Nailed it: The Eagles song Glenn Frey thought was the perfect opener
For seasoned musicians, there’s never a time when a song seems to be completely finished. Some songs are more straightforward than others, but even after you put the record out, you’re always going to want to put a few more extensions on the song, either changing a word here and there or trying to play with the melody whenever you play it live. The Eagles were never ones for just jamming on songs, and right out of the gate, Glenn Frey couldn’t have asked for a better opening song than ‘Take It Easy’.
Because when you think about it, the first song someone hears from an artist sets the tone for the rest of their career. There can be some times when artists have a slow burn up the charts, but if your first single becomes a major hit, that’s the bar you set for yourself that everyone will hold over your head for the rest of your career.
If that’s not hard enough, Frey and the rest of the band were greeted with an icy reception when they started putting a band together. Frey and Don Henley had already worked great together ever since working with Linda Ronstadt, so hope was high that they could make something magical when they went on their own.
Once they played their showcase for David Geffen, the industry mogul sent them back to the drawing board to hone their craft. Frey and Henley were no strangers to writing songs, but they didn’t have a sure-fire hit until they built off a song by fellow songwriter Jackson Browne.
After completing the second verse of the song, Frey thought it would be a perfect way for the band to kick things off. Leading off the first Eagles project, the track feels like having the wind blow through your air as you’re rolling down an empty highway with no problems in the world.
When speaking with Cameron Crowe about the tracks, Frey thought that ‘Take It Easy’ was the sound of the Eagles reaching their final form, saying, “My contribution to ‘Take It Easy’, really, [was] just finishing the second verse. Jackson was so thrilled. But it’s certainly more of him. Sometimes, you know, it’s the package without the ribbon…I don’t know that we could have ever had a better opening song on our first album. Just those open chords felt like an announcement, ‘And now … the Eagles’”.
Even though the band had their condensed into one three-minute pop song, their habit of making the most out of country music also limited them a touch. Henley was proud to dip his toes into styles like bluegrass and Americana. Still, he also noticed that the band started to become known as only country rock, which wasn’t entirely accurate when looking at their more soulful numbers like ‘Wasted Time’ and ‘One Of These Nights’.
The Eagles’ core sound is all there in those first ringing chords, telling their listeners that they were about to embark on a journey with their music that was bound to be one of the best musical road trips ever. As much as The Dude may not have liked it, it’s hard to resist when those opening chords come across the speakers.
