Michael Jackson and Diana Ross – Ease On Down The Road (Extended MjTunes.com)

"Ease On Down the Road" is a song from the Broadway musical The Wiz, best known in its 1978 release as a duet between soul singers and Motown alums Diana Ross & Michael Jackson.

The 1978 duet was released as the theme song of the 1978 film adaptation of The Wiz (itself an adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz), and produced by Quincy Jones. The Charlie Smalls–composed tune was an R&B re-interpretation of both "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" and "We’re Off to See the Wizard" from the 1939 version of The Wizard of Oz. In the song, Dorothy (portrayed in the film by Ross) and the Scarecrow (played by Jackson) dance their way down the Yellow Brick Road, and give each other words of encouragement.

"Ease on Down the Road" is performed four times in The Wiz: once by Dorothy and the Scarecrow, once by the two of them and the Tin Man (played in the movie by Nipsey Russell), by the three of them and the Cowardly Lion (played by Ted Ross), and finally during the end credits. In the album version, Jackson & Ross sing by themselves. The recording was one of Jackson’s first collaborations with Quincy Jones, who became his main producer during the late 1970s and 1980s.

Released as a single in the late summer of 1978, the song missed the U.S. Top 40 by one position, peaking at #41 on the Billboard Hot 100. It reached #17 on the Soul Singles chart the same year.

Previously, the song had been released as a single by Consumer Rapport in 1975. This version made it to #42 on the Billboard Hot 100 and to #19 on Billboard’s R&B chart, at the time known as Hot Soul Singles.

Ease On Down The Road – Lyrics

Come on and
Ease on down, ease on down the road
Come on, ease on down
Ease on down the road
Don’t you carry nothing
That might be a load
Come on, ease on down
Ease on down the road

Come on, ease on down, ease on down the road
Come on, ease on down, ease on down the road
Don’t you carry nothing
That might be a load
Come on, ease on down, ease on down, down the road

Pick your left foot up
When your right foot’s down
Come on legs keep movin’
Don’t you lose no ground
You just keep on keepin’
On the road that you choose
Don’t you give up walkin’
‘Cause you gave up shoes, no

Ease on down, ease on down the road
Come on, ease on down
Ease on down the road
Don’t you carry nothing
That might be a load
Come on, ease on down
Ease on down the road

‘Cause there maybe times
When you think you lost your mind
And the steps you’re takin’
Leave you three, four steps behind
But the road you’re walking
Might be long sometimes
You just keep on steppin’
And you’ll just be fine, yeah

Ease on down, ease on down the road
Come on, ease on down
Ease on down the road
Don’t you carry nothing
That might be a load
Come on, ease on down
Ease on down the road

Well there maybe times
When you wish you wasn’t born
And you wake one morning
Just to find your courage’s gone
But just know that feeling
Only last a little while
You stick with us
And we’ll show you how to smile, yeah

Get ’em up, goin’ down, ease on down
Get ’em up, goin’ down, ease on down
Get ’em up, goin’ down, ease on down
Get ’em up, get ’em up ease on down