Profile of David Peel on Famous Like Me

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 dropping 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 sponsored by the Yippies in New York City.

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 David 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)

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