The Ukulele Alphabet: Take It Easy by The Eagles

Letter E, Week 1
“Take It Easy” by The Eagles

Our cross-country Route 66 adventure was the first time I took my ukulele out on the road with the intention of playing site-specific songs on a trip. (I even bought Ramona, my slim soprano ukulele, for this exact purpose.)

I wanted to play “Cadillac Ranch” at Cadillac Ranch, and “Take It Easy” on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. Actually, at Standin’ on the Corner Park, because now it’s a dedicated attraction on the Route.

When we finally got to the corner in question, there was a hitch in the plan. Some dude was absolutely wailing on his guitar, doing some Stevie Ray Vaughn-type improv with a very loud amp across the street.

So I started freaking out. I was livid that someone else might infringe upon my long-awaited moment!

But in a short break between that guy’s noodling, I managed to get the crucial verse-chorus combo recorded thanks to my patient husband-videographer. THANK YOU, DAN!¹

I used to frame this story as one of how I’m always setting unrealistic expectations and I could learn how to let some stuff go, and that is true. BUT. If I hadn’t been able to play “Take It Easy” like I wanted to, I would still be disappointed to this very day and you’d be reading the story about my eternal disappointment.

And wouldn’t you rather be reading about the fun and inspired moment I had on a corner in Winslow, Arizona?

This video was recorded on my front porch, where I was testing out a new mic to see how it fares with outside noise (like, maybe amplified guitars?!?!). As you can tell, it does great with wind, but you can still hear other ambiance. Oh well.

Listen to the original version of “Take It Easy”:

What’s the Ukulele Alphabet?

Read all about my 2025 ukulele performance project (and its rules) here.

I want to A-B-SEEEE some more!

Watch all the performances in the Ukulele Alphabet project.

1. Here’s the original video — you can tell I’m playing it at a quicker tempo than The Eagles did! And that I changed the lyrics to “but we will never be here again” because, honestly, who knows if we’ll ever get back to Winslow.
   Also, I start smiling near the end not only because I was gratified to get through the song without interruption, but because a woman walked up and started listening. After I was done, we struck up a conversation with her and it turned out she was an Eagles fan from Prescott who wanted to bring her HORSE to The Corner with her to pay homage. The horse’s name was… Winslow. ↩︎