Just Passin' By... (formerly known as World Was So Easy) is a formerly unidentified folk-pop song by Canadian band Big Picture, released in 1994 on the band’s self titled album.
Search History
On February 12th, 2021, Reddit user u/e-robotic posted the clip onto the subreddit r/tipofmytongue asking if anyone knew the song. The three-second clip shows a man named Asif Illyas with a guitar while someone called Ben Fong sings something along the lines of "I never thought the world was so easily...." and then shortly cuts off.
On April 5th, 2021, u/e-robotic uploaded the clip onto their channel with new details. The guitar used in the video was a Parker Fly, which was released in 1993. And the logo in the bottom right corner was revealed to be the New Country Network (NCN), which ran from January 1st, 1995, to October 31st, 1996, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The search remained dormant until December 4th, 2023, when the OP uploaded the entire unedited footage of his tape recording, revealing that it also included footage of the 1996 Scott Tournament of Hearts, a women's curling championship broadcast on February 20th, 1996.
On February 20th, 2024, after around 3 years of searching, the song was identified by Chris Murphy, Lee Rosevere, and Reddit user JadeLily_StarChild as Just Passin' By... by Big Picture. The song was identified after JadeLily_StarChild contacted Chris Murphy, who was a member of the Canadian band Sloan, Chris had recognized the band and Lee Rosevere found the full song in his record collection.
A day later, the full music video was uploaded to YouTube by band member Asif Ilyas. And the day after that, band member Benny Fong uploaded footage of a live performance of the song from 1994-09-11.
On February 29th, Asif and Benny posted an acoustic version of the song. Asif also posted behind the scenes footage of the music video and recording session.
Lyrics
Just the other day, I was passin' you by
Thinkin' of the things that I knew were true
Just the other day was a time in my life
When I thought the song that I sang was new
And I thought, "I won't be lonely anymore"
But oh no!
Just the other day, I was passin' you by
Lookin' for a change in this part of my life
I never thought the world was so easily won
Just by realizin' that you got someone
To say, "You won't be lonely anymore"
But oh no!
'Cause it would be so hard to be feeling so good
When I know that seeing you means waiting, waiting
Waiting so long, so long
So long, so long
So long, so long
So long, so long
Just the other day, I was passin' you by
Thinkin' that the path that I took was right
Always on the road that nobody'd taken
No one ever said it led back to me
But you said, "You won't be lonely anymore"
But oh no!
'Cause it would be so hard to be feeling so good
When I know that seeing you means waiting, waiting
Waiting so long, so long
So long, so long
So long, so long
So long, so long
I'd tell myself that I was wrong
When I was right
I found it hard to convince myself
So I'm wonderin' why
I'm wonderin' why
I was just passin' by
Waiting, waiting so long, so long
So long, so long
So long, so long
So long, so long
'Cause I was just passin' by
I was just passin' by
I was just passin' by
Big Picture
Big Picture is a folk rock band from Halifax, Nova Scotia, (Canada). They formed in the late 80s.
Big Picture. Left to right: Chris Church, Julian Marentette, Joel Allen, Shehab Ilyas, Benjamin Fong, Asif Ilyas
The band consists of: Benjamin Fong (lead vocals, backing vocals), Asif Ilyas (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Shehab Ilyas (fretless bass) Christopher Church (violin, viola, backing vocals), Julian Marentette (drums, percussion), and Joel Allen (drums, percussion).
In 1992, they recorded their first album Live And In Studio, a collection of songs being played live. The album has two sides: Studio 1 and Live 2.
Studio 1 of the collection was recorded in a live mix, four hour session in 1991 in Halifax, Nova Scotia at Solar Audio Studio.
Live 2 of the collection was recording during an 'indepoendant night' gig in 1991 in Halifax, Nova Scotia at The Flamingo Café and Lounge.
In 1994, they released their second album Just Passin' By..., with this song as the lead single and title track.
In 1996, they released their third album, self-titled Big Picture.
Asif also recorded a few songs as a solo artist. One of them being Synesthesia, which he released in 2013.
Gallery
Original recording by OP.
