Take It Easy

I am not sure if this actually counts as being a New Year Resolution, but I plan on taking it easy in 2019.  I have slowed down on my blogging, not caring about being involved in any of the prompts and just writing my own stuff.  In 2017, I wrote for Suzanne McClendon’s September Challenge.  When 2018 started, I did the JusJoJan prompts and then in April, I did the A-Z challenge. I have been blogging every day for quite a while not really pushing myself, as I obtained extreme joy from writing about anything.  Before I discovered the now defunct WordPress Daily Prompt which was also called the Daily Post, I wrote some Essays, some Poetry, Rants, a few Cartoons and I did the Letter Game, which ended up being a disaster.  A lifetime of laughter could have saved them all.

I have also written many times in the other Linda G. Hill challenges, One Liner Wednesday and Stream of Consciousness Saturday.  Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers by Priceless Joy is a Monday writing challenge while The Twittering Tale by Kat Myrman comes out every Tuesday and I have occasionally participated in both of these writing challenges, but because they have character limits, it does not fit my style very well.  Sadly, I only wrote one post for Bikurgurl’s 100WW 100 Word Wednesday.  I also wrote one post for Cee’s Sharing My World, and Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge.  I did a couple of Rochelle Wisoff-Fields Friday Fictioneers prompts.  I wrote several posts for Laura M. Bailey All The Shoes I Wear Manic Mondays 3 way Prompt and I have also been in several of her Monthly Writing Prompts.  I have written many times for Daily Addictions, FOWC with Fandango, Your Daily Word Prompt by Sheryl which for some unknown reason I started calling this the New Daily Post, the Ragtag Community, Scotts Daily Prompt and the Word of the Day Challenge.

A few times, I wrote for Reena Saxon’s Exploration Challenge and I also have been in RayNotBradbury’s Cool Writing Prompt which is now Victoria Ray NB.  I wrote in some Randomness Inked Let it Bleed challenges, the Rachel Poli Time To Write challenges and a Daily Inkling writing challenge.  I even wrote in a Lost in Translation pick a word challenge, which I screwed up, because this was a picture challenge and I did not follow the instructions, but this won’t be the last time that I screwed the pooch.  I did a lot of the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie challenges like First Line Friday, Marquessa Challenge, MM Music Prompt, MM Photo Prompt, Saturday Mix, Tale Weaver and Wordle.  One of my favorite writing challenges is Helen Vahdati’s Song Lyric Sunday and lately all I want to write about is Music.

Saying “take it easy” could mean the same thing as “see you around”, or “take care”, or “catch you on the rebound”, but that is not how I am using this phrase for my New Year’s resolutions.  I want to take care of myself, both physically and emotionally and Welcome 2019!, as I anticipate that this will be a banner year for me.  I realize that I am a bit of an enigma, but I am not a riddle, wrapped in a mystery.  I probably belong to a district of some type or another, but I don’t enjoy being classified.  Resolutions may come and go, but I plan to be here on WordPress for a while, as I still enjoy writing.  One thing that I want to do is to go to Flagstaff, Arizona and stand on that same corner where Jackson Browne did.

I don’t think that I have ever had seven women on my mind, at least not that many all at the same time, but I guess that some guys are capable of doing this.  The original incident that inspired the song ‘Take It Easy’ took place in Flagstaff, Arizona where a young female cruised by Jackson Browne in a Toyota pickup and she ogled him and that image stuck in his brain.  Jackson Browne’s automobile later malfunctioned while he was in Winslow, Arizona, and he got stuck there for a whole day.  Winslow, Arizona is about 60 miles from Flagstaff, and this where “Standin’ on the Corner Park” was built to honor this song and a flatbed Ford truck remains permanently parked there.  However the real corner where Jackson Browne was standing was next to  a hot dog drive-thru on Route 66 and Switzer Canyon in Flagstaff.

Jackson Browne started writing the song ‘Take It Easy’ on his first album, but he didn’t know how to finish it.  At the time, he was living in in a $60-a-month apartment in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles, and his upstairs neighbor was Glenn Frey, who needed songs for his new band, the Eagles.  Frey heard Browne working on the song, and he told Jackson that he thought it was great.  Browne said he was having trouble completing the track, and played what he had of it.  When he got to the second verse, Frey came up with a key lyric, “It’s a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowing down to take a look at me.”

Browne turned the song over to Frey, who finished writing it and recorded it with the Eagles, and they used it as the first song on their first album, and it also became their first single.  Frey says that Browne did most of the work on the song and that he was very generous in sharing the writing credit.  Glenn Frey’s changes to this song included stretching out the “E” in “Easy.”  He considers the song one of the most important Eagles tracks, and a great introduction to the group on their first album.

Bass player Randy Meisner sings the harmony vocal in the beginning of this verse with Frey, but drummer Don Henley is singing harmony at the end of the verse “Though we will never be here again”.  Bernie Leadon a founding member of the Eagles provided the lead guitar and distinctive banjo parts, as well as harmony vocals.  Glenn Frey died on January 18, 2016 at the age of 67 from complications of rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis, and pneumonia, while recovering from gastrointestinal tract surgery.  ‘Take It Easy’ is one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

Written for Daily Addictions prompt – Banner, for Daily Inkling prompt – Welcome 2019!, for FOWC with Fandango – Enigma, for JusJoJan 2019, January 1^st prompt – my New Year’s resolutions, for January Monthly Writing Prompts – A lifetime of laughter could have saved them all, for Sheryl’s A New Daily Post Word Prompt – Resolution, for Ragtag Community – Anticipate, for Scotts Daily Prompt – District and for Word of the Day Challenge Prompt – Resolutions.