I love this song. I think it’s the best thing both Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello have ever done, the best song Lowe has ever written and produced (for EC), and the best recording EC and the Attractions have ever made. But I could never work out if the lyrics are to be taken at face value or if they are ironical. Just reading the lyrics, you have to assume that it’s a straightforward plea for typical ideals the hippies held, but you can’t be sure with people like Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello. Brinsley Schwarz, Lowe’s band he first recorded it with in 1974, was an important part of the British pub rock scene, a scene that explicitly went against the extravaganzas of the hippies and their music, and it was the precursor of the punk and new wave movement that followed which was even more anti-hippie. Apart from that, it’s hard to name two songwriters more cynical and sarcastic than Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello, EC was THE angry young man of new wave.
So, what did they want to express with this song: to be taken at face value (and thus confusing their fan base? EC is known to be fond of “biting the hand that feeds him”), a parody of the hippie stance or something else I haven’t figured out yet? Or is it just meant to be ambiguous and confuse guys like me?
My opinion is that it’s meant to be taken at face value. I feel they were saying that there are some things in life that you shouldn’t be cynical or ironic about.
Just reading the title, you might assume this, but pretty much all the rest of the lyrics besides the title line are pretty pessimistic and desperate.
I think it’s significant that the song is the album closer on Costello’s Armed Forces. It could be seen as a reaction to or reflection on the themes of the album. And if you’re going to be sincere, the last song on the album is the place to do it.
As I walk through this wicked world
Searchin’ for light in the darkness of insanity
I ask myself, is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?
And each time I feel like this inside
There’s one thing I wanna know
What’s so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding? Oh
What’s so funny 'bout peace love and understanding?
Was it even on the first editions of the album? The EC version first came out as a B side on Lowe’s single “American Squirm” and AFAIK was only later added as a bonus track to the album. Maybe that differed between the UK and American editions.
Modnote: I snipped out most of the lyrics. It exceeded fair use by quite an amount. Please be careful to post copyrighted material in excess of fair use.
Another vote for ‘straightforward plea, to be taken at face value’. No matter how cynical and angry you are, you can’t be cynical and angry about everything. There have to be some values you uphold unironically, unless you’re just a jerk masquerading as a hip, cynical angry musician.
I’m not in a position to check at the moment, but by way of adding just something material, I believe the original B-side is credited to Nick Lowe And His Sound.
Agree with Thudlow. I think it’s to be taken at face value, but I don’t see it as a plea to follow these ideals. No where does he say we should have more PL&U, it’s just a cynical commentary that these ideals are treated like a joke.
I challenge anyone to point to a single line that has any hint of hope. [full lyrics here]
Lowe has described ‘Peace, Love and Understanding’ as “the first actual original [song] idea that I had”. He wrote it at a time when “a mass of hippies were leaving the cult in droves and rediscovering booze, alcohol, amphetamine and, I suppose, cocaine. There was this new cynicism.” He placed himself into that category, and thus the song took “the point of view of an old hippie, seeing his commune leaving and starting to cut their hair and make fun of him. And he was saying, ‘You can laugh at me all you like, but what’s so funny about peace, love and understanding? You can’t argue with it.’”
