It was supposed to be a joke.
“This song was supposed to be an old hippie,” Nick Lowe told A.V. Club in 2011, “laughed at by the new thinking, saying to these new smarty-pants types: ‘Look, you think you got it all going on. You can laugh at me, but all I’m saying is what’s so funny about peace, love, and understanding?'”
But as he started to write it, the song’s refrain struck him as too important to laugh off. “Something told me there was a little grain of wisdom in this thing,” he said in the same interview, “and not to mess it up.”
He didn’t.
Lowe played it straight and earnest when he recorded “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” with his band Brinsley Schwarz in early 1974. Although subsequent covers would prove more popular, Lowe’s original version remains (IMHO) the definitive version of the song.
That original version never charted, but it won over at least one notable Brinsley Schwarz fan: a young Elvis Costello, who loved the song every time he heard the band play it live.
After Brinsley Schwarz went their separate ways, Lowe went solo as a recording artist and produced Costello’s first five studio LPs. Elvis’ albums contained only self-written material, but he couldn’t abide letting “Peace, Love and Understanding” waste away in obscurity. He asked Lowe if he could take a crack at it, and Lowe not only obliged but produced the track.
Costello’s version is faster and more aggressive, less jangly but just as earnest. Neither Lowe nor Costello ever expected it to become a hit, which is why Costello released it as a B-side… and not even his own. Elvis Costello and The Attractions released their version of “Peace, Love and Understanding” as the B-side of Lowe’s 1978 single, “American Squirm,” and credited themselves on the label as “Nick Lowe and His Sound.”
When Costello’s version quickly became a hit, he appended it to his third album, Armed Forces, where it was discovered by American fans. It gained even wider exposure when Costello released an early music video on U.K. television in 1979.
Costello’s version rescued “Peace, Love and Understanding” from obscurity. In the more than four decades since, it’s been covered by countless artists. Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Midnight Oil, Sharon Van Etten, Sheryl Crow, Natalie Merchant, Curtis Stigers, Chris Cornell, The Wallflowers, Keb’ Mo’, Steve Earle, and Simple Minds all put their own stamp on Lowe’s anthem at one time or another.
And then of course, there’s Bruce Springsteen.
Springsteen first performed “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” as an encore during his Asbury Park holiday shows in 2003, where he was joined at the mic one evening by Jon Bon Jovi.
Lowe’s song was still on Bruce’s mind ten months later when he was recruited as a headliner for the ill-fated Vote for Change Tour. Each night of the tour, “Peace, Love and Understanding” reprised its role as the evening’s penultimate number, and each night Bruce was joined at the mic by his co-starring artists.
John Fogerty was on stage for every performance, and R.E.M. and Conor Oberst on most nights. The Chicks (still known as Dixie), Jackson Browne, and Eddie Vedder joined in a couple of times. Neil Young and Tracy Chapman each made a single guest appearance.
But it was the televised tour finale that set the high-watermark, when Springsteen, Fogerty, Vedder, Browne, R.E.M. and The Chicks were joined by John Mellencamp, Bonnie Raitt, Dave Matthews, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Keb’ Mo’, James Taylor, and Jurassic 5 for a team-up to end all team-ups.
“Peace, Love and Understanding” was an apt clarion call for a concert aimed at galvanizing eligible voters. As civic activism, the tour was a failure–but that only made the song’s inclusion all the more important. Bruce would perform it only twice more (in a pair of post-election holiday shows), but the song’s theme would inform Bruce’s message the next time he took the E Street Band on the road.
And that time, Americans would vote for change.
(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding
First performed: December 5, 2003 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: December 19, 2004 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Thanks for another great post!
Speaking of the covers, Nick Lowe has said that “Elvis really put the hurt in it”, and that Costello’s is the definitive version. There’s a GREAT clip of Elvis sitting in for Letterman, introducing himself, then jumping out and playing THE most incendiary version of PL&U I’ve ever heard! Also, Nick Lowe has half-jokingly stated that he sends Curtis Stingers a Christmas basket every year, because the Stingers recording utilized on The Bodyguard soundtrack, which sold millions, is what gave Nick the royalty windfall needed to comfortably continue his career!
Oh, ‘Armed Forces’ was Elvis Costello’s third album ( though second with The Attractions as his backing band.)
Thanks for the catch, Lee! I just corrected the article.
oh, one more thing to share (I love when your posts send me down a rabbit hole!) – a lot to be said for the more plaintive way Nick Lowe performs the song in more recent years –
correction of link (sorry!)
John Lennon liked the song and mentioned the EC version in one of his last interviews.