Songs of "Hippie Hopefulness"

Well, only if you are taking the lyrics literally. I don't. To me love is a metaphor of it's time. Love everybody, you know, peace, love dope. I don't necessarily take that is a sex thing. Of course, I might be wrong. Maybe we should ask Stephen?

I found this excerpt.........

In an interview with the UK-based Soul singer Doris Troy on Spencer Leigh's On the Beat radio show, Troy said that Stephen Stills was at a party in London and feeling lonesome as his girlfriend was back in the States. Troy got talking to him and said "Love the one you're with, Sugar!" Stills loved the expression and asked if she minded if he used it in a song. She readily agreed. >>

An Isley Brothers cover in 1971 (#18 US) transformed this from a song with a free love ethos into one about a Higher Love

 

A similar story exists with Billy Preston being the source of the title.

 

Johnny Buckett - "Hippie In A Blender".
(I hope for more powerful culinary gear).

 

In general, there's just so much negative energy and cynicism is society. Just look at how coarse and abrasive political discourse has become. It seems we all want to believe the worst about one another's motives.

To quote the great Bob Marley: "if you get down and you quarrel everyday.... you're saying prayers to the Devil I say."



[edit] In a bit a serendipity, I accidentally created a dub version of "Positive Vibration". I had clicked play on YouTube but it was taking forever to start. As a result I hit play on the above link to the song. A split second after the above version started playing, the version on YouTube kicked in creating an awesome 'dub' version with echoed drums and a fat bass sound .

I'm sure If I tried to replicate this feat I couldn't get the timing right.

 

I always liked this version better.

 

Kind of a more obscure one but seems to fit

 

Peace ........ That's all I'm saying

 

War ........ good God Ya'll

 

Joy to the world - three dog night
Shangrala wasn't far behind

 

And there's also Michael Jackson's Heal the World...
Does the OP want songs from just the hippie era, or can songs from any time past that fit the bill?

 

Interestingly, two Hollies songs have been mentioned in this thread so far, but not the most obvious one. This was the B-side of "On A Carousel."

 

Here's one of my favorites in this category, The London Phogg "The Times To Come"

 

To me there is no era limitation on "hippie hopefulness". The song I put in the first post ("Start as We Mean To Go On") is from 2013.

 

This is the one that always comes to mind first when I think of "The Summer of Love".

 

Penn Jillette's catchphrase:

 

This one could be interpreted as a straightforward love song, but I've always felt it's something bigger than that.

 

Jeez..Burton Cummings can sure sing.

 

BLUNDER!

 

Sunday Will Never Be the Same

 

The hit single version of "Love Can Make You Happy" was released on "Sundi" Records and became a hit in '69. When the single became a hit, "Warner Bros." desired to sign Mercy to their label and did so. When it came time to issue an LP, "Sundi" refused to sell the rights of the song "Love Can Make You Happy" to "WB", so Mercy had to re-record it for the "WB" LP release. So then the LP rendition is different from the single. In the US, "WB" did not issue their version of "Love Can Make You Happy" as a single. Here's where it gets really weird! Management at "Sundi" were infuriated that Mercy jumped ship to go to a major label, so they decided to release a Mercy LP of their own. They assembled a fake Mercy group and produced an LP featuring the original hit version of their single. The "Sundi" LP is as rare as it is awful!

The original "Sundi" hit version of their single has a non-LP B-side performed by the original Mercy group titled "Fire Ball".

 

Time and a word,,,,,,,,,,,,YES

 

A song of "hippie wistfulness"

 

Thank goodness! Blenders can be pretty difficult to clean effectively.