APPETITE FOR DISCUSSION
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SoulMonster
APPETITE FOR DISCUSSION
Welcome to Appetite for Discussion -- a Guns N' Roses fan forum!

Please feel free to look around the forum as a guest, I hope you will find something of interest. If you want to join the discussions or contribute in other ways then you need to become a member. We especially welcome anyone who wants to share documents for our archive or would be interested in translating or transcribing articles and interviews.

Registering is free and easy.

Cheers!
SoulMonster

It's So Easy

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It's So Easy Empty It's So Easy

Post by Soulmonster Wed Aug 04, 2010 6:40 pm

It's So Easy Newbor11
IT'S SO EASY
Album:
Appetite for Destruction, 1987, track no. 2.


Written by:
The original version of the song that was presented to the band was written by Duff McKagan and West Arkeen. This version was then arranged and modified by the entire band.

Musicians:
Vocals: Axl Rose; lead guitar: Slash; rhythm guitar: Izzy Stradlin; bass: Duff McKagan; drums: Steven Adler.

Live performances:
The song was played live for the first time on October 23, 1986, at Arlington Theatre, USA. Interestingly, at this show Axl turned up late and were not allowed in. Thus, it was sung by Duff. All incarnations of Guns N' Roses have played this song live. In total it has, as of {UPDATEDATE}, at least been played {ISESONGS} times.
Lyrics:

I see your sister in her Sunday dress
She's out to please
She pouts her best
She's out to take
No need to try
She's ready to make

It's so easy, easy
When everybody's tryin' to please me baby
It's so easy, easy
When everybody's tryin' to please me

Cars are crashin' every night
I drink n'drive everything's in sight
I make the fire
But I miss the firefight
I hit the bull's eye every night

It's so easy, easy
When everybody's tryin' to please me baby
Yeah it's so easy, easy
When everybody's tryin' to please me
       
So easy
But nothin' seems to please me
It all fits so right
When I fade into the night

See me hit you
You fall down

I see you standin' there
You think you're so cool
Why don't you just
Fuck off!

Ya get nothin' for nothin'
If that's what ya do
Turn around bitch I got a use for you
Besides you ain't got nothin' better to do
And I'm bored

It's so easy, easy
When everybody's tryin' to please me baby
It's so easy, easy
When everybody's tryin' to please me

So easy
But nothin' seems to please me
It all fits so right
When I fade into the night
So come with me
Don't ask me where 'cause I don't know
I'll try ta please you
I ain't got no money but it goes to show
It's so easy


Quotes regarding the song and its making:

Talking about writing the song:

It is a song West Arkeen and I wrote. It's an account of a time that all of us were going through. We didn't have money, but we had a lot of hangers on and girls that we could basically live off of. Things were just too easy. There was an emptiness; it's so easy.
Geffen Press Kit, 1987

Well, me and West had a special time in our lives when we were really inspired by tequila and he was teaching me a different kind of tuning of the guitars and we were sitting around, and at this point in time it was, like, we had just got signed, and, ah, before we got signed, people, and girls, and this and that, wouldn't give you the time of day. All of a sudden we got signed...[…] So girls were bringing over, you know, we were going to get booze, and they'd fuck you and suck your dick, you know, and all this and that, and it was ridiculous.
Interview after Lakeland show, November 24, 1987

'It's So Easy' was written by Duff and West Arkeen (a friend and co-conspirator of the band), then I wrote the obscene verse because the original sounded too much like 'Night Train'.
Interview after Lakeland show, November 24, 1987

I guess the song that most represents me on the album is 'It's So Easy.' It has a lot to do with my roots, musically. I wrote it at a point when that kind of stuff was going down in my life.

It’s So Easy was written by Duff. [...] The lyrics. The music was co-written with another guy named West, a friend of ours from L.A.

'It's So Easy'...was originally a hippie ya-ya song. And Duff and West wrote this song like on acoustic, and it literally went like: [singing country-like] "I see your sister in a sunday dress..." Oh absolutely, and we were rehearsing in L.A and Slash basically just starts raping the song and I ran up and started like, doing like the evil Iggy Pop over it, while West is standing there and his face is like drooping, like...
Eddie Trunk Interview, 2006

'It's So Easy' was a song that basically was written with West Arkeen. West was a really good friend we did a lot of writing with, especially Axl. When that particular song was first written, it had this light, strummy feel because it was written with open chords. It was a lot slower. It was very cool, though - sort of beatnik-sounding. It sounded like it was written on the back of a train.

