Greatest Covers Week, part 2: Peace, Love, and Understanding.

Covers week, part 2:
"Peace, Love, and Understanding"
Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello.


Look at them, the two uncoolest people in the universe. I'm not sure who to call the original and who the cover in this pair. Nick Lowe wrote the song, but Costello will always own it (Bill Murray's karaoke rendition in Lost in Translation notwithstanding).


Again, I appreciate this cover because of the different aspects that each is able to bring out in the same song. Costello's version is pure nerd-rock gusto. Although I have no idea if he originally, did it this way, the version of I know from Nick Lowe is very slow and delicate. From Costello it sounds sarcastic and confrontational, from Lowe it sounds... reasonable, 'persuasive'-- What is so funny about peace, love, and understanding?