Laura Cantrell –Lee Harvey Was A Friend Of
Mine-Live at Peel Acres (8 May 2003)
John Peel:
“...the thing is, I’ve been talking an awful lot and, er, putting in
extra records and stuff, and er, so we’re slightly running out of time and I
know you’ve got to get somewhere…and all
of the band and so on, erm, so perhaps if you’ll do your last number
next, is that o.k.?”
Laura Cantrell: “Sure, we’d love to do
that.”
John Peel: “O.k., o.k., so you can go and
relax or whatever.”
Laura
Cantrell: “That would be great. (Pauses).You know John, we were going to do a
song for you that, erm, might connect with your past history a little bit...”
John Peel: “You’ll never walk alone?”
(Sound of laughter)
Laura Cantrell: “No, since you’re running
out of time I won’t go into it too much, it’s called “Lee Harvey Was a Friend
of Mine”.
John Peel: ”O.k. o.k…” (fades)
Song starts.
There’ll be
plenty in here, both written and implied, about the massive influence that John
Peel has had not only on my musical preferences, but also on football,
politics, art-a whole myriad of things. For instance, I don’t really think that
I would have ever have gone to Glastonbury if I didn’t know that John Peel
loved the place. But a great man deserves a considered and carefully
thought-out appreciation. At a suitable point I think I will dedicate a days’
worth of writing on Peel. I need to mull it over in advance however to do it
justice.
Today, though I
will write about Laura Cantrell and this song (and by default), something more
about John Peel. It was recorded at Peel’s house (“Peel Acres”) in 2003, later
on in his radio career when trips to London to record the show became
problematic because of health reasons; he had been diagnosed later in life with
diabetes. So this explains the chat before and after the song with Laura
Cantrell. It also goes to show Peel’s influence upon me. Without John Peel I
would never have heard of Laura Cantrell; and certainly would never begun to
appreciate country music or early jazz. I wouldn’t have heard Laura Cantrell’s
excellent radio show on WFMU org, “Radio Thrift Shop”. She hasn’t hosted her
weekly show regularly for a few years, but it’s all archived on their website ready to
listen to at will. She is not only a great singer-I love her voice- but an
excellent broadcaster as well. Her style is so laid back that it’s worth
listening to for that alone. Sometimes, after a song has finished, you think that the station has gone off air
before she starts chatting.
Like all skilled broadcasters, (John Peel, Alastair
Cooke), she has an ability to sound as if she is speaking directly to you and
you alone- just chatting really. Her show usually starts with a sequence of
about 20-30 minutes of music before she takes to the mic. Like Peel, she has a
genuine love of music, and is so enthusiastic about sharing it. Whether it is
old 78 country tunes or pre-war jazz. Interspersed with the music is Laura
Cantrell chatting about local things as well (weather, traffic, events etc).
Who’d have thought that you’d be able to listen to this music broadcast from
New York to Liverpool 4 in the comfort of your front room without boxes and
boxes of radio ham equipment?
However, as I
mentioned, Laura Cantrell is a great singer as well- and her relaxed, conversational style as a D.J. comes
across when she picks up a song. Any one of her albums are worth hearing; I
couldn’t recommend one over another. This track though, is from an early mini
album, “The Hello Recordings”, and in this instance she is playing it live. It
is, as can be inferred from the title, about Lee Harvey Oswald, and is written
from the point-of-view of a fictional 12 year-old from Dallas. This child is
full of disbelief, “...he used to take me fishing…they say he shot the
President...Lee Harvey was friend of mine.” It is a well -crafted song and like
a good short story, is written from an unexpected viewpoint. With her
matter-of-fact voice Laura Cantrell carries it off well.
(The link with
John Peel is that in 1963 he was working as a D.J. for a local station in
Dallas, WRR. On the day off Oswald’s arraignment-and subsequent shooting by
Jack Ruby- he worked his way into the hearing on the pretence of being English
that he was a reporter for the Liverpool Echo. There is newsreel footage of a
very young John Peel as Oswald was led away just before he was shot dead. He
also met JFK on a couple of occasions).
Song ends.
Applause.
John Peel: “Somewhere in this house is the
video that has Harvey Oswald and me in the same frame and…who wrote that song?”
Laura Cantrell: “You know, I’m not actually
sure who wrote that song, it was done by a guy called Homer Henderson who was a
street musician, from, I think, Texas in the 80’s so..”
John Peel: “Well, o.k. Thanks very much for
doing it and thanks very much for coming along and I hope that you do this
again, it’s been a treat.”
Laura Cantrell: “John, we’ll be here any
time you ask us.”
More applause.
John Peel: “Another great night at Peel
Acres.”
Laura Cantrell
recorded one more session for John Peel at his Christmas show at Peel Acres on
23rd December 2003. He sadly died on 25 October 2004 whilst on a
working trip in Peru.
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