I just discovered that “Takin’ It Easy,”
The Eagles song
that’s also the Jackson Browne song
is, in reality, “Take It Easy,”
and it is blowing my fucking mind.

I have known that song
(“Rolling down the road,
tryin’ to loosen my load,
I got seven women on my mind…
Takin’ It Easy!”)
ever since I first heard it
on BJ & the Bear,
a T&A truck ‘n’ monkey tv show
from another millennium
and another planet,
and I’ve sung its first verse and chorus
over and over
over the years
and to discover now
after five decades
and a change of centuries
that I’ve always gotten it wrong?
What the fuck.
I mean
come on,
for Greg Evigan’s sake,
what the frigging FUCK?

Is it…
is it maybe possible
that The Eagles released “Take It Easy,”
and then Browne, as cowriter,
opted to rerelease and sing it differently
as “Takin’ It Easy?”
Could that be the case, maybe?
Wikipedia says no
but we all know what the reactionary right
has been up to in filling our minds
with alternate facts, right?
Right?

I can see now
that there is no evidence
anywhere
to support the song
that I have known so well
actually going precisely the way
that I believe it does
which still seems impossible
– like the world has been retilted
at some inconceivable angle
and all axes are entirely
and irrevocably out of whack.

And do NOT even think
of telling me
to take it easy right now.
I will lose my fucking shit.

What worth life today?
All is lies.
All is dust.

God,
I miss Judy Landers’ chest.