Private Eye

Private Eye is a fortnightly satirical magazine, published in the UK since 1961. Its current editor (since 1985) is Ian Hislop. It invariably targets those in authority or having power with the aim of deflating pomposity and cant. Originally started as an offshoot of the satire boom by Oxford University graduates and as an extension of a magazine in Peel's alma mater Shrewsbury, it has gained a reputation of being a thorn in the side of the establishment and for attracting lawsuits with predictable regularity. It is willing to be as rude about itself as those it lampoons, and also features serious investigative journalism. One of their book reviews heavily criticised Mick Wall's Peel biography. 

Peel was a victim both in print and on record. A regular feature of the magazine was a cover-mounted flexidisc which just about skirted the censorship laws of the time by satirising public figures under fictitious guises such as Spiggy Topes and the Turds, which was a thinly disguised portrayal of John Lennon. However, a 1970 edition, Just For The Record, actually referred to Peel, Lennon and Yoko Ono by name and parodied the 11 December 1968 show. As usual, long-time patron and contributor Peter Cook impersonated some of the characters, even though Cook and Lennon were good friends: below is a transcription of the piece, subtitled The Loneliness Of The Long-Playing Record (a reference to Alan Sillitoe's book The Loneliness Of The Long-Distance Runner).

BBC Announcer: "But first the news, read by John Peel." JP: "Well, nothing much has happened really, friend. What I'd like to do for you now is play a bit of a record that John and Yoko, or as we know her, Okay Yoni, have made of their new film, which I think could spread some very good vibrations. (raspberry sound) Tell me John, is it your deep concern about peace and all those very important things, or is it the macrobiotic diet that's sparked off that great new sound?" Lennon: "No man, you got it wrong, because what we're doing basically is just taking Buddha's Veda and turning it upside down or not. I mean, like Beethoven, he was just a con, like Hunter Davies, he just did it for the bread. I mean, Beethoven just did his LPs as a joke." JP: "Right, I think that's very right, John." Lennon: "Right, and don't as me any more questions man, because I can't think properly since I gave up drugs." Ono: "Ying a yang." JP: "Right John, and thank you Yoko, and this is their new sound. I hope you like it: it's very boring and very dull, but I think it's extremely genuine. Right."

(What follows is a kind of hippy anthem to the tune of Beethoven's 5th Symphony.)

JP: "You may think it's a lot of old cock, man, but that's your hang-up."