The Easy Way Lyrics
But he had to decide between me and the one before,
And she stacked it all up, like a house of cards,
Said if he didn't come back, he'd find her flattened on the floor.
And though I went and lived in my own Hell,
Thought that I could die as well,
I let him go where he thought he had to go.
Cause I never took heavy words for granted,
And I never took the undeserved advantage,
No I never took the easy way,
So why don't you take it a little easy on me now.
I thought I would explode just for some attention,
Like an acolyte, I saw the flames of towering tapers,
Almost proselytized by those gleaming piles of paper,
Yeah I watched those power huddles
And their coats draped over puddles,
And their "Trust me, baby, I'm the one you need."
But I never took heavy words for granted,
And I never took the undeserved advantage,
No I never took the easy way,
So why don't you take it a little easy on me now.
So we hold each other up to the higher standard,
But I'll tell you what; I'll never try to make it hard.
Cause when you're hard just to be hard,
The only thing that's hard is you.
Until every path just grew up and ever after,
Through the peaks and twisty canyons,
I made many great companions,
Best of all is the one who loves me like you do.
I never took heavy words for granted,
And I never took the undeserved advantage,
No I never took the easy way,
So why don't you take it a little easy on me now.
And it's much too late to even want the shortcut,
Yeah, I never took the easy way,
So you can take it a little easy on me now.
Cause we know that easy's never easy anyhow.
The way I like to think of it is that she's in a fight with her current partner, and he or she has just accused her of being manipulative or passive-aggressive or something. She's telling this story as a way of saying, "dude, do you have any idea how much it's cost me because I wasn't willing to do those things? I could have kept the first guy I loved if I'd been willing to catfight a little, but I said no to that BS. I was on my own for years, until I found you, and that makes me even happier that I didn't compromise. So cut me some slack, okay? I might have gone wrong and hurt you, but I promise, I won't ever try to screw with you."
I like the fight with a partner interpretation. I always thought, though, that it's a more general sort of fight (or this is how I've projected my life onto the song, at least). Everyone's life choices face the scrutiny of others at time and if you've taken a somewhat unconventional path you often wind up in places that put you out of step with the people around you. Sometimes this makes them question your choices because it means you seem to be "behind" in life or you're not as overtly successful as people think you should be.
This song is a defense of choices.