Peace and Love (The Pogues album)

Peace and Love is a 1989 album by The Pogues, their fourth full-length studio production.

The album continued the band's gradual departure from traditional Irish music. It noticeably opens with a heavily jazz-influenced track. Also, several of the songs are inspired by the city in which the Pogues were founded, London ("White City", "Misty Morning, Albert Bridge", "London You're a Lady"), as opposed to Ireland, from which they had usually drawn inspiration. Nevertheless, several notable Irish personages are mentioned, including Ned of the Hill, Christy Brown, whose book Down All The Days appears as a song title, and Napper Tandy, mentioned in the first line of "Boat Train", and was adapted from a line in the Irish rebel song "The Wearing of the Green". Likewise the MacGowan song "Cotton Fields" draws on the Lead Belly song of the same name.

Reception

Mark Deming of Allmusic said that Peace and Love "isn't as good as the two Pogues albums that preceded it", but felt that "it does make clear that MacGowan was hardly the only talented songwriter in the band".^[1] Robert Christgau, on the other hand, believed that "Shane MacGowan will remain the only Pogue in the down-and-out hall of fame".^[2]

Track listing

1. "Gridlock" (Jem Finer, Andrew Ranken) - 3:33
2. "White City" (Shane MacGowan) - 2:31
3. "Young Ned Of The Hill" (Terry Woods, Ron Kavana) - 2:45
4. "Misty Morning, Albert Bridge" (Finer) - 3:01
5. "Cotton Fields" (MacGowan) - 2:51
6. "Blue Heaven" (Phil Chevron, Darryl Hunt) - 3:36
7. "Down All The Days" (MacGowan) - 3:45
8. "USA" (MacGowan) - 4:52
9. "Lorelei" (Chevron) - 3:33
10. "Gartloney Rats" (Woods) - 2:32
11. "Boat Train" (MacGowan) - 2:40
12. "Tombstone" (Finer) - 2:57
13. "Night Train to Lorca" (Finer) - 3:29
14. "London You're A Lady" (MacGowan) - 2:56

Bonus Tracks (2005 Reissue)

1. "Star of the County Down" (Traditional) - 2:33
2. "The Limerick Rake" (Traditional) - 3:12
3. "Train of Love" (Finer) - 3:08
4. "Everyman Is a King" (Woods, Kavana) - 3:54
5. "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah" (MacGowan) - 3:19
6. "Honky Tonk Women" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) - 2:55

Personnel

• Shane MacGowan - vocals
• Jem Finer - banjo
• Spider Stacy - tin whistle
• James Fearnley - accordion
• Andrew Ranken - drums
• Terry Woods - cittern, mandolin
• Philip Chevron - guitar
• Darryl Hunt - bass guitar

Trivia

• The album was dedicated to the ninety-six people who lost their lives in the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.
• The boxer on the cover has six fingers on his right hand.
• The song "Down All The Days" was later covered by noise rock band Steel Pole Bath Tub on their album The Miracle of Sound in Motion.

References