I've never been able to figure out why "Love and Peace or Else" is called that. The 'or else' line is never used in the song. I've always theorized that the big riff represented the 'or else' factor, but I'm not exactly sure what the big riff is supposed to represent. A monster being let loose, maybe? Of course that riff also sounds kind of soothing to me. Like they're basking in the release, right then. Maybe it's a combination of the two, who knows.
Or Else What?
- Thread starter Layton
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
starvinmarvin
Refugee
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2005
- Messages
- 1,178
LOVE AND PEACE OR ELSE...BEEYATCH!!!!
MrBrau1
ONE love, blood, life
Marc Bolan will come back to life and play his signature riff.
VertigoGal
Rock n' Roll Doggie FOB
I think it's a great title, very ironic.
Get along with each other, none of this fighting, or we'll bomb you ALL into submission, mofos!
Dunno what it really has to do with the song...I dislike the lyrics, think theyre too vague. I don't really get the point, if it's completely serious or more fun/ironic. But the title by itself, I love the idea!
Get along with each other, none of this fighting, or we'll bomb you ALL into submission, mofos!
Dunno what it really has to do with the song...I dislike the lyrics, think theyre too vague. I don't really get the point, if it's completely serious or more fun/ironic. But the title by itself, I love the idea!
I think it is just purely suggestive the 'or else' part of the title..it already has you thinking about the consequences...your imaginary consequences are always worse than what actually happens..but the paranoia and fear created by these imaginary consequences, is a very effective 'or else' in my book
Not sure if that makes sense hmm
Not sure if that makes sense hmm
LJT said:I think it is just purely suggestive the 'or else' part of the title..it already has you thinking about the consequences...your imaginary consequences are always worse than what actually happens..but the paranoia and fear created by these imaginary consequences, is a very effective 'or else' in my book
Not sure if that makes sense hmm
It makes sense, but let me ask: Do you think this suggestiveness you're talking about can be found somewhere in the music during the song or is it just wordplay along the lines of what you've described solely meant for the title?
Layton said:
I think the intro to the song to quite ominous, i think itself is the perceived threat, lots of low sounds mixed together with voices, uncertainty of what to expect or what is to come with the song, by the end you are still wondering what is going to happen, hanging on for something you expect to happen...it doesn't so you still wonder after the song like you are doing...
I think it is just hinted at in the intro of the song...enough to hook you in...
Zoots
Blue Crack Supplier
I believe Maddox has the answer... 
I'm sorry but the guy's funny!
I'm sorry but the guy's funny!
VertigoGal
Rock n' Roll Doggie FOB
Reminds me of Jon Stewart's interview with this guy who was talking about how Hollywood is ruining our culture..."well...I'm gonna...I'm gonna go write a song about it!"
popacrobat
Rock n' Roll Doggie FOB
or else bandana bono is going to kick you in the nads
and if youre a girl, like ron burgandy said, right to the babymaker...
and if youre a girl, like ron burgandy said, right to the babymaker...
Layton said:
No...the ominous outside world to me has always been where you discover things...experiencing life and what not, being out there is not bad...maintenance of human relationships is important though...yeh some people can work being alone that is for them...but for society to function good relationships are needed....
As you enter this life
I pray you depart
With a wrinkled face
And a brand new heart
This verse to me has always been about how experiencing life suggested by the wrinkled face from many experiences and events taking place....but you leave with a 'brand new heart'....you leave as you started with optimism and kindness in the world (bit mushy of me) even though you may have had to come through a lot.
Basically i think it is all about if human relationships break down in society and the world in general, it creates a bitter loneliness in people, a feeling of separation from society and the good things of the world, leading to fear and hate...the 'or else' suggests at the fear and paranoia that can be created outside of human relationships and what that leads to...
Again i hope it makes sense..
greety
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
Love & peace is the key to dismantle this atomic bomb we're all sitting on 
MrBrau1
ONE love, blood, life
Love and Peace or Death.
cobl04
45:33
I was reading the lyrics the other day...and to me they seem like a relationship that has ended, LJT's post was good.
Lay down
Lay down
Lay your sweet lovely on the ground
"Your sweet lovely" being your gf/bf/lover/whatever. Lay her on the ground.
Lay your love on the tracks
We're gonna break the monster's back
Lay down your treasure
Lay it down now brother
We don't have time for a jealous lover
I think the whole first verse is about letting go of your 'lover', getting past him/her.
As you enter this life
I pray you depart
With a wrinkled face
And a brand new heart
As you enter your new life without me, I hope you end it when you are old, but you have a new heart, meaning you have gotten over me.
I don't know if I can make it
I'm not easy on my knees
Here's my heart, I'll let you break it
I need some release, release, release
We need love and peace
I don't know if I cna take being without you, so it's hard for me to pray for you. I'll give you my heart, break it, so we end this relationship. We need to be released of each other. The 'love and peace' line is just the hook and it takes you away from the rest of the lyrics.
What do you think of that?
Lay down
Lay down
Lay your sweet lovely on the ground
"Your sweet lovely" being your gf/bf/lover/whatever. Lay her on the ground.
