Love Peace / Love Piece

I wrote this song on December 8th, 1980, just hours after hearing of the death of John Lennon. I have since added several verses as I have been inspired by events and circumstance to do, the result of which has been the gradual transformation of a three minute song to the "mother of all songs that I have written," weighing in (timing in) at a whopping nine plus minutes--and still growing since I'm sure that I will be inspired to add more verses as time goes on.

I never was a die-hard Beatle fan, at least not until I heard the album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band," which blew me away, but I have always had an affinity toward John Lennon, despite the controversy he generated. Truth be known, it was probably that very controversy that drew me to him. He was never afraid to speak his mind, with little regard to the ramifications of doing so. And his message was always very simple: How about just a little more love and peace in the world. He, like me, was a dreamer, an idealist who chose to focus on the brighter side of humanity. Like John, I still imagine a world where conflict is trumped by reason, hatred is diluted by compassion, and greed is overcome by sharing.

Where should we begin? By recognizing that love is the universal denominator. Not the power of love, but the simplicity of love. Unfortunately, it is our nature to to over-complicate love, causing it to be entwined with other emotions like jealousy, pride, arrogance, conceit, even hatred.

If we reduce love to its essence, its purest form and avoid the tendency to adorn it, if we see it for what it actually is, the conduit that unites us all and speaks to our humanity more strongly than nationality, patriotism, religion, affiliations of every kind, even family--it binds us, defines us more strongly than DNA itself. Once we begin to recognize the simplicity of love, we begin to realize that in the beginning and in the end, LOVE IS ALL THERE IS. It is my dream that during this holiday season, we strive to appreciate the essence of love, to embrace it and share it unconditionally as Jesus did.

If the video below offends anyone, I apologize. That was never my intent, but I will never apologize for imagining a world where the landscape is dominated by love and guided by peace.

Hold your horses! Before you push "play," push the pause button on my music player. Sroll down the right side of the browser to find it. Not interested in getting into a musical duel with George Harrison!