john peel's festive 50 for '76

radio on

Like a Rolling Stone

i'm trying to figure out the farthest outlier from the canon as known in 76 and i have to think yeah, modern lovers? there isn't any vu or stooges or nuggets is there? i don't know matching mole or family, but everything else is standard.

erm dunno grinderswitch either

LARS or LMF

erm dunno grinderswitch either

― Hunt3r

it was the show's theme song

interesting selection. i know zep were fairly critically reviled at the time, but also that peel had them in concert to debut "stairway". they don't strike me as particular faves of his. a lot of prog rock, but nothing by, say, gentle giant, who peel had on his show, for some reason, about a million times. definite bias towards the excruciatingly long tunes. poco strike me as having been removed from the classic rock canon between the '70s and when i started listening. i have no idea who "racing cars" are - maybe a favorite of his?

songs that strike me as particularly "peel" tracks - songs he loved that aren't necessarily part of the classic rock canon - paralyzed, big eyed beans from venus, pickin' the blues, i can take you to the sun, o caroline, when the cricketer leaves the crease, go to rhino records

i don't know where modern lovers stood in relation to the canon in '76, but they were at least extremely critically popular. road runner is also one of the only songs on the list actually released in '76. everything from that approx ten year period, though. maybe more depressing now than it was then.

Bear in mind, John Peel was a DJ, and as such his basic modus op was to present the music and be reasonably engaging in the bits between.

Thanks to the internet, I have heard his "Beatles Special" and there's no disdain or boredom detectable, in fact he can still pick out things he like particularly. There may well have been a lot of "urg, this?" in private, and he wasn't above expressing an opinion, but on the one hand he's a professional DJ with all that entails, and on the other he was projecting to his audience. The main difference being projecting to an audience that he wanted to progress, rather than pandering to their exact tastes.

As for the mythical "one coin for the jukebox pick, I do so not want to pick "Roadrunner", there's a lot of classic stuff and other stuff I'm not overly fond of. But.

It's either that or "Paralyzed"

Roadrunner it is.

Racing Cars, given their placing in the chart, are the real outliers here.

Shoot Horses was a reasonable chart success in '77 after a release towards the end of the year in question so it was very much a current hit. They were being groomed as potential stars of the future by the music press and had made a name for themselves supporting Bad Company . From memory they're somewhere between the fag-end of a Bread type soft rock era and an I'm Not In Love production clone.

Marcello was a reasonably big fan iirc.

Whenever I see these early festive 50s I think about these loyal listeners JP was playing punk and weird new wave music to. How many stopped listening, how many changed their taste?

Anyway, voting for O Caroline, because it's the best song on the list.

I'm surprised to see The Misunderstood in there - ten years old non-hit, obviously beloved by Peel but it must have been hard to even find a copy in 1976? I guess he must have kept playing it? In a list without much garage/psych/nuggetsy stuff this seems an odd one to collect votes.

The Grinderswitch record was played twice a night every night!

In case of confusion, for American listeners, the Festive 50 was voted for by listeners and was not Peel's own selection.

Whenever I see these early festive 50s I think about these loyal listeners JP was playing punk and weird new wave music to. How many stopped listening, how many changed their taste?

"Stairway to Heaven" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" were still there in 1979 Festive 50. Just.

that's quite the white male list

lotsa good tunes, v happy to see Jackson Browne place twice, gonna go with Fountains of Sorrow

Fountain*

"Desolation Row," I guess, with these ones just behind: "Cortez," "Whole Lotta Love," "Roadrunner," and "Maggie May."

I'm surprised to see The Misunderstood in there - ten years old non-hit, obviously beloved by Peel but it must have been hard to even find a copy in 1976? I guess he must have kept playing it? In a list without much garage/psych/nuggetsy stuff this seems an odd one to collect votes.

― Tim, Friday, November 9, 2018 9:49 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah that was something i noticed. I iknow he had personal connections to them, & that track presumably wouldn't have existed without them relocating to London largely thanks to him. But really not sure what was around prior to the early 80s when Before the dream Faded came out. Presumably if there was anything recorded he might have access to it on other media.
JUst checked and there were 4 tracks by the relocated to London band out on single in the 60s that 7 Who Do You Love in '66 and Children of the Sun /I Unseen in 69.
I don't think I've heard his pre-punk 70s shows much if at all. So was he playing a lot more old stuff.
Assuming that what's on that list reflects what he was playing in the shows not just what his listenership were listening to outside of them.

