I had been planning a different theme for this week but have decided to defer it, after seeing several posts over the weekend reminding me that Saturday – 21 September – was International Day Of Peace Day. I have done a post in this series previously on peace, but it was a couple of years ago and I didn’t tie it in with the day. I’m putting that oversight right today by sharing again some of the songs I played then. The message that we need peace in our world never fails to be relevant, especially with all that is going on right now. I may be a couple of days late with this, but I don’t think that in any way devalues the message.

Having stolen one of their logos for my header picture the least I could do is point you in the direction of the official website, which you can find here, and to the Wikipedia page, here, if you’d like to learn more. The day was first established by the United Nations in 1981 and first observed in September 1982, and is kept by many nations, political groups, military groups, and ordinary people like you and me. 

Now for my selection of songs with the theme of the importance of peace. I began my previous set of these with this one, and I can’t really think of a better place to start:

There’s some honesty in his intro to that! Cat Stevens/Yusuf has always been a big favourite of mine, going right back to his early days of pop hits and then into his singer-songwriter career with Mona Bone Jakon and all his brilliant albums. Peace Train was the closing track on his fifth album, Teaser And The Firecat, which was released in October 1971 and peaked at #2 in both the US and the UK. It was also released as a single, reaching #7 in the US but for some reason it didn’t make the UK chart. My memory isn’t good enough to recall if maybe it wasn’t a single here, which would be the obvious reason for that. Its lyrics are still as relevant as ever, sadly, and it is a good starter for this week’s theme.

This next one is an audio-only clip, but I make no apologies for that. This is an absolute beauty:

As the video shows, this is a song from the movie Wild Rose: the movie was first shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2018 and then got a cinema release, along with its soundtrack album, in April 2019. In the movie Jessie Buckley plays the character of Rose-Lynn Harlan, an aspiring country singer from Glasgow, who has just been released from prison. It is one of those ‘star is born’ movies but don’t let that put you off: it is a lovely film that won eight awards and Jessie proved herself both a fine actor and singer. Peace In This House wasn’t one of the three tracks from it to be released as a single, but I think it is a beautiful song nevertheless. The album reached #76 in the main UK Albums chart, and #1 in the UK Country Albums listing. In this case the plea for peace is on a more personal level, but none the less valid for that.

I don’t usually play two audio-only clips in succession, but that’s the way it’s going this week. This is one of my favourite bands, who I’ve played several times before, always to a good response:

“Whatever we’re fighting for, peace and love will win the war” is such great line, and it really needs to be heeded by so many, particularly those in positions of political power. Will they? I doubt it, but we can but hope. As the video shows, Peace And Love was a track on Merry Hell’s album BLINK…and you miss it, which came out in 2011. It was their first of what are now six albums in this incarnation (plus a compilation and two DVDs), having reformed from the basic nucleus of members of the band The Tansads. They are an English folk-rock band from Wigan, in the north-west, and travel to a wide range of places for their live shows. They are well known on our folk festival circuit, having performed at many, and are also regulars at many folk clubs. As I have said about them before, I think they are talented performers and songwriters, with a strong social conscience. I follow them on Facebook and they are an absolute joy: they never fail to interact with fan comments, usually with large doses of humour. They have enjoyed very little chart success, in common with most folks acts in this country: just one week at #49 in the UK albums chart in May 2023 for that compilation, Let The Music Speak For Itself, but I think they deserve their place in this week’s collection of tunes for a song with such an important message.

This next one is another longstanding favourite of mine. Some didn’t like this band – I thought they were great:

Peace In Our Time was the title track of Big Country’s fourth album, which was released in September 1988, getting to #9 in the UK but only #160 in the US. It was at that point their worst-performing album, but I bought it and loved it. This song was released as a single in January 1989, making #39 in the UK. Stuart Adamson, the band’s lead singer, wrote the song and later said that he felt this was a little naive, rather like a Sixties protest song, but he went ahead with it anyway! The band had a string of hit albums and singles here in the mid to late Eighties, and I really liked them. Stuart later suffered alcohol problems, and committed suicide by hanging himself in December 2001, at the age of just 43, under the influence of very large quantities of booze. A sad end, but the message of this song lives on.

I can think of a couple of regular readers who might be calling my sanity into question if I didn’t play today’s closing song, so to avoid those aspersions being cast, here goes:

Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) is the opening track on George Harrison’s fourth solo album, Living in the Material World, which was released in May 1973: it topped the charts in the US, Canada and Australia, and reached #2 in the UK. This track was released earlier that month as the lead single, and got to #7 in the UK. It did better in the US, though, where it became George’s second #1 single (yes, the first was THAT one!). In doing so it knocked Paul McCartney and Wings off the top, still the only time that two former Beatles have occupied the top two positions in the US charts. The whole album is full of lyrics reflecting George’s attempt to blend his growing spiritual interest with his rock star fame; I still see it as a classic album. The guitarist, by the way, is Andy Fairweather Low, formerly the lead singer of Amen Corner.

That’s my lot for today, and I hope that you have enjoyed the songs and can think about the underlying message. Frankly, in these troubled times, I fear that the UN may be attempting to push water uphill with a rake with International Day Of Peace, but it is such an important message that they deserve to be supported in promulgating it.

See you again soon 🕊️