I was always a pretty good student, but hung out with a couple of geeky, smarter than shit guys who worshipped Elvis Costello. I could keep a beat on the drums but couldn't compete on an academic level with these guys. And they could play guitar! Go figure, Years down the road, I love Costello more than ever and they're both gone.
And what's so wrong with questioning things? They're both rolling over in their graves over everything from lewinsky to iraq.
Wish I'd known then how much this music would mean to me now.
Thanks, Dennis!
Miss You!

Guess you had to live thru the 70's/80's to appriciate it!!!

mojoman wrote:

Oh, well, write off another once-great station...

rulebritannia wrote:

Perfectly put - He's often considered a bit 'cranky' but this shows how he can really belt it.

Zarba wrote:

Actually, HFS is now a Spanish-language station. Go figure!

Logical wrote:

Unfortunately, WHFS has become just another generic "alternative" station. Alternative to what, I can't quite tell.

Crank it!

trancefussion wrote:

Put down the crack pipe, you dope.

Logical wrote:

Dude, this is no joke.
100!

I thought I had already commented on this. See below. Yep, one of my favorites...what is just so funny about it? Does someone think it is a joke? I don't doubt it.

Ok folks, this is one of my absolute favorites. Back in the days (1977-78) I lived in D.C. (Vienna, actually) and we had a station..HFS "Home Grown" station...and no one was playing Elvis Costello, but they were. Still just one of those I want to turn up the volume on.

radiojunkie wrote:

Compression and equalization. Too bad isn't it! Elvis at his peak.......

The only thing I've always wondered about is why does this recording have such a muddy mix to it? It's very similar to Elton John's "Philadelphia Freedom" in that regard, and the Elton John/John Lennon/Harry Nilsson "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" -- all high-energy, high-volume numbers that, for some reason, sound like all of the tracks are somehow lumped together so that none of them are distinct, and the vocals and the instruments are equally lost in the background. I don't know enough about the mechanics of recording to explain it any better than that, but to me it just sounds "funny." Or is it just my imagination?

Dave_Mack wrote: Great post, Dave. Thanks. Amazing song. I didn't realize it was written by Lowe until I first heard it on RP almost a year ago....

Going to see Elvis tonight in Charlotte, NC.

Whoopeee!

Great bass line. I heard this on the show Cold Case the other night, and my wife told me to stop bopping to the music. This is a great one by one of the greatest!

Hello:

I once heard Midnight Oil do this song as an encore!

Great song! (I had forgotten that this was a cover...there goes *that* theory! )

Neil

As ho hum as they come...not much substance and what an annoying chorus! Yuck!

rah wrote:

Too funny. I was talking that movie up to a co-worker yesterday and when this came on a few minutes ago, that was the first thing I thought of too.

i think i will always imagine bill murray singing this now...

One of about five Elvis songs I really love. Yes!

This is too weird. I was just reading this on another website. Good stuff.

POP MUSIC

Who's laughing now?

Nick Lowe is, when he's in his Benz, but he's also sad the world still needs his "Peace" anthem.

By Geoff Boucher, Times Staff Writer

It's been a political season of the most intense order, and rock acts have been dusting off message tunes. One of the songs enjoying revival is Nick Lowe's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?"

Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., Jackson Browne, John Fogerty, Bright Eyes, Audioslave, Tim Robbins (in "Bob Roberts" mode) and, of course, Elvis Costello are among the artists who have pointedly performed the song over the last year. Lowe's song was popularized by Costello in 1979 - a rowdy version that the Dixie Chicks took to piping in for fans as pre-show politicking on their last arena tour.

Lowe, off tour, has watched with fascination from his garden in Brentford, Middlesex, near London. "I'm rather schizophrenic about it. The Mercedes-Benz-driving, mortgage-paying, middle-aged songwriter that I've become is very, very pleased about the royalties. But the young hippie who wrote it still sincerely, fervently hopes that some day the song will be so redundant that no one sings it."

The silver-haired Lowe, 54, has career credits as solo artist, Rockpile member and producer on Costello's early albums of acclaim. But he was in a different place when he wrote "Peace, Love and Understanding" in the early '70s. In London, the former Mod was watching with wry fascination as flower power wilted.

"It was kind of meant as a joke," Lowe said. "It was written in the voice of an old hippie who sees everyone leaving the ship and says, 'Well you can go and snort your cocaine and go to your fancy parties, but, really, pal, what's so funny?' "

The song begins:

As I walk through

This wicked world

Searching 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?



"I think it was the first actual original idea I ever had. I remember thinking that I had better be careful to keep it simple and not mess it up." Still, Lowe said, the song was "forgotten by all" until Costello tapped it for the landmark album "Armed Forces."

"He is the one that gave it an anthem quality, and it was one-take, all energy with his eyes bugging out when he sang it," Lowe said. With a chuckle, he said that his own stage performance of it these days is "slightly more reflective, a gentle country soul tune where no one gets hurt."

The Costello cut is the most recognizable, but the most-owned version is by singer-saxophonist Curtis Stigers. His take was bundled with Whitney Houston songs on "The Bodyguard" soundtrack, which the Recording Industry Assn. of America lists as the 10th bestselling album ever.

"I had nothing to do with it at all. It was a tremendous windfall for me. And I have never seen the movie.... I have told Curtis that for the rest of his days, the finest dinner in London is his whenever he comes to town."

And Lowe's favorite version? "I was on tour in the States and someone handed me a tape. I can't remember what was written on it. It was a black choir from Harlem singing it a cappella. I remember unashamedly weeping - I was that moved. And I know nothing else about it."

ezzyme wrote:

My thoughts exactly!

If 10 is Godlike, this is a 12.

I've only recently been getting into Costello. After seeing him on television doing some live, jazzy piano thing and realizing that he's also been a real rocker for soooo many years, I started getting this inkling to explore his catalog. The catalyst was seeing Lost in Translation. Great movie, by the way.

Where are the strong?
Who are the trusted?
Where is the harmony?
What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?

I don't care if they're trying to yank my chain ---- these are great words.

Grumm wrote:
I was going to say the same damn thing! (great minds...)

Lip Service - This Year's Model

dairyman wrote: