By: Brad Gallagher
The song “Take It Easy” was the first song on the debut album by the Eagles. It was also their first hit single. It rose to #12 on the billboard hot 100 chart and was a very impressive introduction to a band that went on to become a legendary rock and roll icon.
But do you know who actually wrote the song, Take It Easy?
As the story goes:
One day while Jackson Browne was driving through Arizona, his car broke down right in Winslow. He spent a long day there waiting for the repairs to be completed, and while there he noticed that a lot of Arizona women were driving pick up trucks. That observation made an impression on him and he began formulating a song.
During that time in his life, Jackson Browne and Glen Frey were living in the same building in LA. One day Frey overheard Browne playing the song down in his makeshift studio in the basement, and he went down to ask him about it. Browne told Frey that the song was not complete, and that he had the lines about Winslow Arizona but was stuck on the second verse. He played what he had written of the second verse, and Frey said “It’s a girl, my lord, in a flat bed Ford, slowin’ down to take a look at me.”
According to Glen Frey, that line was his entire contribution to the song, but Jackson Browne saw it differently. You see, according to Browne, he was not able to finish the song, and Frey kept offering to finish it for him. So, one day Browne told him to go ahead and finish the song, and the rest is history.
So, take it easy, and come back and visit me here soon at As The Story Goes.
AS THE STORY GOES 