The omidog! blog, a site for dog lovers, answers two questions related to the Eagles‘ hit song “Take It Easy” — who had the greater contribution to writing the song, and who does the statue on Standin’ on a Corner Park in Winslow, Ariz., depict?
The answer to the latter question isn’t terribly thrilling. The statue is just a “generic 1970s man,” not co-songwriter Jackson Browne, as many people believe.
As for who had the greatest contribution to the song, it’s Browne over Eagles front man Glenn Frey. Frey wrote only a line or two, but they were a doozy:
While the song brought Browne, the Eagles and Winslow some much-wanted notoriety, the corner referred to in the song was actually in Flagstaff. But Winslow sounded better. (That leads me to question whether seven women were actually on Browne’s mind, or if maybe it was just three, and seven sounded better.)
Browne was still working on the song when Frey, his friend and neighbor, heard it. Browne had written the opening part of the second verse, then ran into writer’s block.
Here’s how Frey explained the collaboration in the liner notes to the 2003 album, The Very Best of the Eagles:
“I told him that I really liked it. ‘What was that, man? What a cool tune that is.’ He started playing it for me and said, ‘Yeah, but I don’t know — I’m stuck.’ So he played the second unfinished verse and I said, ‘It’s a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowin’ down to take a look at me.’ That was my contribution to ‘Take It Easy,’ really, just finishing the second verse. Jackson was so thrilled. He said, ‘Okay! We cowrote this.’ But it’s certainly more of him.”
The real corner that the song was about was next to the “Dog Haus,” a hot dog drive-thru on Route 66 and Switzer Canyon in Flagstaff.
Here’s Browne a few years ago on German television, performing that song:
