Only four days late this week--getting there!
To the best of my recollection, my introduction to this week's featured tune was probably classic rock radio. I certainly hadn't begun my musical journey when it was originally released, though if you'd asked me before I did my half-assed research for this week, I would have thought it was released a few years later than it actually was. Funny how time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin', into the future....
I wrote about the Eagles in Vol. CCXXIX, and since then only a couple of new notes. First, sadly, original member Randy Meisner passed away in 2023, leaving only Don Henley and Bernie Leadon as surviving original members. Second, in September of 2023 the band announced it was beginning its final tour, entitled the Long Goodbye Tour. It's still ongoing, so at least they got the "long" part of it correct....
"Take It Easy" was the very first single ever released by the Eagles, from their very first album, the ever so inventively entitled 1972 release Eagles. The song would peak at #12 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album would climb to #22 on the Billboard 200.
Fun Fact: As has happened a time or two before here on Friday Night Jukebox, I can play this week's tune on my guitar, all by my lonesome. And, if I do say so myself, it doesn't sound half bad (which can also mean that it doesn't sound half good, either....).
The songwriting for "Take It Easy" was begun by Jackson Browne and later finished by Glenn Frey (the Wikipedia entry cited above has a nice overview of how the song--and some of its parts, especially Winslow, Arizona--came to be). It's been said that the two had differing views on life (Browne serious, Frey fun) and that the juxtaposition of the two makes the song what it is. What it is, is a story of a man trying not to let the craziness of life bring him down and just learn how to, uh, take it easy. The rather well-done lyrics are both a snapshot of life in the early seventies and a nod to the redemption that love can bring to us. Frey's vocals are a clarion call, Leadon's guitar work is a rumble down the highway, and the band's signature harmonies were most certainly begun here. A tremendous debut by a tremendous band--and even fifty-three years down the road, as relevant and life affirming as ever.
Lyric Sheet: "Well, I'm a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona/And such a fine sight to see/It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford/Slowin' down to take a look at me..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump
Peace,
emaycee
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