I wouldn't assume this list reflects what he was playing at the time. The same goes for the later lists too, he played wall-to-wall reggae and dub, and lots of other non-rock music, and that was never reflected in Festive 50s.

Doesn't say which Dark Star. Is it assumed that's the 23 minute Live Dead one or its 3 minute studio single incarnation?
NOt sure if it was readily available in a number of different versions untiol about 30 years later, though the tape trading scene probably had quite a few.

Paralysed by Legendary Stardust cowboy is presumably one of several novelty songs he played. Was it on a Dr Demento set or anything? Wondering what access the audience had to it outside of his show.

Misunderstood is closest to the Nuggets type sound though it's a bit more fragile. Beautiful flamenco influenced acoustic guitar over a lot of it whereas other stuff has frenzied pedal steel fuzz outs.

Yeah the reason I was surprised by the Misunderstood was also about access: (a) I didn't imagine that the list mostly reflected what he was playing but (b) I couldn't see how the Misunderstood was placing in the chart unless he was playing it quite a lot. How else where Peel listeners hearing it? Didn't get reissued until Cherry Red put it out in the early 80s as far as I know?

I had both the e.p. and the lp in the early 80s.
NOw if you're interested in the band Ugly THings did a really comprehensive band history a few years back. Not sure if that's still available.
Also Mike Stax from the magazine helped the singer put out a memoir which is more about his years in India as a Krsna monk but does cover the band forming and moving to the UK.
But yeah do wonder what knowledge there was of the band before taht. IT's not just something that people latched onto because of the Peel association is it? Great track anyway.

I'd put my money on either (a) Peel played the song regularly or (b) he quietly slipped the song into the charts because he loved it so much.

The first I ever heard of them was when "Pillows and Prayers" came out but then I was only 12 and musical history was so inaccessible.

was thinking my personal choice Roy Harper might be too problematic then I thought about it a bit more and yeah well

(b) he quietly slipped the song into the charts because he loved it so much.

Yes, I think he was prone to doing this.

I'd put my money on either (a) Peel played the song regularly or (b) he quietly slipped the song into the charts because he loved it so much.

The first I ever heard of them was when "Pillows and Prayers" came out but then I was only 12 and musical history was so inaccessible.

― Tim, Friday, November 9, 2018 1:39 PM (twenty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Was wondering about ease of musical research in time before internet. So when i said Peel association it was more one of his 'guilty secrets' that people are nudge nudging him about by putting it on his festive fifty much like Laughing Gnome being a prevalent suggestion during David Bowie's Glass Spider tour.
& I thought that music collector nerd thing was a post-punk thing apart from doo-wop & rock'n'roll collecting which seemed to be around late 60s/early 70s. Not sure to what extent or how prevalent digging out garage rock was in the wake of Nuggets appearing in '72. Or if it was an area people had been looking into before taht. I did wonder for years if Lenny Kaye had responded to a trend he'd spotted in people coming in and buying lesser known 60s act material when he worked in the record shop he worked in in the early 70s.

I know there were some fanzines going around in the US in the pre-punk era, some fo which had developed outof a sci-fi underground. Not that familiar with what was going around in the UK at the same time. So not sure how music info would be disseminated apart from mainstream music press and whatever books were around at the time.

I don't know. Passed from hand to hand as secret knowledge, hanging around record shops and absolutely scouring any available information source (radio, papers, zines) for clues, I imagine.

One of these

5. Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower
9. Beatles - A Day In The Life
10. Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone
12. Neil Young - Cortez the killer
21. Van Morrison - Madame George
33. Jonathan Richman - Roadrunner
38. Allman Brothers band - Jessica
39. Rolling Stones - Jumping Jack flash

Leaning towards Cortez, tbh

Thanks to the internet, I have heard his "Beatles Special" and there's no disdain or boredom detectable, in fact he can still pick out things he like particularly. There may well have been a lot of "urg, this?" in private, and he wasn't above expressing an opinion, but on the one hand he's a professional DJ with all that entails, and on the other he was projecting to his audience. The main difference being projecting to an audience that he wanted to progress, rather than pandering to their exact tastes.

