Are you having a long day
Everyone you meet rubs you the wrong way
Dirty city streets smell like an ashtray
Morning bells are ringing in your ear

Is your brother on a church kick
Seems like just a different kind of dope sick
Better off to teach a dog a card trick
And try to have a point and make it clear

You should know compared
To people on a global scale
Our kind has had it relatively easy
And here with you there's always
Something to look forward to
Our angry heart beats relatively easy

I lost a good friend
Christmas time when folks go off the deep end
His woman took the kids and he took Klonopin
Enough to kill a man of twice his size

Not for me to understand
Remember him when he was still a proud man
A vandals smile a baseball in his right hand
Nothing but the blue sky in his eye

Still compared to those
A stones throw away from you
Our lives have both been relatively easy
Take the(a) year and make a break
There ain't that much at stake
The answers could be relatively easy

Watch that lucky man walk to work again
He may not have a friend left in the world
See him walking home again to sleep alone
Or step into a shop to buy a postcard for a girl

I broke the law boys
Shooting out the windows of my loft boys
When they picked me up I made a big noise
Everything to blame except my mind

And I should say I keep your picture with me everyday
The evenings now are relatively easy
Here with you there's always
Something to look forward to
My lonely heart beats relatively easy
My lonely heart beats relatively easy


Lyrics submitted by grabysmith, edited by bkabbott

Relatively Easy Lyrics as written by Jason Isbell

Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

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Relatively Easy song meanings
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    General Comment

    After performing "Elephant" at the Ryman recently, Jason said that a man at a prior concert responded to the song by yelling out "Play a SAD song!"

    This whole album (Southeastern) reminds me of Springsteen's "Nebraska", which is very high praise from this NJ boy, indeed. And the fragile hope & optimism expressed in "Relatively Easy" is his "Reason to Believe."

    RayBobon November 09, 2014   Link

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