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KEB' MO'
PEACE...BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
"My Intention for this record is to be meaningful and relevant to what I am feeling in our own time," says Keb' Mo'. "It started out as a collection of protest songs, but it evolved into an album about peace and freedom."
The Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and guitarist is talking about his new album Peace...Back by Popular Demand-to be released September 21, 2004 on OKeh/Epic Records. His seven previous albums have made Keb' Mo' one of the most popular writer/performers on the contemporary blues scene. But with this new collection, the artist formerly known as Kevin Moore takes a new creative turn: He interprets nine classic songs of social conscience from the Sixties and Seventies, and adds one stirring new composition of his own.
As one who came of age in the American Sixties, Keb' Mo' lived through the tumultuous and tragic events of that period. His life and consciousness were shaped by the British Invasion and the soul music explosion; by the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.; by the military draft and the peace movement.
In interpreting some of the popular songs that stirred the nation and the world in the years 1964-1976, Peace...Back by Popular Demand speaks to the challenges and opportunities we face today. It is a conceptually unified work designed to raise awareness among listeners of all backgrounds.
"I believe that people on both the Left and the Right have more in common than we have differences," says Keb' Mo'. "We have way more reasons to come together than we have to split apart&I think people the world over want pretty much the same things."
In playing order, here are the songs of Peace...Back by Popular Demand and the original artists:
1. "For What It's Worth" (Buffalo Springfield)
2. "Wake Up Everybody" (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes with Teddy Pendergrass)
3. "People Got to Be Free" (The Rascals)
4. "Talk" (new song by Keb' Mo')
5. "What's Happening, Brother" (Marvin Gaye)
6. "The Times They Are A-Changing" (Bob Dylan)
7. "Get Together" (The Youngbloods)
8. "Someday We'll All Be Free" (Donny Hathaway)
9. "(What's So Funny About) Peace, Love, and Understanding" (Elvis Costello & the Attractions)
10. "Imagine" (John Lennon)
All tracks are produced by Keb' Mo' and were recorded in just one month in Los Angeles. The artist plays electric and acoustic guitars, dobro, and mandolin; keyboards player Jeff Paris and bassist Reggie McBride are both mainstays of the Keb' Mo' touring band. Also on board are such veteran session players as Paulinho Da Costa (percussion), Paul Jackson Jr. (electric guitar), Harvey Mason (drums), and Greg Phillinganes (organ).
Here is an album intended to inspire its listeners to reconnect with their common humanity-and to take action from that place. In a world wracked by tension and violence, Peace...Back by Popular Demand offers a positive message of hope to all.
"If my music can cast even a shadow of peace and understanding on humanity," says Keb' Mo', "well...that will be pretty cool!"
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Peace...Back By Popular Demand
Song Comments by Keb' Mo'
"It's about time there is a CD focused on peace. I love it!" - Yoko Ono
"For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey, What's That Sound)"
Written by Stephen Stills
Recorded by Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield singer/guitarist Steve Stills wrote this song in response to the police brutality he witnessed on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles during the summer of 1966. The original version reached No. 7 Pop (Billboard Hot 100) and was a highlight of the 1967 debut album Buffalo Springfield. In 1998, Public Enemy sampled the Springfield's track for their recording of "He Got Game."
"I wasn't a serious Sixties hippie, just a kid from Compton. I can remember walking around the Haight-Ashbury [in San Francisco] with my family and looking at it like some kinda tourist attraction. Later on I went to a peace march in Century City against the Vietnam War. The police turned violent when the demonstrators refused to leave. Those kinds of experiences were an awakening for me to look deeper into what's going on."
"I changed the lyric to this song from 'a thousand people in the street' to 'a million people in the street.' I was thinking about the Million Man March that Farrakhan started, or the millions of people around the world who marched peacefully against the war in Iraq in 2003." [Keb' Mo']
"(What's So Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding"
Written by Nick Lowe
Recorded by Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Composer Nick Lowe recorded the first version of this song with his Seventies pub-rock band Brinsley Schwartz. The song reached new prominence when Elvis Costello & the Attractions covered it on the 1979 album Armed Forces. Other versions have been released by the Wallflowers, Steve Earle, Hootie & the Blowfish, and Curtis Stigers.
"This was the only song on the album I didn't know before we started- Michael Caplan suggested it to me." [Veteran a&r man Michael Caplan signed the artist to OKeh/Epic Records in 1993.] "I liked what the song was saying so I set out to find my own voice within the song." [KM]
"What's Happening Brother"
Written by Marvin Gaye & James Nyx
Recorded by Marvin Gaye
Soulful social commentary from What's Going On, the boundary-breaking 1971 album (#1 R&B, #2 Pop) by Motown legend Marvin Gaye.
"What's Going On was the album that really connected me to Marvin Gaye. I liked his songs, I thought he was a great singer - but he was more of a crooner, a ladies' man. What's Going On really got my attention, especially since I was of draft age! "What's Happening Brother" is my favorite song on that album." [KM]
"Someday We'll All Be Free"
Written by Donny Hathaway & Edward Howard
Recorded by Donny Hathaway
Co-composer Donny Hathaway (1945-1979) released the original version of this song on his 1973 album Extension of a Man. In 1992, Aretha Franklin recorded it for the soundtrack of the Spike Lee film Malcolm X.
"Just as I, being a colored fella', wasn't familiar with '(What's So Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding,' there are a lot of other people who don't know 'Someday We'll All Be Free.' But this song is an anthem in the African-American community."
"In terms of his songwriting, playing, arranging and singing, Donny Hathaway was considered a musical genius, a phenomenon. My voice isn't anywhere near his, but I chose to include 'Someday We'll All Be Free' because I wanted to bring this beautiful song to more people." [KM]
"Talk"
Written by Kevin Moore & Kevin So
Recorded by Keb' Mo'
"I wrote this song a few days after 9/11/01 with Kevin So, a Chinese-American artist and a good friend of mine. I wasn't even trying to write anything pertaining to 9/11: At that point, I just wanted to take it all in and try to understand what was really going on."
"But I knew we were'nt going to get the peaceful diplomatic reaction that I was hoping for. So my focus in writing the song was, why did this happen? What were the conditions that led up to this? Because it takes a lot of anger to get to the point where someone will attack another country. Where did this anger come from?" [KM]
"Imagine"
Written and recorded by John Lennon
The title track of John Lennon's second solo album, released 1971, "Imagine" became a #3 Pop hit and a global standard later performed by Blues Traveler, Neil Young, and Madonna among other artists.
"John Lennon hit home with 'Imagine.' It's a song that's perfect in the expression of its ideas and feelings. I didn't worry about 'oh, man, I don't know if the world needs another version of this.' I think the message is so profound, there should be more versions of it. The more his message is heard the better."
