Stream the Complete John Peel Library

Music blogs are all about bringing you the newest music without a lot of commercial influence.  How do you think that happened 50 years ago though?  Most radio stations (by my opinion) were operated by the machine, but there were a few pirate radio stations out there that made sure you were able to make your own choice about music (Insert Pump Up The Volume joke here).

Well, that is just what England’s John Robert Parker Ravenscroft did.  You may know him better as iconic BBC DJ John Peel, but, before John Peel played whatever he wanted on the BBC, he dedicated his life to underground music when he started at Radio London in 1967.  That love and appreciation of music continued right up until his death in 2004.

So, why am I waxing on about some old British “pre-blogger”?  Because some lovely chap named “+dB” has cataloged all 458 of Peel’s shows into one Soundcloud player.  There is some truly amazing shit in there, but you’ll just have to be patient to find it all.  Sit back and relax for a month and half, or just check back from time to time when you have a second.  You can also read about the upcoming project to turn his entire record collection (which is a staggering 25,000 LP’s, 40,000 singles, and many, many thousands of CDs) into an interactive museum.

Ok, so this is daunting.  Perhaps, you want to narrow it down to the Top 125, or only focus on the 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s, or 2000’s.  You can also browse by artist.  Play around and have a good time rolling through this museum of musical history.

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