WHAT'S SO FUNNY 'BOUT PEACE, LOVE & UNDERSTANDING?

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A Colbert Christmas: Peace, Love and Understanding

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Here's a sneak peek at Stephen Colbert's upcoming Christmas special. Andy Williams, eat your heart out. In this clip, Stephen and a friendly bear ask the musical question, "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love and Understanding?"

Isn't that nice? The man in the bear suit, Elvis Costello, originally tossed off the song as a B-side, but it became a hit so he hastily slapped it onto the U.S. edition of Armed Forces. People think he wrote it, but the song was actually written by Nick Lowe, the British pub-rocker, New Waver, and all around nice guy. Good job, guys.

And what a good question!



Declan McManus, otherwise known as Elvis Costello, the man in the bear suit

Here Elvis Costello plays guest host and sings a rocking "Peace, Love and Understanding" for a whole new generation.

THE CLAMPDOWN

The Clash, the greatest punk rock band of all time, sings about the Clampdown. London, 1980. They turned righteous rage into music that mattered. It still does. We just saw the brilliant documentary, The Future is Unwritten, about Joe Strummer. See it, by all means.


The voices in your head are calling
Stop wasting your time, there's nothing coming
Only a fool would think someone could save you
The men at the factory are old and cunning
You don't owe nothing, so boy get runnin'
It's the best years of your life they want to steal

But, you grow up and you calm down and
You're working for the clampdown
You start wearing the blue and brown and
You're working for the clampdown
So you got someone to boss around
It makes you feel big now
You drift until you brutalize
You made your first kill now

--from The Clampdown, by The Clash

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (TIMES THREE)

The Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai, 1956) was an amazing film by Japanese master director Akira Kurosawa about seven samurai (including the grizzled, unkempt Toshiro Mifune) who defend a town against marauding bandits. It was a rousing, mythic, influential film that spawned many imitations. This is art.


The Magnificent Seven (1960) was a great American western based on Kurosawa's film--same story, this time in English, with such great character actors as Steve McQueen, Eli Wallach and Yul Brynner. This is entertainment.


The Magnificent Seven is a song based on the western, based on the samurai movie--this time performed by the magnificent Clash--led by punk rabble rouser Joe Strummer. Here they perform it on the Tom Snyder show in 1981. This is rock and roll.