I turned it into more of a power-chord type of deal. There were a couple of riffs I introduced to it, and it sounded a lot more rocking by the end. That was always my forte - anything that was written on acoustic or an electric played at less than 11, I would always turn up to 12.
Guitar Edge Magazine, March 2007

I moved into this apartment building and my next-door neighbor was West Arkeen, this crazy little guitar-player guy, this little freak. He went to the Guitar Institute a couple blocks from our house, and he came out of the Institute, and there was some guy selling an Alesis drum machine and a four-track cassette recorder. It was apparently Sheila E.’s bus driver. Somehow he got stiffed and he’s like, “Fuck it, I’m selling this shit.” So West comes home with this drum machine, [and] we figured out how to use the stuff. The demo of “It’s So Easy” was pretty great. West at this exact same time had taught me how to tune the guitar to open E. We used like, every feature on the drum machine: cowbell, woodblock, and everything on this demo. I sang it, tuned the guitars, put the drum track on, and it was just this cool little lazy summertime hit. West and I would recall all these “summertime hits,” we’d call them. I had an apartment and West had an apartment before we had a rehearsal space, and it became an encampment for about two months for the band. “It’s So Easy,” “Yesterdays,” and I think “14 Years,” a lot of songs were recorded on West’s four-track. I think “You’re Crazy” came out on the West four-track. Sitting in an apartment, we’d play a lot of acoustic guitars, so I think “Easy” was recorded on acoustic guitar. Thing about our songs, we played ’em all on acoustic guitar. “Night Train,” we wrote on acoustic guitar. Because we’d write them in little cramped apartments.
The Onion A.V. Club, May 2011

I remember It's So Easy being one of those songs that when I first heard it in its original form I was like, 'whatever', but then I got to it and changed it to what it sounds more like now.
Classic Rock Magazine, June 2011

It's So Easy is a song I recorded on four track, a version of it. I learned open E tuning on guitar from West, my next door neighbor, and, you know, when you were learning new tuning on guitar you write like 19 songs in 25 minutes, like, "Wow! This new tuning open up a whole new world." So It's So Easy was a thing I recorded and Axl loved it.


In his memoirs, Duff would imply that West's participation didn't go further than showing him a new way of tuning the guitar:

West also showed me open-E tuning, an alternative way of tuning a guitar so it plays E-major chord when strummed with no fingers on the frets. That's why he got a songwriting credit on 'It's So Easy' - without open-E tuning, that song wouldn't have happened. I didn't know alternative tunings existed.
Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p. 86-87


Axl talking about the deep voice he used:

When we start a song, it's like, I'll try it in different ways and finding which way fits it best. And if I think that some sound... some way of singing is gonna work better, I'll work on that way. It might be something that I've never done before. Like "It's So Easy". I'd never sang a song like that before. But, the high voice just didn't seem to fit it as well. And so, I started working on the low one. And "Mr. Brownstone"... It reminded me of a Stones-ish type funk-thing and so, I just played around with it. And then, you know, we heard our rehearsal tape back and it sounded like it might work. So, I just started practicing that way. I'm like a second baritone, and I just worked on widening my range, to get a high range. And so then I just try to find the way to use it. Use the whole thing rather than limit myself.
Interview with Axl and Slash, 1988

I sang in a low voice because that fit the attitude of that song better. Wasn't something I really thought about, I just started doing it. People ask why I don't sing like that on a lot of songs and it's only because I just sing whatever the song deserves. And it deserves being sung different than the other material. It's a hard tight, simple, punk rock song. When I went to England they said punk's been dead for ten years. And I said, "it's really weird because America doesn't know that.
Hit Parader, March 1988

I got the greatest picture. I cut this ad out of magazine. It's the this girl bent over so her ass is up in the air and it says, "It's so easy". It was an ad for Easy Dates. I sang in a low voice cause that fit the attitude of that song better. It wasn't something I really thought about, I just started doing it. I just sing whatever the song deserves. And that song deserved to be sung different than the other material. It's a hard, tight, simple, punk rock song.
Geffen Press Kit, 1987


Talking about the lyrics:

It says "I drink and drive everything's in sight", well, there was a time when we were a little bit careless and thought we we're really cool and we got away with it. It's not something we do now...or at least try not to. I is not something I would do. Better watch Slash, though.
Interview with Axl by Steve Harris, December 1987

It’s So Easy is about where our apartment where we… it wasn’t even an apartment, it was a room we lived, and around the corner was a place where we’d get this Nightrain wine, and it was $1.29 a bottle. And It’s So Easy is just about, like, us making a buy, and kind of doing what we wanted, and saying “fuck you” to everything.


