Friends of David Peel turned out yesterday afternoon to honor the musician during a memorial wake at the Peter Jarema Funeral Home on Seventh Street...
Later, there was a singing tribute of his music in Tompkins Square Park...
The longtime East Village resident — known for his 1960s anthem "I Like Marijuana" and later for collaborations with John Lennon and Yoko Ono — died on April 6. He was 73. (The Times has a feature obituary here.)
There's a Memorial Wake for David Peel at the Peter Jarema Funeral Home, 129 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue, tomorrow from 3-7. (The flyer via Facebook incorrectly states 4-7.) Afterwards, there will be a singing tribute of his music in Tompkins Square Park.
With the '60s countercultural revolution beginning to take shape, Peel moved to San Francisco, where he dove into the new hippie scene. When Peel came back to New York, he picked up a guitar and started writing songs and leading singalongs in Washington Square Park.
Peel took the name because he was prone to smoking banana peels. "It looked like grass," he told High Times in 1977. "We kept it in vials and called it banana grass."
One day in 1968, Elektra Records A&R rep Danny Fields heard Peel and his gang of protestors singing in the park. In the 2015 documentary, "Danny Says," Peel recalled:
"I met Danny Fields in 1968, He brought me to Max's Kansas City and bought me a steak dinner. How could I say no to a steak dinner when I was used to eating pizza all my life on the street?"
Fields signed David Peel & the Lower East Side to a two-record contract.
An April 2012 feature in The New York Times noted how a new generation had discovered Peel.
He was a regular last fall at the Occupy Wall Street movement’s Zuccotti Park encampment, and now shows up in Union Square to jam with the Occupy protesters there.
Peel was also a regular during the summer concerts in Tompkins Square Park. He lived on Avenue B. He was unmarried and didn't have any known family members.
His friend Steve Bloom wrote for Celebstoner:
Wherever Peel was, with his loud voice and boisterous personality, you couldn't miss him ... Peel, who answered the phone, "Yo, yo, yo" and had a characteristic stutter, will be missed.
The Times article from 2012 noted that "he planned to continue to sing on the streets and in the parks downtown 'until the day I drop dead and go to rock ’n’ roll heaven.'"
[Photo of David Peel, 2nd from left, from last summer by Steven]
Several readers have passed along word that longtime LES resident David Peel suffered a heart attack yesterday.
Here's an update from a friend of the musician: "After life-saving open heart surgery, David Peel is on a pump resting in the hospital but he needs additional surgery, next week, to remove critical blockages."
Good vibes to David Peel who has suffered a heart attack and is in surgery.
As we (OK, I) had mentioned earlier, tonight at 8 was the date for David Peel's birthday bash next to the Christodora. I was there a little before 8, and watched the cops prepped and ready for...
nothing. The party stayed in Tompkins Square Park, I was told. I stood in front of the Christodora anyway. Around 8:45, an officer walked up and told the troops to remove the barricades. I asked a police officer if this meant nothing was going to happen there. He, quite honestly, barked (wolfed?), "unless you know something that I don't." OK! All the police officers got into their respective vehicles and left...except for two lone officers, who were told to stand guard "just in case."
Several protestors did show up later with an "Imprison Bush" banner. There was a little shouting -- did a resident throw something at a protestor?
Meanwhile, on the way to the event, I started taking photos of the Christodora for whatever reasons...
