Sunday, September 23, 2012

Annette Peacock



A pretty amazing reissue of Annette Peacock's 1971 album I'm the One landed in my inbox a month or so ago. Peacock was right in the thick of the counterculture. Her husband, bassist Gary Peacock, played with Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and SOnny Rollins. She herself toured with Albert Ayler and dropped acid with Timothy Leary.

I've been getting a lot of long-lost 1970s female records lately, and I have to say, this one is so, so, so different from the airy-fairy, hippie princess stuff that started surfacing during Vashti Bunyan's second run. Peacock sings from the gut. She is more influenced by jazz and blues than anything else, and her work is chilling and brave and not anything like what you expect (even after you've heard a couple of tracks, she is fully capable of surprising you on the next one).

Anyway, here's some footage of her performing in her heyday.




And here is a link to the CD Baby page for I'm the One, a recording The Wire included on its list of "Albums that Set the World on Fire" at #5.

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