Lay your love on the tracks
We're gonna break the monster's back
Lay down your treasure
Lay it down now brother
We don't have time for a jealous lover
I think the whole first verse is about letting go of your 'lover', getting past him/her.
As you enter this life
I pray you depart
With a wrinkled face
And a brand new heart
As you enter your new life without me, I hope you end it when you are old, but you have a new heart, meaning you have gotten over me.
I don't know if I can make it
I'm not easy on my knees
Here's my heart, I'll let you break it
I need some release, release, release
We need love and peace
I don't know if I cna take being without you, so it's hard for me to pray for you. I'll give you my heart, break it, so we end this relationship. We need to be released of each other. The 'love and peace' line is just the hook and it takes you away from the rest of the lyrics.
What do you think of that?
the or else is "or else we will go back into the studio and rework the pop album."
Zoots
Blue Crack Supplier
sue4u2
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
or you have exactly what we have now. Leaders re-defining the rules of when one should go to WAR!!
(and that was frigging funny KR
)
(and that was frigging funny KR
)
BrownEyedBoy
Rock n' Roll Doggie
I love the "It's my heart I'll let you break it" line. 
AtomicBono
ONE love, blood, life
KhanadaRhodes said:
Okay U2. Love and peace it is.
Meghan
Refugee
Oh no! Anything but that!KhanadaRhodes said:
LJT said:
Good deal.
U2 are making a pretty sly political critique, on this song by parralleling it with the trajectory of a relationship. If you allow yourself to get cut off, things like planes flying into towers and irrational invasions due to wounded and angry feelings start to happen. I think the big riff musically embodies the 'or else', also. It's the sound of tanks starting to roll. Which is a metaphor for the reactionary emotions that lead to aggressive and destructive behavior.
Parralleling personal events with larger politcal/world events is one of HTDAAB's great thematic tricks.
Layton said:
As i think i said somewhere else before i find the U2s music in the 80s to be about the world in general, in the 90s they focused on the individual and now with How to Dismantle, they are looking at how to relate world and political events to the individual...the personal is no longer separate from what is happening globally..due to television, the internet and basically because terrorism is much more far reaching than it once was...
COBL_04 said:
That's a good take. Let me throw mine out there. I see a little more metaphor in those lyrics.
As for the 'love on the tracks' verse. I think it's addressing the bravery it's gonna take to combat the type of things LJT was talking about regarding fear, paranoia, etc. (thus the monster's back)
I think the 'enter this life' verse addresses the natural tendency to become emotionally jaded as one get's older. Things like loved ones dying and idealism by the wayside start to happen. Emotional jadedness leads to closed and protective feelings. Which is the recipe for destructive behavior. At least, that's the theory at play, I think.
The 'don't know if I can make it' verse addresses both the difficulty and bravery of opening your heart to gain a more pure and innocent perspective. Which is really HTDAAB's greatest theme: opening your heart after you've become jaded and walking loud and proud is how to dismantle an atomic bomb.
LuvandPeace1980
War Child
Love and Peace or else
What the current war is about bringing is Love and Peace.
But it's kind of contradictory isn't it?
Love and Peace Iraq or else..
Thats how I always have seen it..
What the current war is about bringing is Love and Peace.
But it's kind of contradictory isn't it?
Love and Peace Iraq or else..
Thats how I always have seen it..
LJT said:
I agree, but I think it started on the Pop album. "Please" is still probably U2's greatest piece of writing regarding equating the personal with the global. In the 80's, U2 were more pure in their pacifism. That pacifism went by the wayside as they became older and realized the hypocrisy within themselves. U2 can be angry men and war is just anger muliplied by millions, but it still starts with the angry man. "Please" muscially maps this theory out better than any song I've ever heard.
HTDAAB takes a bolder step, though. It's the sound of U2 tearing their chest open and musically performing a kind of open heart surgery in order to reclaim some of humanity's better instincts at a time when humanity seems to be tearing apart.
HTDAAB should've been called 2001: An emotional odyssey. Because it basically originated from and parralells two events from a one month period of that year. The personal grief of Bono's father dying and the world grief of 9/11. One could argue that if America had addressed it's grief from this kind of open-heartedness that HTDAAB lays out, it never would've invaded Iraq because the anger, confusion and need to lash out would've dissipated by then.
To LuvandPeace..You are right..it is meant to be contradictory...it is meant to sound like a threat of violence if there is not love and peace..the threat or consequence is though more what i have already stated as the fear and paranoia uncertainty and the breaking up of human relationships creates...well its what i think at least.
doctorwho
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
Layton said:
I think you are interpreting the "or else" as a threat. For example, a child's parents might say, "clean your room or else" - meaning the child might receive a punishment, such as grounding. A school bully might say, "give me your money or else" - again implying a threat, such as a hitting.
But I interpret the "or else" as a suggestion, not a threat. We need to have "love and peace" or else the alternative is too horrible to consider. If there's no love and peace, then the alternative is hatred and war - that's the "or else". There's no threat, rather, a statement as to what happens when love and peace is not present. And I think this "or else" is far more severe and worrisome than a standard threat.
Similar threads
- Locked
