THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENT: THE SUNNY SIDE OF MY STREET with THE "MIGHTY MEZ" - SONGS TO MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD - EPISODE #32: TAKE IT EASY by The Eagles (Asylum, 1972)

There is a corner off Route 66, in Winslow, Arizona which has been memorialized with a statue of the late musician Glen Frey, in front of a Trompe-L’oeil image of a red, flat-bed Ford truck, containing a girl (my Lord) giving him the once over.  How many songs can you name that have been so celebrated?  Take it Easy, written by neighbors Jackson Browne and Glen Frey, was the cut that launched the juggernaut that was The Eagles - America’s answer to The Beatles, in the shadow of the latter’s dissolution. The joyous, three part harmonies signaled the commercial ascendency of Laurel Canyon Country Rock - and provided a hopeful reset following the emotional bankruptcy of the late 60s. When I took my boys on a road trip to see the Grand Canyon, we stayed overnight in Williams, Arizona, also on route 66. I knew that Williams was not Winslow, but close, and that put a spring in my accelerator as I made the daybreak drive into the park.   There is a great “Be here now” mantra in the line: “We may lose, or we may win, but we will never be here again - So, open up, I’m climbing in… Take it easy!” Viewed through that lens, every moment can be an opportunity.