Personal Responses To Contrasting Tracks

Personal responses to the songs “ It's easy” by J.J. Cale and Eric Clapton, and “The lost boy” by Greg Holden

This first song “It's easy” is part of an album “The road to Escondido” that is the result of a brilliant collaboration between two fantastic musicians and lyricists ( J.J. Cale and Eric Clapton ) and many others such as Billy Preston to whom it is dedicated due to his death in the making of it. It was released on the 7th of November 2006 and rightfully won the Grammy award of best contemporary blues album in 2008. In my opinion it's a very uplifting song

. I would call it First of all because of it's lyrics that

describe everything as easy ( ), problems as solvable ( for example : “If you wanna think she's ugly and always depressed, she can go out and buy herself a new dress, it's easy, easy for her, solves all of her problems, that's for sure ( verses 16- 19)) and if not then the problem simply becomes the solution as said in the 25th verse “If tomorrow never comes, everything is free” so why worry ? It's the type of music that can actually put a smile on your face after a long day, when you're too stressed or having to deal with issues because it puts you in the state of mind that you want to be in, telling yourself that it's all going to be fine or maybe even good ( unfortunately, people generally listen to quite depressing music when they are sad ( What a great way to feel better ! )).

. Secondly, as the

( quite bluesy ) melody and rhythm are very repetitive, it makes it very catchy

and easy to dance to, and in addition to that the guitar riffs sound great and are played by legendary guitarists, what else could be asked for ?! Whenever I hear this song I ( almost always ) get in a good mood and start humming it throughout the day and since it has such a good vibe to it it just stays stuck in my head ( which can get annoying when you find yourself unconsciously humming the same thing over and over again, but that is a sign that it is an awesome song ). I also enjoy hearing it because one of my first memories associated to music is, when I was about 6 years old my father putting on this song when my mother went out ( as she didn't like listening to music a lot ) and trying to teach me how to dance rock “n” roll. I am not sure if I remember it well but quite sure it was a failure. I think that the fact that a song is related to a memory enhances the feeling conveyed by the song as it automatically brings something that can have been forgotten or put in the back of your mind for a long time, back to life in a few notes, which is magical. I also think the arrangement is brilliant, the fact that it's not really rock or blues but just a mixture just makes it sound fantastic to me ( as I'm a big fan of rock I also think the arrangement is brilliant, the fact that it's not really rock or blues but just and even though I don't know a lot about blues ( I wish I



( which is felt in the music as it is all played on a major scale)

the musical description of optime ism.

and are very very very cheesy/funny

I also really like the fact that it

sounds like it all started out as a joke I a jam and turned out to make a really

cool song, which shows how you making music is about enjoying yourself and

trying to get that feeling across to the listeners as well

did ) it's a genre that I highly appreciate ). The voices of Eric Clapton and J.j. Cale obviously countribute to the great vibe of the song, not for being great vocalists or anything such ( even though I love both of them, I don't think that would be what they're known for as their voices don't have anything unbelievable technique wise whereas they do with the instruments they play and master ) but because they've got soul and sound like they are having an amazing time playing , hence it's effect on the audience/listeners. The contrast between the two singers makes it sound interesting as they don't have quite the same tone to their voices. However, that contrast is only one more positive aspect as these voice were a fabulous match. Collaborating for this album was the best idea they could have, and I'm very happy they did.

The second song is called “The lost boy” and is by Greg Holden. It was released as a single on the 20 th of December 2011 in The

Netherlands(

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