VA - John Peel: A Tribute (2005)

Since you're reading Pitchfork, I assume you have an idea of who the late, great John Peel was. And if you know who Peel is, you also know that as a "tribute to John Peel", this two-disc set is kind of wanting. Maybe if they had titled it A Hipster-Approved Guide to John Peel I'd be more sympathetic. Because Peel was as famous for his "bad" taste as his "good." Yes, he loved Joy Division, made a cause out of the Fall, and recorded a session for nearly every indie rock band of note during his too-short time on this earth. But when in doubt, Peel would play a happy hardcore record-- and not ironically.

Peel was infamous as the man who took grindcore to the masses, when it was still just a bunch of spotty teenagers showing off for their friends in a northern pub. And he loved it not only for the humor inherent in seconds-long songs like Napalm Death's "You Suffer", but because it seemed like a direct extension of his love for punk rock. He tried to bring acid house to his listeners when they were otherwise getting a steady diet of the Wedding Present. (He tried to do the same a few years later with jungle when his audience preferred Britpop.) He was once asked by critic David Stubbs which he preferred, Joy Division or the shambling Bogshed-- a band arguably no one but Peel listeners remember-- and he replied "Bogshed." And he wasn't kidding. Even up to the end, he was giving equal time in his famous sessions to Soundmurderer, the Bug, and Hot Snakes.

As music, of course, you can't fault this record. (That's what happens when you get to cherry-pick the best records from a four-decade broadcasting career.) And though it does flag a little bit by the end-- sorry Delgados, you were no Jimi Hendrix, don't feel too bad about it-- there are only a handful of songs that are less than great. Arranged more or less chronologically, you can almost imagine parents and their disaffected teenagers bonding over it, Dad and daughter swapping Faces for Super Furry Animals. It'd be a veritable fucking WB moment.

Peel got his start on pirate radio in the 1960s, and that's where the collection begins as well. A goodly chunk of the first disc is straight off of classic rock radio. David Bowie's "Life on Mars?" and the Doors' "Five to One" jostle for space with non-King Biscuit Flour Hour staples like Captain Beefheart's still jaw-dropping "Big Eyed Beans From Venus" ("Mr. Zoot Horn Rollo, hit that long, lunar note") and T.Rex's "Debora" (watch the scales fall from the eyes of the young Devendra fan in your life). Try not to choke up a little bit during Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren". Punk is represented by sprinkling of Big Names like the Clash and (of course) Joy Div.

Peel's fave song of all time, the Undertones' "Teenage Kicks", kicks off the second disc. This one comes off more like the March of Britpop (Slight Return), stretching from the Smiths to Pulp, taking in both the populist (Blur's "Song 2") and anti-populist (Billy Bragg's surprisingly enjoyable "A New England"). Peel's deep, abiding love for all forms of Jamaican music is reduced to one song, Culture's "Lionrock". Likewise, apparently Orbital's "Chime" is our representative electronic dance record. This is not to say the disc isn't rotten with good music-- reinsert my comments Re:Tim Buckley for Robert Wyatt's "Shipbuilding"-- it's just a little...uniform.

Maybe a disc where Extreme Noise Terror was butting against the Soft Machine was butting against 808 State wouldn't work from a salability perspective, but that's not what Peel's shows sounded like, nor why he broadcast. While John Peel: A Tribute is 40 tracks of lovely, listenable music, I can't help thinking Peel would view it with a bit of suspicion. But then, he'd probably view any kind of tribute to his humble self with a bit of suspicion. He was just a guy who played records for a living, after all. ~ by Jess Harvell Contributor