― Mark G

he wasn't the world's most professional dj!

he had lots of music on the show he wasn't particularly into and never gave the impression of being shy about expressing it. he played an hour live set by magma in '74 but in one of his magazine columns around this time he was pretty open about saying he had no idea what the appeal was supposed to be. this is the guy who memorably said after a dionne warwick performance (i think) that "she has a voice that could make any old junk sound good, and i think she just has!"

"i can take you to the sun" was, before "teenage kicks", _his_ record, his favorite, the one he was most identified with. keeping in mind that few of the early to mid '70s programs have tracklistings available, here's a listing of the times he played the misunderstood on his show: http://peel.wikia.com/wiki/Misunderstood

he did genuinely love the beatles. he did genuinely love pink floyd. he was a hippie! you can hear that sort of praise all over his marathon last perfumed garden show.

My top 5:

1. Neil Young - Cortez the killer
2. Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone
3. Rod Stewart - Maggie May
4. Richard Thompson - I wanna see the bright lights
5. Rolling Stones - Jumping Jack flash

xp it was aretha franklin that he said that about when on totp.

peel was given a lunchtime slot for a week or so sometime in the early 90s and i remember him being pretty snide about some of the playlist tracks he had to play.

Around the same time period, Kenny Everett had started doing his popular "World's Worst Wireless Show" on Capital Radio, where he played what he considered the worst records ever made and listeners would vote and make their own suggestions. "Paralysed" got played virtually every week. I don't ever remember Peel playing it back then (though I'm sure he did, perhaps he met the Ledge during his time in Texas?) but I figure that may be more the reason why it made #15 in this poll.

Strawberry Fields over Visions of Johanna

"and you and i" over "stairway to heaven"

Far as I recall from his biography Peel discovered the Misunderstood when he was in the US, was instrumental in bringing them to the UK, let them live in his house etc and was generally their #1 fan for a while.

xp Never mind. I just discovered there's a whole website devoted to the WWWS, that states that it first broadcast in January 77, so after this Festive 50.

Around the same time period, Kenny Everett had started doing his popular "World's Worst Wireless Show" on Capital Radio, where he played what he considered the worst records ever made and listeners would vote and make their own suggestions. "Paralysed" got played virtually every week. I don't ever remember Peel playing it back then (though I'm sure he did, perhaps he met the Ledge during his time in Texas?) but I figure that may be more the reason why it made #15 in this poll.

Capitol Radio was only broadcast in London, so it's not very likely that's the reason - I reckon it's another one Peel and John Walters slipped in hoping no-one would notice.

He probably got one when he lived over there, it was a bit of a hit at the time.

he wasn't the world's most professional dj!

No, but a long way from the least. In any case, the show was pre 1977 and his daytime stint was in the nineties I think. I think it was only one Chris Isaak track that got the works but hey. Oh, and Gary Davies got the needle with him on the "handover", but also hey.

Cortez is one of the best songs of all-time. I discovered it quite late, I guess around 1986 but it immediately left a very strong impression. There is a mounting tension in that song that still leaves me speechless. The lyrics may be a little trite but I have always loved them. It took me some time to realize that Neil Young is Canadian and not from the US. I did not make the difference at the time.

cortez lyrics aren't trite imo. a little simplistic, but it's a big song with big emotions--no nuance required

"he came dancing cross the water with his galleons and guns" is an A+ first line, immediately sets a scene and prepares you for the beauty and violence to come

Absolutely.

Far as I recall from his biography Peel discovered the Misunderstood when he was in the US, was instrumental in bringing them to the UK, let them live in his house etc and was generally their #1 fan for a while.

