Is a passing mention in a 30+ year old rock song lyric cause for civic celebration? In Winslow it sure is. When the Eagles first decided to "Take it Easy" in a song written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey in 1973, the reference to "standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona" was just a catchy almost-rhyme.
But the song has endured on classic rock radio, a sleepytime anthem for aimless 1970s wandering. In 1999, the town of Winslow put the finishing touches on their "Standin' on the Corner" Park. The downtown corner was designed to include a life-size statue of a relaxed dude-with-guitar and a 2-story Trompe L'oeil mural laying out all the critical lyrics: "a girl" and "a flatbed Ford" reflected in a storefront, along with an eagle perched on one painted window sill.
The site is actually called Standin' on THE Corner Park, an annoying variant on the song lyric "standing on A corner." Typo, copyright dodge, or attempt to outsmart competing corners elsewhere in town? We don't really know.
In any event, the corner is a photo op destination now, so the scheme worked. It ran into trouble in early 2006 when the building with the mural was mostly demolished -- except for the mural wall. Latest report is that the town has purchased the property and the wall will be preserved.
"Take It Easy" pride radiates from at least two of the three other unofficial corners at Second and Kinsley -- where businesses promise t-shirts, hats, and Route 66 memorabilia.
While we were busy posing on the corner, we ran across an Eagles-era couple snapping their own memories. His name was Denny "Don't Need No Reason to Party" Flannigan, Baja California's answer to Jimmy Buffet. He told us he fronted a popular 1960s Denver band named The Moonrakers, and now fronts a band in Baja named "Suns Of The Beaches."
Yup, that's the kind of encounter that awaits you if you hang around on the corner long enough.
The town runs an annual Standin' on the Corner Festival at the end of September featuring country rock and Eagles tribute bands.
