The 4th and final track on the Plenty More Fish In The Sea EP. This was written in France in the summer of 1998. I was working on a campsite in Southern Brittany near a town called La Trinite sur Mer. It was a fun summer, I made lots of friends with my fellow campsite workers and went sailing with the lad who ran the campsite shop. A particular memory is of my friend Rob and I, in some rare downtime, sunbathing next to the pool. A particularly attractive French woman came and lay next to us and proceeded to apply suntan lotion in a responsible, but also deeply sexy manner. Rob and I both caught ourselves staring at the same time and as we unsubtly tried to pretend to be looking at something else Rob whispered to me "we're getting paid for this". It really made me laugh and it inspired this song.
Roughly six months later I was driving across Australia with a disparate group of travellers, some of whom were genuinely on the run from the law. One of our number was a girl called Penny. She became obsessed with this song and wanted me to play it all the time. She was effusive about how much the song meant to her and how it perfectly encapsulated how she felt about life at that time. We lost touch after our trip across the desert and I never saw her again, but to this day I can remember how it felt to discover that it was possible to touch someone with my music. It's a very special thing.
The final thing I want to mention about recording the Plenty More Fish EP is that the magnificent Jason Bootle played bass on all the tracks. He was living with Les at the time at his house in Brixton where the EP was recorded and would occasionally pop down in his pyjamas to quickly bang out a superb bassline for us. I haven't seen him for years but I'm still friends with him on Facebook and so am fairly confident that he's still one of the nicest men alive.
You can listen to The Easy Life and read the lyrics below.
The Easy Life
I took the job, took the money, though it wasn't much
And I wasn't afraid, I took it smiling, well perhaps just a touch
I've heard people talking some people say one thing, some people say another
Some people are nice, some people are strange and some are unique, not like any other
Hard life, tough shit
I'm sure it's tragic but I don't care a bit
If I've done it, you've done it worse
And that's great but I'm not here to rehearse
Look at me ma, I'm surfing on the strife
It's never forever but we're living the easy life
It's bound to get harder, but it won't be tomorrow
That you hang your head in shame, that you hang your head in sorrow
I know you feel you should be working, but you can't hide that smile
So just put your feet up, open a beer, because we're living the easy life
Lazy days, just playing my guitar
But it's not this idle attitude that's going to take me far
Coz I don't do this for free, so thank you, mine's a beer
Les wants a mention well he gets it here
My life's not bad
It's not all good but now I cannot feel sad
My heart's bleeding, coz you've had it worse
But stop your whinging coz I'm not here to rehearse
Look at me ma, I'm surfing on the strife
It's never forever but we're living the easy life
It's bound to get harder, but it won't be tomorrow
That you hang your head in shame, that you hang your head in sorrow
I know you feel you should be working, but you can't hide that smile
So just put your feet up, open a beer, because we're living the easy life