Talking about recording the song:

Most of the harmonies and stuff I came up with, like in 'It's So Easy' and 'Paradise City', I came up with the night I was recording those parts, 'cause I never had the opportunity to work on it before.
Interview with Axl by Steve Harris, December 1987


Talking about the song:

'It's So Easy' also ended up being a song about our lives in the now, at that very moment. And nobody in the world sang it with more intensity, more honesty, than Axl. (...) We could just shove a fishing net out the window of any club and pull in choice catch after choice catch. The girl game lost its appeal; there was no challenge to scoring the choicest snapper, and again, we chose to write about it.
"My Appetite for Destruction", 2010

There's a lot to say for that period of time when you just start to lose the excitement of chasing chicks. You start going after really bizarre girls, like librarians and stuff, just to catch them and say I finally went out and caught a girl that wouldn't be my normal date. Because everything else was starting to get - it's so easy.
Geffen Press Kit, 1987

Great rhythm. Just rocks. Personally I like the guitar solo in it. I like that part of the song 'cause me and Duff are rockin'. Has more feel to it than just a machine.
Hit Parader, March 1988

[Talking about the responsibilities of being a famous artist]: It is really tricky. Our first major tour was with Mötley Crüe and the audience was younger than the audiences we'd played on the Aerosmith tour, or another tours, our own tours and the tours with the Cult. And it was real hard to do the song 'It's so easy' because there's a line in there 'I drink n' drive everything's in sight.' We were talking about how we kinda got away with things and are lucky to be here. It was real hard knowing that some of these kids were gonne go out and go 'Yeah! They drink and drive everything's in sight!.' [...] It's hard when you do your own material and the majority of the audience isn't getting what you meant.
Famous Last Words, MTV, 1990

When we used this song as the opener for our live sets, it definitely set a tone and drew a line in the sand.



It's So Easy Newbor11


Last edited by Soulmonster on Thu Aug 17, 2023 3:36 pm; edited 13 times in total
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Post by Soulmonster Mon May 28, 2018 10:18 am

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Post by Soulmonster Fri Jan 08, 2021 9:25 am

New quote from Slash talking about who wrote lyrics to songs off 'Appetite':

It’s So Easy was written by Duff. [...] The lyrics. The music was co-written with another guy named West, a friend of ours from L.A.
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Post by Soulmonster Wed Jan 05, 2022 3:15 pm

When we used this song as the opener for our live sets, it definitely set a tone and drew a line in the sand.
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Post by Soulmonster Sat Sep 10, 2022 7:11 pm

It’s So Easy is about where our apartment where we… it wasn’t even an apartment, it was a room we lived, and around the corner was a place where we’d get this Nightrain wine, and it was $1.29 a bottle. And It’s So Easy is just about, like, us making a buy, and kind of doing what we wanted, and saying “fuck you” to everything.
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Post by Soulmonster Thu Aug 17, 2023 3:36 pm

It's So Easy is a song I recorded on four track, a version of it. I learned open E tuning on guitar from West, my next door neighbor, and, you know, when you were learning new tuning on guitar you write like 19 songs in 25 minutes, like, "Wow! This new tuning open up a whole new world." So It's So Easy was a thing I recorded and Axl loved it.
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It's So Easy Empty Re: It's So Easy

Post by ludurigan Fri Aug 18, 2023 12:30 am

Soulmonster wrote:
It's So Easy is a song I recorded on four track, a version of it. I learned open E tuning on guitar from West, my next door neighbor, and, you know, when you were learning new tuning on guitar you write like 19 songs in 25 minutes, like, "Wow! This new tuning open up a whole new world." So It's So Easy was a thing I recorded and Axl loved it.

i just can't believe they didn't include this duff's version on the appetite box set
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Post by Soulmonster Fri Aug 18, 2023 6:18 am

It depends on the quality of it and how complete it was on that tape recording. Might just have been a very badly recorded sketch of the song.

I would have LOOOOVED to hear it, though.
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Post by ludurigan Fri Aug 18, 2023 7:19 pm

Soulmonster wrote:It depends on the quality of it and how complete it was on that tape recording. Might just have been a very badly recorded sketch of the song.

I would have LOOOOVED to hear it, though.

it probably sounds like the songs on the west arkeen tape with the drum machine etc
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