NOT FOR SALE
LINER NOTES

It all started back in 1965 when Arlis and I walked into a small record shop in Council Bluffs, Iowa, with two guitars, an amp, AND…a couple of monster hit songs we had just written. Ha ha ha. We were 14 yrs old! Ok wait…actually, let’s cut back to the real beginning.

In 1957, I was six years old, and I lived on a farm in Iowa. I used to play with a kid named Arlis.  I don’t really remember much of that, but I was told by my older sister that “we were always together” because he lived next door, just past the plum orchard. We both went to the same two room school named “Rainbow School,” until Arlis moved to the city a couple of years later.

THE SCHOOL YEARS

I had to say goodbye to my friend Larry when my mother and I moved to the big city of Council Bluffs. There I went to Longfellow Elementary School and in the 5 th grade the school started busing in kids who still lived out in the country.

In gym class one day, I met one of those new kids named Larry and we got to talking. We both hated gym class and, “WHAT??? You play MUSIC??” Well…that was that!

We got together a few times after school to play music and one night, Larry called me and asked if I had ever lived out in the country. I said, “Yea why?” He said his mom told him there used to be a family named “Peach” that lived down the road from us.  Really? “Oh my God”..I said….”do you have an older sister named Caroline??” I do.. he said.

And that’s when it hit me… this is the kid I played with when I was 5 or 6 out in the country. I remembered because I had this huge crush on his older sister. and you never forget your first love. So…the truth was, we hadn’t just met…we had been reunited after 5 or 6 years!

In no time Larry and I hatched this brilliant plan to extend our music time together. I would stay home from school (sick of course) and Larry would bring his guitar and amp with him on the bus to school, get off the bus and then walk to my house. With my mom at work, we had the house to ourselves, and would play and listen to music all day! It was perfect. What did we need school for anyway? … We were gonna be songwriters…right? Right.

Of course, the school eventually caught on and one afternoon there was a knock on my door. We peaked out the window and… Oh man we’re busted…big time! It was the school principal (Mr. G) who sarcastically asked “If Larry and I thought we would be coming back to school anytime soon?” Ouch. Well the truth was we “Got Shot by rock-n-roll and the wounds don’t heal.” (refer to Side 2 track 7)

WRITING AND RECORDING

In those days, Arlis and I would spent most of our time listening to records and learning new chords. We had both written bits and pieces of songs on our own, but now together we were writing whole songs with intros, bridges and breaks. Singing and Songwriting became our passion and from then on, nothing else really mattered. As far as our vocal harmonies? We never really worked on that. It was just a given and came naturally.

Before long Arlis and I got our very first chance to record two of our songs. We heard about a place in town where we could get an acetate record made. Wow!, We begged our friends and parents to come up with the necessary funds.  It was $30 an hour In 1965, and for $15 we recorded two songs, “Why Won’t You Dance With Me” along with “It’s So Easy.”  (reluctantly included Side 4 Trk 6 & 7)

So, there we were, standing in a tiny room – no bigger than a broom closet – with two guitars and an amp; crowded around a microphone singing and playing “live” what we thought, were the first in a string of hits!. It was a single track mono recording and It was epic!! (at least for us) We went into that tiny studio as Arlis and Larry but we came out as Peach and Lee.

After that, normalcy and education were firmly in the rear-view mirror.  I moved in with Arlis and his mom after my family moved from our farm to Nebraska.  We were writing and recording every chance we got but when Arlis’ mom bought us a used two-track reel-to-reel recorder, we quickly got better at recording.  Our focus, however, was to record our songs in REAL studios and to make REAL records.

“ONE OF MANY… BOTTOM LINES”

Larry and I focused more on writing and recording than any other aspect of music but of course we also played the club scene, the biker bars, the state fairs, auditoriums, rented halls and festivals. Even did a Lounge Lizard circuit or two. (don’t ask) If we didn’t have a full band we would play as a duo in pizza parlors and the like. We were quite familiar with Road Food and Road Rot… but always, always looking for the next recording studio on the horizon.

Peach and Lee would go anywhere to record.  Three songs here, four songs there, another five somewhere else.  From live recordings in my mothers living room (Side 1 trk 6) to Sound City in Los Angeles.. From RCA Studios East and West to The Record Plant. We even drove my 61’ VW down to Houston, Texas. in the middle of summer (without air) to record just 3 songs. (Side 2 trk 5 – Side 3 trk 7- Side 4 trk 1) Yep.. we were certifiable and we never looked back.

Truth is, there were so many independent studios and so many people that helped us over the years, that sadly neither one of us can remember them all. So.. to any and all who believed in us, this album is for you.  And ya know. what?..Larry and I had a saying way back in the day…”Peach and Lee Forever” and I’ll be damned, 50 years later it’s still holding true. Why? Because music truly is timeless.

Barbara van Leeuwen Lee
“All My Love, All My Life”
-Larry

PEACH & LEE
NOT FOR SALE 1965-1975