John Peel, “maker and breaker” of bands, legendary BBC DJ whose radio-sessions included just about anybody from Cpt. Beefheart to David Bowie to The White Stripes, died from a heart attack earlier today. (Guardian coverage)
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Meta
It is a sad sad day.
From his 1967 Perfumed Garden radio show…
The Perfumed Garden Blues, (John Peel’s Lament)
by Jeffrey Prowes:
I was sittin’ at my radio, alone and feeling blue
When over the airwaves, there came a sound so true
It’s gonna be a sad, sad, day when the Perfumed Garden wilts and dies away
A song so soft and gentle, came into my brain
I listen very slowly, it’s a number by the Jefferson Airplane
It’s gonna be a sad, sad, day when the Perfumed Garden wilts and dies away
He blew my mind… the lovin’ kind… makes everything so fine, fine, fine
I really feel for the tender lovin’ tunes the DJ spins
He played the Mothers of Invention and the Velvet Underground
He played some freaky music from the Zodiac Cosmic Sounds
It’s gonna be a sad, sad, day when the Perfumed Garden wilts and dies away
Lookin’ dark and gloomy, what am I gonna do?
Between those same grand hours of twelve ‘til two
It’s gonna be a sad, sad, day when the Perfumed Garden wilts and dies away
The world of music is inestimably poorer tonight. Much of my musical education as a teenager was down to listening to the John Peel show late at night in the early seventies. He continued to champion new bands to this day. As Andy Kershaw said in tribute, there will be loads of teenage bands today whose chances of ever getting radio airplay will be that much less with his passing. Flags at half mast, boys and girls.
One of the authentic true voices of the Sixties has passed on, he was the heart and soul of that era , a creative spirit, a voice of freedom of the airwaves.
A titan, an inspiration who will be missed.
Immensely saddened by John’s death. His influence on my musical listening over the years has been huge. He was a true one-off.
And a funny guy too. His appearance on “Room 101” some time ago was hilarious.