The Eagles- Take It Easy

Tonight , Friday, February 15th, 2013,  at 8pm ET/PT, the Showtime cable network will debut the first of a two-part documentary on the Eagles, called History Of The Eagles – The Story Of An American Band (the documentary will conclude tomorrow night, Saturday, February 16th, 8pm ET/PT). Produced by Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room), and directed by Alison Ellwood, this new documentary apparently will feature an “intimate, meticulously crafted patchwork of rare archival material, concert footage and never-before-seen home movies.” The filmmakers were given the equivalent of an all-access backstage pass to the band’s past and present membership.

Meanwhile, here’s a live clip from the California Jam ’74 of their oft-played FM classic, “Take It Easy,” featuring the original Eagles lineup of Glenn Frey (on lead vocals and rhythm guitar), bassist Randy Meisner, lead guitarist Bernie Leadon (he also plays the distinctive banjo parts on the studio version) and Don Henley on drums. There’s more about the song’s origin, which you may not know, after the jump.

Jackson Browne wrote most of “Take It Easy” while driving across Utah and Arizona in a beat-up Willys US Army Jeep. He was taking a break from writing songs for his first album. When he came back to L.A., he played what he had for a neighbor friend of his, musician Glenn Frey, who had recently formed a new band after dissolving Longbranch Pennywhistle, a band he’d co-founded with JD Souther, who was another neighbor of theirs in lovely Echo Park. Frey liked what he heard and asked Browne if he could finish it and record the track with his new band, Eagles, who needed songs for their own debut album for Asylum Records, and Browne agreed, of course, otherwise we wouldn’t be telling you this story. Frey added a second verse which started off with the line “I’m standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona,” which has now become something of an iconic image in the larger American Southwest, or at least that’s what the Winslow Chamber of Commerce will tell ya, and if you’re ever in downtown Winslow, do be sure to go to North Kinsley Avenue and West 2nd Street (eastbound State Route 99) and have your photo taken by the life-size bronze statue and mural commemorating the song’s bona fied hit status Americanus.