Song of the Week #4
Easy Peasy
Easy Peasy is my only venture into the musical world of Berry Gordy and Motown. I wrote it in September 2017 for my second album Up on the Downs and it joins a long list of Motown-inspired songs which include Wham's Wake me up before You Go-Go, Steps' Reach, the Beatles' Got to Get You into My Life, the Foundations' Build Me Up Buttercup and just about everything in the solo back-catalogue of Phil Collins' (he also wrote Loco in Acapulco for the Four Tops).
Re-creating the Motown sound was far from "easy-peasy" if, like me, you don't have musicians of the ability of the legendary Funk Brothers on call . The Funk Brothers were the loose collective of Detroit-based session musicians who provided the backing for all the famous tracks by the Four Tops, the Supremes and a host of other Motown acts.
There is no uncontested list of the Funk Brothers members. In all they number more than a hundred, some combination of whom played on each of Motown's 100-plus U.S. R&B number one singles and 50-plus U.S. Pop number ones released from 1961 to 1972. However, there are thirteen core members of ther Funk Brothers who were recognised in 2013 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
I used virtual instruments for the brass section, drums, keyboards and strings on Easy Peasy but played the bass guitar and electric guitars live - as well as singing the lead vocal and and backing vocals. The feel of Easy Peasy is a swung shuffle where each beat is divided into three. However, if these beat divisions are of equal length then the result can sound jerky and mechanical; it needed a lot of experimentation before I came up with a convincing result. The “correct” division of the beat is not a fixed figure but is organic - depending on the context of the musical phrases.
One of the oddities of the Motown recorded sound is that drummers very rarely used cymbals. In the early days, before multitrack recording was invented, all the Funk Brothers musicians played together live in the same room where a single crash of the cymbal would completely wipe out the sound of the other instruments, so Motown drummers (who included Benny "Papa Zita" Benjamin and Richard "Pistol" Allen) soon learned to play cleaner drum parts without cymbals.
There is a famous drum fill which featured on just about every Motown track. It is analysed and reproduced in a short YouTube video here. Once you learn the sound of this fill you can't unhear it. It's at the beginning of the Temptations' My Girl and Ain't Too Proud To Beg and a slower modified version opens Phil Collins' Missed Again (click on the titles to see these videos). So I couldn't resist the temptation to use it at the beginning of my song!
I also used conga drums and a tambourine as well as an electric piano, vibraphone and Hammond organ to augment the sound - but I stepped outside of Detroit to visit Nashville for the country-style guitar solo (which I played on my Variax guitar).
As with my Butterfly's Wing video I shot multiple copies of myself singing Easy Peasy. The video here is an homage to the Four Tops singing on Top of the Pops (in black-and-white, of course!) and I had a lot of fun recreating their look and sound.
Click on the picture below to view the video:
Easy Peasy
It’s Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy
You never know what you gonna do till you try
It’s Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy
There’s nothing anybody can say
And no-one’s gonna get in your way. Easy peasy
If someone comes along and they say “Hey you!
What d’you think you’re doing here?”
What are you gonna do?
You gotta stand tall and look ‘em in the eye
Take a deep breath and then give ‘em your reply
You say “This is my world. This is what I do
And if you don’t like that more fool you.
I’ve written all the rules of the games that I play
And I’m the only referee and this is what I say”
It’s Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy
You never know what you gonna do till you try
It’s Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy
There’s nothing anybody can say
And no-one’s gonna get in your way. Easy peasy
If someone looks at you and they say you don’t fit
You’ll never come to anything. You’d better just quit
All you gotta do is stare ‘em in the eye
Take a deep breath and then give them your reply
You say “This is my world. This is how I play
You’d better get used to it. I’m not going away
I’m staking my claim to be here right now
I won’t be talked out of it any old how
Because it’s Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy
You never know what you gonna do till you try
It’s Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy
There’s nothing anybody can say
And no-one’s gonna get in your way. Easy peasy
You say “This is my world. This is what I do
And if you don’t like that more fool you.
I’ve written all the rules of the games that I play
And I’m the only referee and this is what I say”
It’s Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy
You never know what you gonna do till you try
It’s Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy
There’s nothing anybody can say
And no-one’s gonna get in your way
Easy peasy
Easy peasy
Easy peasy
Easy peasy