― everything, Saturday, November 10, 2018 11:06 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

mother's house and they had to hang around for a couple of days or something before they could get in. Been a while since i read the story but it's something about them being dropped off with all their equipment they were travelling with and nobody being home but them being forced to wait. Mother who doesn't know they're coming is off elsewhere.

listening to one of peel's mid '70s shows is a wonderful experience - i wish there were more of them about! there's one from late 1973 where he opens up with "jet" by paul mccartney and wings, and immediately thereafter plays the entirety of "the heavenly music corporation". backwards! i don't know who his audience were, if he was just playing bridget st. john to amuse himself, if some of the audience may have liked some of the stuff he liked just because he liked it. anyway there's a breadth to his djing that makes it worth listening to today. there's one twelve minute span where he plays bridget st. john and some '70s jazz-rock, i don't know isotope or something, bridged by a jump blues from an lp dodgy enough that he apologizes in advance if it skips (it doesn't).

(by the way after "the heavenly music corporation" is over he plays "maybe i'm amazed")

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Went with the Stones

yeah yeah yeah

Roadrunner
Echos
Whole Lotta Love
And You And I

would round out my top 5

I still love All Along the Watchtower.

^^ my vote

Huh. Do you know what's odd about this list? No Velvet Underground.

J. Richman is there I presume because people were turned on by the Pistols but no VU is notable imo.

Oh, as was mentioned above.

So many great songs here

What a weird Captain Beefheart pick, there’s at least 3 better CB songs in that album alone (too much time, low yo yo stuff, her eyes are a million miles, sun zoom spark) but it’s still an awesome song so voted for that one. Little Feat could have been a second choice.

Uh, that really is not a weird Captain Beefheart pick!

Yeah you’re right, it’s one of the best on the album and it’s the one that most resembles trout mask... I guess it always felt odd for me inside clear spot. I still love it though and voted for it.

I think it's his best known and most celebrated song - apart from, probably, "Electricity"? Or maybe that's John Peel's influence on me.

On spotify it’s not in the top 20... “her eyes”, “too much time”, “my head is my only house”, “low yo yo stuff” from clear spot are there. Spotify is missing a couple of albums, but clear spot is in there.

In last.fm it’s also not in the top 20, barely makes the top 50.

https://www.last.fm/music/Captain+Beefheart+&+His+Magic+Band/+tracks?date_preset=ALL

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Voted Cortez

What is it with the no VU on this list? And no Bowie? Is it the people voting in 76? I guess this was fairly prime time Radio 1 - didn't Peel go out between 7 and 9 pm at this time?

Is it homophobia? I know there's a thing people say about the VU being relatively unknown in their time, but this is overstated by 76, isn't it? Bowie played WLWH live in 71 or 72. The image of Lou Reed in these people's minds was, I guess, him in make-up on the cover of Transformer - which was a big seller in the UK - what going on? Was this list voted for by a bunch of Clarksons?

http://peel.wikia.com/wiki/1976_Festive_Fifty

The available recordings shed instructive light on the demography of the list. For instance, one recurring feature was the ability of bands who had made only a few recordings to be more likely to be higher placed than artists with a wealth of back catalogue. John remarks that votes for the Who were spread over a wide number of tracks.

could be a factor?

What is it with the no VU on this list? And no Bowie? Is it the people voting in 76? I guess this was fairly prime time Radio 1 - didn't Peel go out between 7 and 9 pm at this time?

I think his show was always from 10 to midnight? Re: Bowie/VU, I would imagine his audience at the time was mainly older 'serious music' fans and hippies, who had little time for glam rock or anything connected with glam - no Roxy on the list either. Their younger siblings, or even children, were probably Bowie fans, about to embrace punk rock.

was the Jonathan Richman version of Roadrunner more popular than the Modern Lovers version in 1976? I'd've gone with the Modern Lovers myself

According to Wiki the Modern Lovers version was released in August 1976, don't know whether that means including the UK, the Jonathan Richman version was released in 1975.

... on "Beserkley Chartbusters Vol. 1".

I think the Modern Lovers LP did come out in the UK then as well

I suppose when they released both versions as a single in 1977 they put the Jonathan Richman version on the A side, so maybe that was the better known version at the time, I get the sense people know the Modern Lovers better nowadays though

Modern Lovers version for the punk rockers, J. Richman version for Bob Harris clones.