It's So Easy

"It's So Easy"
12" single
Single by Guns N' Roses
from the album Appetite for Destruction
Released	June 15, 1987
Format	7" vinyl, 12" vinyl, 12" picture disc
Genre	Hard rock, heavy metal
Length	3:24
Label	Geffen
Writer(s)	Duff McKagan, West Arkeen
Producer	Mike Clink
Guns N' Roses singles chronology
"It's So Easy" (1987) "Welcome to the Jungle" (1987)
Appetite for Destruction track listing "Welcome to the Jungle" (1) "It's So Easy" (2) "Nightrain" (3)

"It's So Easy" is a song by Duff McKagan and West Arkeen and made popular by the American band Guns N' Roses, featured on its 1987 debut studio album Appetite for Destruction. The song was published as the band's first single on June 15, 1987, in Great Britain and it reached number eighty-four on the UK Singles Chart.^[1] The songs "Shadow of Your Love" and "Move to the City", featured on the 12-inch vinyl and 12-inch picture disc editions of the single, were written by members of Guns N' Roses while in previous band Hollywood Rose, and were later included on the extended play Live from the Jungle.

Composition

According to an interview published in Hit Parader in March 1988, "It's So Easy" is "an account of a time Duff McKagan and West Arkeen, and also the rest of the band, were kinda going through. They didn't have money, but they had a lot of hangers on and girls [they] could basically live off of ... things were just too easy. There's an emptiness; it's so easy."^[2]

Music Video

There was an original music video made for "It's So Easy", which was their first video ever made; the video features the band playing live in front of a crowd on stage, but later a promo video was made with the original video heavily edited but still showing shots of the band on stage but also showing girls in bikinis and much more. It was not included on the band's Welcome to the Videos DVD because its content is rare and can only be found on the internet. At the time the video was released it was not extremley popular, it was not released in the states, but once Welcome to the Jungle was released the "It's So Easy" video became more popular, but even today its content is very rare and almost impossible to find on the internet.

Live

"It's So Easy" is a Guns 'n' Roses live staple, being performed regularly since 1986.^[3] It is usually played early in the set. During the Use Your Illusion Tour, it was either the first, second, or third song or just played in any early part of the set during the first five songs at least. During the Chinese Democracy Tours it was played second, immediately after Welcome to the Jungle.

Track listings

All songs credited to Guns N' Roses; "It's So Easy" co-credited to West Arkeen.

{{tracklist | headline = 12" vinyl (GEF 22T); 12" picture disc (GEF 22TP) | total_length = 13:55 | title1 = It's So Easy | length1 = 3:24 | title2 = Mr. Brownstone | length2 = 3:47 | title3 = Shadow of Your Love | note3 = live | length3 = 3:03 | title4 = Move to the City | note4 = live | length4 = 3:41

Personnal

• Axl Rose - Lead vocals, backing vocals
• Slash - Lead Guitar
• Izzy Stradlin - Rhythm Guitar, backing vocals
• Duff McKagan - Bass, backing vocals
• Steven Adler - Drums

Cover versions

• The former Guns N' Roses members Slash and Duff McKagan often play this song with whatever bands they happen to be in at the time.
• The Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers released a live cover of the song on its 2003 compilation album Lipstick Traces (A Secret History of Manic Street Preachers).
• The American metalcore band Unearth contributed a cover of the song to the 2006 compilation album Bring You to Your Knees: A Tribute to Guns N' Roses.
• The American nu metal band 40 Below Summer released a cover of the song on its 2006 album The Last Dance.
• The American hard rock band Operator released a cover of the song online in June 2008. They also regularly perform the song live.
• American metalcore band Dry Kill Logic released a cover on their 2006 EP/DVD, The Magellan Complex
• The American hard rock band Avenged Sevenfold covered this song live with former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles on April 16, 2009.

References