Cry Of Love – Peace Pipe

When CB sent me a link to this band, the first name that popped into my pointy head was Steve Marriott, who I think was the best vocalist of his generation. In the middle of grunge, this band came out of nowhere and sounded like a reimagined Humble Pie or Free. The singer Kelly Holland has been compared to various singers such as Steve Marriott, Paul Rodgers, and Chris Cornell…so I wasn’t far off.

In the nineties, Grunge music was king and hard rock was being heard by The Black Crowes and Guns N’ Roses, but there wasn’t a bunch of mainstream success from many others. This band had bad timing written all over them. It’s a shame because they were a very talented rock band. I talked to Deke about them, and he bought some of their CDs at the time, but they were gone before they really got started. They seemed set up to do a lot of damage and have huge success. 

They burned bright in the early 1990s. They were known for their soulful, blues hard rock sound that stood apart from the grunge. They were formed in 1991 in Raleigh, North Carolina. They released two albums in total: Brother in 1993 and Diamonds and Debris in 1997. 

Peace Pipe peaked at #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks in 1993. They had another song called Bad Thing peaked at #2 on the same chart in 1994. 

Lead singer Kelly Holland quit the band after their first big tour because he didn’t like life on the road. He was replaced by Robert Mason (Warrant’s lead singer), and they made the album Diamonds and Debris, which spawned a hit single Sugarcane, that peaked at #22 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks in 1997. It’s a great song! They broke up soon after.  

The band took their name from Jimi Hendrix’s 1971 posthumous album, The Cry of Love. That album was compiled by engineer Eddie Kramer and drummer Mitch Mitchell and featured some of the final studio recordings Hendrix was working on before his death. That was only the beginning of Jimi Hendrix’s posthumous albums. 

This band had a lot of talented musicians. The bass player Robert Kearns later played with Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Audley Freed played guitar with The Black Crowes, and now Kearns and Freed play with Cheryl Crow. 

The band had hits and were set up to do big things, but when Holland quit that pretty much sealed it for them. Unfortunately, Kelly Holland passed away in 2014 from an abdominal infection. 

Peace Pipe
 

In the heat of the morningIn the eye of the sunHear the wind start blowingSee the horse and the gunNow the peace pipe, it ain’t smokin’All the promises are brokenIn the heat of the morningSee the horse and the gunAll in the name of God somehowOh-oh-oo-whoa!Tearing the temple downBurn down the sacred ground!Tear the temple down!In the name of God somehow…Burn down the sacred ground!

In the dead of the evening,When the spears come down,Say a prayer for the plowboyOn the killing ground.Now the peace pipe, it is broken,All the shaman’s gone unspoken.In the dead of the eveningWhen the tears come down, yeah!All in the name of God somehow…Oh-oh-oo-whoa!Tearing the temple downBurn down the sacred ground!Tear the temple down!In the name of God somehowBurn down the sacred ground!

All in the nameAll in the name

All in the name of God somehowHey, hey! Oh-oh, yeah, yeah! Oh-oh-oo-whoa!Burn down the sacred ground!Tear the temple down!In the name of God somehowBurn down the sacred ground!Hey, hey! Yeah, yeah! Oh-oh-oo-whoa!Burn down the sacred ground!Burn down the sacred ground!Burn down the sacred ground!Burn down the sacred ground!

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

30 thoughts on “Cry Of Love – Peace Pipe”

  8. I got a Bad Company vibe listening to this group who were totally new to me. It is interesting to learn about groups that had a lot of talent, but they somehow missed the mark.

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  9. Pingback: Cry Of Love – Peace Pipe – MobsterTiger

    1. Yea the featured song sounds familiar…I probably heard it back then but just didn’t remember the band.

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      2. Yes…he had the pipes. That is what struck me first…he had a great voice but more importantly he sang with conviction.

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  13. had never heard of them. From the last song there, possibly right sound but definitely wrong time… might have been a lot bigger had it been out around the end of the ’70s or early-’80s. Lyrics seem reminiscent of ‘Run to the Hills’ or some of the things the Cult did. Timing is darn near everything in music!

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    1. I think I remember the song…the Peace Pipe song but wasn’t sure. It was played but yea…hell I think late 80s would have helped as well…near the Black Crowes.

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