“Don’t Give Up on Peace and Love”

You can’t have peace without love (though love has certainly flourished in times when peace was at a loss). The two were meant to be together, and all through history music has reflected our tendency to celebrate and long for both. In fact, somebody out there is longing for one or both, right at this very moment.

In terms of history, these twenty songs span only a small blip of our recent times, from 1959 to the present day. And they cover both the peace of our inner worlds and of our world as a whole, as well as the many different flavors of love – brotherly/sisterly, sensual/erotic, romantic, platonic, spiritual…

All of these songs mean something different to me, personally. For whatever reason, they came together in this mix quite spontaneously and naturally, on a whim, inspired by the most unusual journey in the direction of romantic love that I have ever experienced. It was special and remarkable in its own way, just as each of these songs is. Though the content of the songs more often than not has little to do with the specific experience to which I just referred, they all happened to fit together just as well as those two magical words always will.

May this mix help to bring a little more peace and love into your life.

John McLaughlin – Peace One from My Goal’s Beyond (1970)
George Harrison – Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) from Living in the Material World (1973)
John Lennon – Love from Plastic Ono Band (1970)
Curtis Mayfield – We Got To Have Peace from Roots (1971)
Brian Wilson – Nothing But Love from Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin (2010)
Ornette Coleman – Peace from The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959)
The Velvet Underground – I Love You from Peel Slowly and See (1995)
Elvis Costello – Peace In Our Time (Demo) from Goodbye Cruel World (2004)
Paul McCartney – Through Our Love from Pipes of Peace (1983)
Patti Smith – Peaceable Kingdom from Trampin’ (2004)
Leon Ware – Learning How To Love You from Musical Massage (1976)
Neil Young – Peace Of Mind from Comes a Time (1978)
Minnie Riperton – Inside My Love from Adventures In Paradise (1975)
Sonic Youth – Peace Attack from Sonic Nurse (2004)
Terry Callier – Just As Long As We’re In Love from What Color Is Love (1972)
Screaming Trees – Peace In The Valley from Dollar Bill (1992)
The Chambers Brothers – Love, Peace and Happiness from Time Has Come: The Best of the Chambers Brothers (1996)
Stevie Wonder – A Time To Love (Featuring India.Arie) from A Time To Love (2005)
NiÁ±o Josele – Peace Piece from Paz (2007)
Juliana Hatfield – Peace + Love from Peace + Love (2010)

About the Author

Michael Fortes

Michael Fortes began writing for Popdose upon its launch in January of 2008, following a music writing journey that began with his high school newspaper and eventually led to print and web publications such as Performer Magazine and Bullz-Eye.com. Born and raised in The Biggest Little State in the Union (otherwise known as Rhode Island), Michael relocated in 2004 to San Francisco, where he works as an office professional during the day, sings harmonies in Sugar Candy Mountain at night, and religiously supports the local San Francisco Bay Area music scene nearly every chance he gets.

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