Easy Livin'

Ken Hensley wrote it and Gerry Bron produced; it was the second single from Demons and Wizards, released in July 1972 on Bronze in the UK and Mercury in the US, with "Gypsy" on the UK B-side and "All My Life" on the US one. Hensley told Songfacts that, sharing a taxi home while finishing the album before a tour, the band talked about how people see their lives as easy; the two words life and easy stuck with me, and he finished it in about 15 minutes, though other accounts say 10. Songfacts reads it as ironic, in the manner of "Life's Been Good" and "Money for Nothing", which is its reading and not Hensley's. He did not expect a hit but knew we had a great song for the band.

It reached 39 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1972, five in the Netherlands, nine in Denmark, 15 in West Germany and 25 in Canada, but did not chart in the UK; it was used in Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Setlist.fm lists it as the band's most-played song, 1,184 plays by Uriah Heep from its first on April 5, 1972 in Heidelberg to October 28, 2026 in Budapest. Covers include James Last (1972), W.A.S.P. (1986), Angel Dust (1998), the Dickies (1998), Blackfoot and Ruby the Hatchet (December 4, 2019). We do not know whether our upload is the studio single or a live version.