My Story
Apparently at once a break-up song and a love song, ‘Go Easy’ seems to explore the complicated nature of love coming to an end. It has the quality of a love song; the two characters are in a form of agreement, both saying those same words: ‘go easy’. Upon closer listening, however, the phrase means something different to each person. He would like her to take it slow, ‘going easy’ on him; she would like to make a clean break, ‘going easy’ on her. They come to recognize the true nature of their divide. He pleas, ‘Take that long road ’round that last hard right’; she contends, ‘Can’t take that long road ’round that last hard right.’ They have entered that last blistering moment of tension in a dissolving relationship and are being held together there, if only for a moment.
A major change comes, however, in the last stanza, telling us that something has shifted. In unison, the man and the woman sing each other’s lines. They come to a form of calm, both ending the song with the words, ‘Go Easy.’ It is unclear if they are finally in agreement and are able to go their separate ways or if they are finally in agreement and are now resolving their differences.
Perhaps, however, this song has really nothing to do with love at all. Could it represent, instead, a turning point within one’s experience?
Folk Rock Opera
This song is a coming-to-awareness for the woman that she must push forward into a new type of life, though it happens in a duet with another person. The question remains…love song or not? Perhaps this song is not about the couple, but rather about a dialogue within, an internal struggle – a dichotomy she experiences between the voice that tells her to ‘go easy’ – to let go of any struggle – and to ‘go easy’ moving forward in her journey. Could this be a song of reconciliation between the pull of the past and a drive towards the future, reminding the woman that both the old and the new are integral to her journey and her life?
Go Easy
by angela josephine
go easy on me
go easy on me
take that long road
’round that last hard right
but if you got to go
go easy
it ain’t easy on me
it ain’t easy on me
to take that long road
’round that last hard right
but i got to go
it ain’t easy
it ain’t easy on me
go easy on me
can’t take that long road
’roud that hard right
take that long road
’round that hard right
go easy
Enter the experience…
Take your list and rip in down the center. Go easy or not. It’s up to you.