Peace and Love - Opinions?!

[Maija]

Young Ned of the Hill is perfect as it is.

[ShanesTeeth]

Young Ned of the Hill is perfect as it is.

That's one song I don't like. It sounds way too medieval for my liking. P+L is my least favourite Shane+Pogues album - there's a lot of stuff on there that you only listen to a couple of times and skip in future. The selection of bonus tracks is pretty crummy too.

I like Blue Heaven and Cotton Fields - even though everyone else seems to hate them. Boat Train is a funny song - if you can follow the lyrics...

[firehazard]

Young Ned of the Hill is perfect as it is.

And you couldn't beat Terry Woods' live version. Brilliant at Brixton.

[Maija]

@ShanesTeeth: Medieval?! How does it sound medieval? Please explain. *is truly baffled* I do listen to a few bands with medieval influences, like In Extremo, Schandmaul, Tanzwut, Corvus Corax etc, and I cannot hear one ounce of medieval in Young Ned.

@Firehazard: oh, yes - absolutely brilliant! It was great live in Nürnberg this summer too...

[zarom]

In my opinion Peace and Love is the worst Pogues' album, but don't get me wrong, it's still a great album. The general idea I get from P&L is a band falling apart where the feeling of brotherhood that once existed is not there anymore. I feel that those guys were not happy with each other anymore. In that particular time things weren't very good within the band with never-ending tours and lots of stress and tiredness. In the middle there was Shane's "fuck all" behaviour.
There are great, great tracks in this record that make it a must-have: White City, Young Ned, Misty Morning, Boat Train, Gartloney Rats and London You're a Lady. I like Night Train to Lorca too. The remaining tracks are good but they don't have that kind of magic that every single track on the previous records had.
I bought the album when it was released and I remember being very confused listening to it. It was not bad but "hey! there's definitively something going wrong here!". After all these years the feeling remains the same.
The lads were very tired!
Great cover thought!

[firehazard]

Great cover thought!

Yes, always liked the eleven-fingered boxer.

[D.MacG]

i think peace & love is a good album it's much better than
"waiting for.." and "pogue mahone"...
maybe "blue heaven" isn't the best song in the world but the rest of the songs are really good..

[Noonan McKane]

your review reads like a music journo bluffing he knows what he's talking about, but mistakes give you away. And London Your A Lady IS a masterpiece. Those of you that don't get it now, will get it in years to come. That's a promise.

I didn't say it WASN'T a masterpiece. It is. I love it.

I'm not bluffing anyone, my friend! I know exactly what I'm talking about.
What are the 'mistakes' you refer to, which 'give me away'?

'Give me away' as what?

[Kilkenny]

A Few years ago I won a competition and appeared on an obscure digital tv programme on what was UK Arena called My First My Last My Everything. usually Z list celebs were interviewed and clips played from Their First Album bought, their Last album bought and Their "Eveything" ie Best Album bought.

I got to choose and be interviewed on mine, I won't bore you or embarrass myself over the first and last, but For my Everything I chose Peace and Love. At the time I bought it I was blown away by the skills and talents of the other band members not just Shanes. Lorelei was my favourite song for a very long time.
If I got to choose again today it may be different, and I own and lovingly adore the entire Pogues catalogue, but something about this album did it for me at the time.
So at least I can say that I got to say on Television that I believed Shane to be a poetic genius who was the antichrist to New Romantics in the early eighties. ROFL how many of you can admit to that.

Keep chuggin and roll on Paddys Night.

[Sober]

I just bougth the remastered version of Peace & Love. I was sure I would be disapointed, as I read many negative comments over the past few weeks. It didn't turn out as expected, considering I love it. I even like Blue Heaven, even if many of you seem to really hate that song.

[Arthur]

Like many others I didn't listen to P+L as much as the first 3 albums but the more I listen to it the more I like it, it is rapidly becoming a favorite.
I think Gridlock put me off as it is decididly not very Pougish but the more I listen to it the more I like it...Andrew's drum solo at the very beggining is sheer brillance!

[Desiderius]

Not among my favorites... But Young Ned of the Hill is one of the greats!

[pogues22]

The most underrated Pogues album of the MacGowan era. The Pogues started to branch off and explore other musical genres on this release, but still very much closer to The Pogues original sound than say "Hell's Ditch," was. Not the Pogues best album, but a very good one

Best Songs

1. White City
2. Young Ned of the Hill
3. Gartloney Rats
4. Down All the Days
5. London You're a Lady
6. Cotton Fields
7. Misty Morning, Albert Bridge
8. Boat Train

[Michaelo]

Why are there hardly any fans who like U.S.A.? It's one of Shane's best lyrics and the drums during the last minute or so of the song are, IMHO, Andrew's finest moment.

[DzM]

Why are there hardly any fans who like U.S.A.?

I think it's a brilliant song, and one that has come to mean a lot more to me as I've grown older.

So cold and lonely
So all alone
I wished my heart
Was made of stone
[...]

When I was a young man
Standing on this road
My empty belly
An aching hole
An old man said to me
"Kid don't you know
That it's the same
Wherever you go"
[...]

I found the thing
For which I prayed
And came back home
To the USA
With a heart of stone
And now I know
That it's the same
Wherever you go

Those lines are just spectacular. Changing perspective as one ages, tragedy of getting what you for, discovery that wherever you go people are still people and the world is still the world. I've always loved this song.