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The Pope Smokes Dope is the third album by David Peel and The Lower East Side, released on April 17, 1972 through Apple Records.
Peel, along with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, performed Peel's "The Ballad of New York", on The David Frost Show, with Lennon playing tea-chest bass. The trio, joined by The Lower East Side Band, played several songs by Lennon and Ono. This episode was recorded on December 16, 1971 and broadcast on January 13, 1972.
Formed to support David Peel in 1967, the Lower East Side Band originally consisted of Harold C. Black and Billy Joe White. They soon became popular enough in New York City's then thriving downtown counterculture that they were signed to Elektra Records in 1968. With the addition of Larry Adam and George Cori to the line-up, the band recorded with David Peel on the Have a Marijuana album conceptualized by Danny Fields as a collection of drinking songs for pot smokers.
In 1970 The Lower East Side Band recorded their second album, The American Revolution, which was also released by Elektra Records (now part of Warner Music Group) on the Sire Records imprint. In 1971, after the record was released and the band toured in support of it, Harold C. Black and Billy Joe White left to form the glitter rock band Teenage Lust. Harold went on run New York City's after-hours nightclub the 210 Club. They were replaced by Tommy Doyle, Frank Lanci and Billy Minelli. In the mid-seventies, the Lower East Side band was produced by its long-time friend and admirer John Lennon for Apple Records. Lennon then produced David Peel's The Pope Smokes Dope, which was banned in several countries outside the United States and Canada.
The Pope Smokes Dope managed to push the buttons of almost everyone in authority around the world back in 1972, with the result that it was ultimately banned almost everywhere except the United States, Canada, and Japan. David Peel & the Lower East Side open the album with the upbeat "Everybody's Smoking Marijuana" - which starts out with a goof/homage to Country Joe & the Fish - and the vicious Merle Haggard/"Okie from Muskogee" parody/answer song "The Hippie from New York City," both still as laugh-out-loud funny in the 21st century as they were back when, and leading into the catchy and delightful "Ballad of New York City."
And from there, listeners plunge into a phantasmagoria of countercultural images, sensibilities, phrases, and humor, and this album is arguably the finest piece of musical agitprop ever to emerge from the '60s counterculture (even if it took till 1972 to appear). Under John Lennon and Yoko Ono's production, Peel is presented without compromise with the most rudimentary of guitar and percussion accompaniment, none of it amplified, yet it does hold together as a coherent and cohesive statement, musical and otherwise.
It's funny where it should be, serious in all the right places, scary sometimes, and the result is a listening experience that's ultimately laugh-provoking and savage. Some elements of the album recall Lennon and Ono's Sometime in New York City, but there's a much greater resemblance to the Country Joe & the Fish Rag Baby EPs from mid-'60s Berkeley, only with some more subtle edges and quietly sophisticated attributes - and other parts of this album will recall the work of rival/contemporary Lower East Side denizens the Fugs.
Perhaps the high point (so to speak) is "F Is Not a Dirty Word," in which Peel goes through the origins and usages of the word in question, and he's not only etymologically correct throughout but musically adept and engaging - and damned funny. And he almost tops himself with "The Birth Control Blues," an account of youthful ingenuity and improvisation concerning the subject at hand set in an early-'60s rock idiom -- specifically recalling "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" - that evolves into a stunning spoken word piece with musical accompaniment.
And after all of that, "The Pope Smokes Dope" is almost anticlimactic, except that it's so outrageous a song and filled with such irreverent conceits that it carries listeners to the end successfully.
01. "I'm a Runaway" - 3:39
02. "Everybody's Smoking Marijuana" - 4:06
03. "F Is Not a Dirty Word" - 3:12
04. "The Hippie from New York City" - 3:01
05. "McDonald's Farm" - 3:13
06. "The Ballad of New York City/John Lennon • Yoko Ono" - 3:19
07. "The Ballad of Bob Dylan" - 4:12
08. "The Chicago Conspiracy" - 3:47
09. "The Hip Generation" - 1:50
10. "I'm Gonna Start Another Riot" - 2:37
11. "The Birth Control Blues" - 4:48
12. "The Pope Smokes Dope" - 2:15
Bonus Tracks
13. "Amerika" with Yoko Ono – 4:15
14. "How Did You Meet David Peel?" interview with John Lennon – 2:07
15. "Everybody's Smokin'" (Remix) – 7:41
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Size: 92.2 MB
Bitrate: 320
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Source: Japan SHM-CD Remaster
Throughout 1965, the Revue promoted their music on rock and roll-themed musical variety series such as American Bandstand, Hollywood A Go-Go and Shindig! as well as the concert film The Big T.N.T. Show. In addition to deals with Kent, Warner and Loma, the Revue would record for seven other labels in a five-year period, through 1969.
