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My Gen X Playlist: Peaceful Easy Feeling – The Eagles

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Daily writing prompt
Describe one simple thing you do that brings joy to your life.
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Waking up before dawn and enjoying coffee in the quiet stillness of the early morning.

I’ve had 55 years of constant motion. Some good, some bad. Some fast, others slow. It’s nice to put everything on pause and awake to a peaceful morning. In my adult life, there have been spans where these were few and far between. With my most recent focus on health, these have become more frequent. If I’m able to string multiple mornings like these in a row, even better.

The Eagles released Peaceful Easy Feeling in 1972. Turns out, it was years in the making and needed a little collaboration to bring it home.

A San Diego singer-songwriter named Jack Tempchin wrote this song sometime around 1969. One night after a club gig in nearby El Centro, he waited around trying to hook up with a waitress, but she left and never came back. With no ride home, he crashed on the floor of the club, but couldn’t sleep. To kill the time, he grabbed his guitar and started composing this song, writing lyrics on the back of one of his flyers.

He finished the song in stages, and made his way to Los Angeles, where he hung out at the Troubadour along with Glenn Frey, Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther and various other up-and-comers in the West Coast music scene. He was staying with Browne one day when Frey came over and heard Tempchin playing the song. Tempchin made a cassette recording for Frey, who came back the next day with a demo he had worked up with his band that had been backing Linda Ronstadt – the band that would soon become the Eagles.

Thanks to its title and easygoing vibe, this song evokes a state of tranquility. The lyric, however, is about a girl, with Glenn Frey singing about how he’d love for things to work out with her, but thinks she’ll probably leave in the end. He’ll be OK though, since he has a peaceful, easy feeling and he won’t let her ruin it no matter what happens.

– Songfacts

My parents once surprised me when they were recounting a memory of going to an Eagles concert. First, I didn’t know they were Eagles fans and second, I didn’t know they used to go to concerts. My mom plays the Eagles on Spotify and dances around the house for an hour a few times a week. This is part of her exercise routine. I love the Eagles even more now that I know this.

–

For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

I like the way your sparkling earrings lay
Against your skin so brown
And I want to sleep with you in the desert night
With a billion stars all around

'Cause I got a peaceful easy feelin'
And I know you won't let me down
'Cause I'm already standin'
On the ground

And I found out a long time ago
What a woman can do to your soul
Aw but she can't take you any way
You don't already know how to go

And I got a peaceful easy feelin'
And I know you won't let me down
'Cause I'm already standin'
On the ground

I get this feelin' I may know you
As a lover and a friend
This voice keeps whisperin' in my other ear
Tells me I may never see you again

'Cause I get a peaceful easy feelin'
And I know you won't let me down
'Cause I'm already standin'
I'm already standin'
Yes, I'm already standin'
On the ground

23 thoughts on “My Gen X Playlist: Peaceful Easy Feeling – The Eagles”

  1. Great song. The backstory is cool. Lately, it’s more like I’m lying on the ground, or, at least on my daybed. I do know my wife won’t ever let me down too badly. She’s human, of course. I can only hope that she feels the same way for a long time when I finally get back on my feet.

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  2. Such a wonderful song and story. I too was shocked to discover that my mother enjoyed the Eagles’ Hell Freezes Over concert on DVD. Who knew she had such excellent taste. Must have picked it up from me hehe

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    2. Personally, I don’t feel most Eagles songs fall into the “Yacht Rock” category. A couple, maybe. I don’t know, when I think Eagles I think California deserts lol

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      2. Something like “I Can’t Tell You Why” might sneak in there under the YR banner. Maybe lol

        They also kind of set that desert vibe themselves with a lot of their album artwork and of course some of their lyrics
        “On a dark desert highway”, etc.

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      4. And at least one of their album covers was a shot of the desert at night if I recall correctly.

        Steely Dan. I think they straddle the thin line and a toe comes over once in awhile, yeah. Songs like “Reelin’ In The Years” and “Peg” could fit in with some of the other popular YR tunes. I’m sure Fagan and Becker would have me shot for that statement, but I stand by it lol

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  6. That’s a great story about your parents and the Eagles; no wonder it makes you feel more affinity for the band. Coffee in the morning is a good experience to savour, especially with bright sunlight streaming in.

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    2. I love the idea of The Last Resort, that we’re searching for something we’re never going to find and in the process destroying what we should have been searching for in the first place.

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