Peace, Love And Happiness

Album: Superhero Brother (2008)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song is a reminder to be good to yourself and others. It's a very positive message, but it does come with some gripes, as G. Love gets political in the last verse, wondering why governments are spending money on bombs instead of food for the hungry.

    "It was a simple message, and that's what I wanted it to be," G. Love told Songfacts. "It works too because of the call and response, and it's a wonderful message. The music is kind of all the same chords - I just flipped the changes when I got to the breakdown. But it's just a simple song with a catchy hook and a profound message."
  • Lyrically, this song is a lot easier to navigate than many of G. Love's earlier songs, which are packed with rapid-fire lyrics. This was by design. When he toured Brazil with his Brushfire Records labelmate Donavon Frankenreiter, he noticed how the crowd was getting into Frankenreiter's songs despite the language barrier.

    "When I would get on stage, I had so many words in my songs that people would find it hard to latch on to them," G. said in his Songfacts interview. "When we went home, we went to this surf camp and we played for the kids. I wanted to write a song with a really simple message that these kids and anybody around the world could latch into, and that phrase, 'Peace, Love and Happiness,' just jumped into my head."
  • G. Love gave his buddy Allen Jasper Thomas a writing credit on this song because Thomas had a song with the same title from years earlier. The songs are different, but G. Love thinks he may have subliminally taken the title, so sharing the credit was the karmically correct thing to do.

    G. and Thomas hung out in the early '90s when they were both playing the Boston area. Both ended up with record deals: G. with Epic and Thomas with Geffen as part of his group Jasper & The Prodigal Suns.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Joe Ely

Joe ElySongwriter Interviews

The renown Texas songwriter has been at it for 40 years, with tales to tell about The Flatlanders and The Clash - that's Joe's Tex-Mex on "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"

Martin Page

Martin PageSongwriter Interviews

With Bernie Taupin, Martin co-wrote the #1 hits "We Built This City" and "These Dreams." After writing the Pretty Woman song for Go West, he had his own hit with "In the House of Stone and Light."

Jack Blades of Night Ranger and Damn Yankees

Jack Blades of Night Ranger and Damn YankeesSongwriter Interviews

Revisit the awesome glory of Night Ranger and Damn Yankees: cheesily-acted videos, catchy guitar licks, long hair, and lyrics that are just plain relatable.

Best Band Logos

Best Band LogosSong Writing

Queen, Phish and The Stones are among our picks for the best band logos. Here are their histories and a design analysis from an expert.

Hardy

HardySongwriter Interviews

The country hitmaker talks about his debut album, A Rock, and how a nursery rhyme inspired his hit single "One Beer."

Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk: Rock vs. Televangelists

Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk: Rock vs. TelevangelistsSong Writing

When televangelists like Jimmy Swaggart took on rockers like Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica, the rockers retaliated. Bono could even be seen mocking the preachers.