Have A Marijuana
by David Peel & The Lower East Side

I had "a marijuana" with Peel on the street in the Village in 1980.

Joyous, raucous and highly influential. it has a bit of a time capsule feel to it. A true classic and just another reminder of how cool the late 60's period was in the art it was creating. A not always pleasant time to be alive due to war and civil unrest but the art was magnificent moving and timeless

David Peel's contribution to the counter-culture of the 1960s is a significant but largely under-recognized one. The punk aesthetics of the late 1970s can probably be traced back to the ramshackle street busking-style approach of Peel and his fellow travelling minstrels who utilise folk agit-prop and Fugs-style satire to comment on the social issues of the day. There is a wonderful organic sense of authenticity, albeit simplicity, in Peel's art. His lyrics are deceptively clever, the spartan hillbilly hoedown nature of the music, story-telling and comedy skits fresh, and his the use of the streets of New York's Lower East Side, an innovation (copied by John Lennon for 'Give Peace A Chance'). As a form of politically-based activism, it could be argued, that the contemporary occupy movement be traced back to Peel's street "happenings".