in England. The protracted fight soured him from performing for political causes [but he was planning to do so before his assaination in 1980].

(Source: "Stand and Be Counted" by David Crosby and David Bender)

Harvard psychiatrist Lester Grinspoon, the author of "Marijuana Reconsidered", met Lennon when he testified as an expert witness at his Immigration and Naturalization Service hearings that Attorney General John Mitchell had engineered. Grinspoon, who tried marijuana deliberately after studying it for years, told Lennon that cannabis appeared to make it possible for him to "hear" his music for the first time. Grinspoon writes, "John was quick to reply that I had experienced only one facet of what marijuana could do for music, that he thought it could be very helpful for composing and making music as well as listening to it."

In his autobiography "Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut", Paul Krassner recounts smoking with John and Yoko in 1972. Lennon discounted theories that Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison may have been political assassinations. "No, no," John said, "they were already headed in a self-destructive direction." A few months later, he reminded Krassner of the conversation and added, "Listen, if anything happens to Yoko and me, it was not an accident." But Lennon lives. At the February 10, 2006 Olympic opening ceremonies in Turin, Italy, Yoko introduced Peter Gabriel who sang "Imagine," a song that has become the world’s peace anthem.

David Peel is an exciting creative human being. His music is the ultimate weapon to communicate to all people. As quoted in one of his songs "Rock ’n’ Roll Forever - Forever Rock ’n’ Roll" - David Peel is the "Rock ’n’ Roll Outlaw".

David Peel’s close association with John Lennon propelled him to celebrity status and helped pave the way for him to perform with top acts, such as: Alice Cooper, Doctor John and the Night Trippers, Elephants Memory Band, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Herbie Mann, Rod Stewart, Emerson Lake and Palmer, BB King, The Outlaws, Tiny Tim and other great acts. Some of his performances include the "Mar Y Sol" Rock Festival on the island of Puerto Rico and at "The Trans Musicales World Music Festival" in Rennes, France.

Prior to, and after these great events, Peel also performed at other venues on the same billings with: Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Tangerine Dream, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, MC-5, Arthur Lee and Love, John Lee Hooker, Roger McGuinn, Richie Havens, Oddetta, Arlo Guthrie, Rick Derringer, The Chambers Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Archie Shepp, Joan Baez, Cypress Hill, Melanie, and many other notable performers.

But the man who was to become a John Lennon disciple, will always be doing street music performances, concerts and benefits, in all kinds of venues, or performing at rock festival events and political rally demonstrations - as an entertainer and humanitarian for peace and truth.

Before meeting John and Yoko, David Peel recorded two successful record albums. "Have a Marijuana" and "The American Revolution" for Elektra Records, clearly establishing himself as one of the founding fathers of what was to become the punk and new wave movements in England and America.

When Apple Records did not renew David Peel’s contract, he decided to form his own independent companies: Orange Records, and RLF Records respectively, which have released over 100 record albums, cassettes, video tapes and CD’s, including a Whole Rock Catalog with hundreds of items. Among the releases are: "Bring Back The Beatles", "John Lennon Forever", "John Lennon for President", "1984", "Rock ’n’ Roll Outlaw", "The Battle For New York", "War and Anarchy", "The David Peel 16 CD Box Set" and many, many more.

Orange Records also introduced us all to other independent artists such as the outrageous "G.G. Allin" , "Mozarts People", and Tampa Bay’s New Wave/Punk band, "Rich Rags".

A street singer, musician, songwriter, radical activist, producer, record company owner, and certainly a New York City "Rock ’n’ Roll Outlaw", David peel has always instinctively understood the need to change. He searches for new ideas, new experiences and new people. The idea for "Rock ’n’ Roll Outlaw" works for Peel, as it does for many of us - not only to keep his own life and work in perspective, but also to cope with our senses. David is always telling us "know what is possible, and do what must be done." -- The Rock Liberation Front

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