The Turners' lack of a hit single was sometimes blamed on Ike Turner's limited facility in the studio. With Krasnow, however, that changed. Hit producer Phil Spector soon called Krasnow asking him if he could produce for Ike and Tina, to which Krasnow agreed.[20] Spector paid over $25,000 for the right to record with them, with the intent on creating his "biggest hit".
Tina recorded the Ellie Greenwich/Jeff Barry composition "River Deep – Mountain High" in late 1965. Released in 1966, the song failed to become a hit in the United States. However, in Europe, the song became a hit, reaching the top three in the United Kingdom. Its UK success prompted Spector to state in interviews, "Benedict Arnold was quite a guy", in regards to the United States' indifferent reaction to the song. Later that year, The Rolling Stones offered Ike and Tina a chance to be one of their opening acts on their fall tour in the United Kingdom, which they accepted. The duo took the opportunity afterwards to book themselves tours all over Europe and Australia where they attracted audiences. The audiences' appreciation of the band's sound stunned Ike Turner, who noted that "there wasn't anything like my show."
Following this, the band returned to the United States in demand despite not having a big hit. By 1968, they were performing and headlining in Las Vegas. That year, they signed with Blue Thumb Records and released the first of two albums with them, the first of which, Outta Season, included their modest hit cover of "I've Been Loving You Too Long" (a song originally sung and written by Otis Redding). The second Blue Thumb release, The Hunter, followed in 1969, and included their modest hit cover of the Albert King hit as well as an original composition titled "Bold Soul Sister".
Tina's rendition of "The Hunter" led to the singer receiving her first solo Grammy nomination in 1970. Prior to the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, Ike had lived a teetotal, drug and alcohol free life. Following the success of the Revue, however, Ike began smoking marijuana and, later, cocaine, after being introduced the drug by, he says, "two famous Las Vegas headliners". In 1968, after another violent confrontation with Ike, Tina bought 50 Valiums and swallowed them all in an attempt to end her life before a show in Los Angeles; Tina eventually recovered.
A second opening spot on The Rolling Stones' American tour in November 1969 made Ike and Tina a hot item. During that period, the group was reassigned to Liberty Records after Minit Records was shut down. In 1970, the Revue released the album, Come Together. The title track, a cover of the famed Beatles song, charted, as did their cover of Sly and the Family Stone's "I Want to Take You Higher", which became their first top 40 pop song in eight years, peaking at #25, placing several spots higher than Sly's original had done months earlier. The album would sell a quarter of a million copies. That same year, Ike and Tina appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Their successful records and increasing popularity with mainstream audiences increased their nightly fee, going from $1,000 a night to $5,000 a night.
Late in 1970, the band recorded their cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary". The song was released the following January and became the duo's best-selling single to date, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and selling well over a million copies, later winning them a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. The song's parent album, Workin' Together, became their most successful studio release, peaking at #25 on the Billboard 200. Later in 1971, a live album, Live at Carnegie Hall: What You Hear Is What You Get, was released, later being certified gold in the U.S.
That year, they were reassigned to Liberty's parent label, United Artists Records, after Liberty folded, releasing their later albums on United Artists. Ike Turner later bought his own studio, naming it Bolic Sound, in 1972, where they would record the rest of their material. In 1973, the duo released the hit "Nutbush City Limits", which reached #25 in the U.S. and #4 in the UK. The duo's work on their 1974 album, The Gospel According to Ike & Tina, led to the duo receiving several Grammy nominations. One of the Turners' final R&B hits together was a funk oriented single titled "Sexy Ida (Pt. 1)".
Between 1972 and 1975, Ike and Tina also released either solo or side projects, with Ike producing three albums of material with his band The Family Vibes (formerly the Kings of Rhythm). Tina relied on outside production on her first two albums, Tina Turns the Country On and Acid Queen. The former album, consisting of country songs, resulted in Tina receiving her second Grammy solo nomination, while the latter album was released to build on the hype of Tina's well received performance in the musical film version of The Who's Tommy.
01. Come Together 03.45
02. It Ain't Right (Lovin' To Be Lovin') 02.38
03. Too Much Woman (For A Henpecked Man) 02.37
04. Unlucky Creature 02.27
05. Young And Dumb 02.55
06. Honky Tonk Woman 03.12
07. Why Can't We Be Happy 03.57
08. Contact High 02.18
09. Keep On Walkin' (Don't Look Back) 02.14
10. I Want To Take You Higher
11. Evil Man 03.30
12. Doin' It 02.43
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