13. November 2013
Road-Songs: “Take It Easy”
 |
| BUY NOW |
By Walter Price
As a listener there may be no better road-song than The Eagles‘s 1972 single Take It Easy. A song that has taken on whatever meaning the connoisseur has found fitting.
Originally started by Jackson Browne during a solo road trip to find inspiration during a break while recording his debut album, it was eventually handed over to Browne’s neighbor, Glenn Frey for completion. Ultimately changing the sound and feel of the original intentions of the track altogether.
“During a break in the middle of recording the first album, I took a road trip in this old beat-up Willys Jeep and I went to Utah and Arizona. On that trip I started to write ‘Take It Easy’, and when I came back, I played it for Glenn Frey, and he asked if the Eagles could cut it when it was done. So I said, ‘Just finish it’, and he wrote the last verse and turned it into a real song. It was their first single, and what those guys did with it was incredible.” – Jackson Browne (uncut.co.uk)
From the opening verse we get an immediate feeling of the lonely highway and being lost in thought about life’s gravitational pull on our individual chaotic souls. Life does have a way of tearing into you and there is no better time to reflect on this than alone on the open road. A time to let it all go, slow it down and to …
Take it easy, take it easy
Don’t let the sound of your own wheels
Drive you crazy
Lighten up while you still can
Don’t even try to understand
Just find a place to make your stand
And take it easy
The fact that Take It Easy has been able to take on whatever meaning the listener wants it to have truly makes this one of the very best road-songs ever recorded.
Take a look/listen to the following version and let us know your thoughts…