"It's So Hard" is a song written and performed by

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

, which first appeared on his 1971 album ''

Imagine Imagine may refer to: * Imagination Music Albums * ''Imagine'' (Armin van Buuren album), 2008 * ''Imagine'' (Eva Cassidy album), 2002 * ''Imagine'' (Janice Vidal album), 2012 * ''Imagine'' (John Lennon album), 1971 ** ''Imagine: John Lennon' ...

''. Shortly after the album's release, the song was issued as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

to the single "

". In

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, it was released on an EP with "Imagine", "

Oh My Love "Oh My Love" is a song written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono that appeared on Lennon's '' Imagine'' album in 1971. Information The song was originally written with different lyrics and demoed in 1968 after sessions for the album ''The Beatles''. Th ...

" and "

Gimme Some Truth "Gimme Some Truth" (originally spelled "Give Me Some Truth") is a protest song written and performed by John Lennon. It was first released on his 1971 album ''Imagine (John Lennon album), Imagine''. "Gimme Some Truth" contains various politica ...

". In 1986, a live performance from 30 August 1972 was issued on Lennon's live album '' Live in New York City''.

Lyrics and music

According to author John Blaney, the lyrics of "It's So Hard" represent a summary of Lennon's struggle with life's difficulties. The lyrics describe one of Lennon's attitudes towards life, complaining about difficulties and the need to eat and love, commenting that sometimes things get so difficult he wants to stop trying; he ultimately finds solace with his lover. Author Andrew Grant Jackson interprets the song as demonstrating the difficulty in achieving the

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...

-style vision in his song "

", which was released as the A-side of the single including "It's So Hard", due to the drudgery of everyday life. The song incorporates

double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...

s such as "going down", which is used to mean "giving up" early in the song, but refers to

oral sex Oral sex, sometimes referred to as oral intercourse, is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a person by another person using the mouth (including the lips, tongue, or teeth) and the throat. Cunnilingus is oral sex per ...

later in the song. The title phrase serves as a sexual double entendre when used in the portion of the song describing when the singer is with his lover and things are good. "It's So Hard" is a rocking

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

-style tune. Music critic

Wilfrid Mellers Wilfrid Howard Mellers (26 April 1914 – 17 May 2008) was an English music critic, musicologist and composer. Early life Born in Leamington, Warwickshire, Mellers was educated at the local Leamington College and later won a scholarship to Dow ...

considers the vocal line to be based on

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

and

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became po ...

, but states that the song's use of sharpened fourths and

false relation A false relation (also known as cross-relation, non-harmonic relation) is the name of a type of dissonance that sometimes occurs in polyphonic music, most commonly in vocal music of the Renaissance. The term describes a "chromatic contradiction" ...

s gives it a "harsh rock-bottom reality comparable with that of genuine, primitive blues". ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' critic

David Fricke David Fricke is an American music journalist who serves as the senior editor at ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, where he writes predominantly about rock music. One of the best known names in rock journalism, his career has spanned over 40 years. I ...

describes it as being "like '

Yer Blues "Yer Blues" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, from their 1968 double album ''The Beatles'' (also known as "the White Album"). Though credited to Lennon–McCartney, the song was written and composed by John Lennon during the Beatl ...

' from ''The Beatles'', with an ironed-out beat and hearty blasts of

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

Recording

"It's So Hard" was recorded on 11 February 1971 at

Ascot Sound Studios Tittenhurst Park is a Listed building#Categories of listed building, Grade II listed early Georgian architecture, Georgian English country house, country house set in off London Road at Beggar's Bush near Ascot, Berkshire, Ascot and over the ...

, Ascot and

Record Plant East The Record Plant is a recording studio established in New York City in 1968 and currently operating in Los Angeles, California. Known for innovations in the recording artists' workspace, it has produced highly influential albums, including Blon ...

, New York. It was the first song recorded at Ascot, as it was considered a good test for the new studio, being a simple

song. The Flux Fiddlers' part was overdubbed on 4 July 1971 at the Record Plant. The primary instruments are Lennon on guitar & piano,

Klaus Voormann Klaus Otto Wilhelm Voormann (born 29 April 1938) is a German artist, musician, and record producer. Voormann was the bassist for Manfred Mann from 1966 to 1969, and performed as a session musician on a host of recordings, including "You're So V ...

on bass and Jim Gordon on drums. In addition, the instrumentals include

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

played by the Flux Fiddlers and a saxophone solo played by

King Curtis Curtis Ousley (born Curtis Montgomery; February 7, 1934 – August 13, 1971), known professionally as King Curtis, was an American saxophonist who played rhythm and blues, jazz, and rock and roll. A bandleader, band member, and session musicia ...

. Curtis had played on many

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and pop recordings of the 1950s and 1960s, including

the Coasters The Coasters are an American rhythm and blues/rock and roll vocal group who had a string of hits in the late 1950s. Beginning with "Searchin'" and " Young Blood" in 1957, their most memorable songs were written by the songwriting and producing ...

' 1958 hit "

Yakety Yak "Yakety Yak" is a song written, produced, and arranged by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller for the Coasters and released on Atco Records in 1958, spending seven weeks as #1 on the R&B charts and a week as number one on the Top 100 pop list. This ...

". It was one of his final performances, as he was murdered just one month before the US release of ''

''. His sax break for "It's So Hard" was recorded on 5 July 1971.

Reception

Mellers praises the potency of the song's ' barrelhouse piano style' and the compulsiveness generated by the song's

ostinato In music, an ostinato (; derived from Italian word for ''stubborn'', compare English ''obstinate'') is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known ostinato-based pieces include ...

. Music instructors Ben Urish and Ken Bielen describe "It's So Hard" as "enjoyable enough", claiming that it "makes its simple point without belabouring it". John Blaney claims that in inferior hands the song could have been "a maudlin song of self-pity" but Lennon's "bouncy arrangement" and "snappy rhythm/lead guitar" avoids this issue. Author Robert Rodriguez calls it one of the "edgier tracks" on ''Imagine'' that forms the album's "real meat". Music critic

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

describes it as an "unsung great song". Jackson calls it "a funny rant about life that anyone who hasn't slept enough, before another day at work, can make his or her own", adding that "as banal as it is, no one before had ever kvetched in such a humorous way about how hard it was just to function as a human being."

Other versions

On 14 January 1972, Lennon and Ono Lennon recorded "It's So Hard", backed by

Elephant's Memory Elephant's Memory (also billed as Elephants Memory, without the apostrophe) was an American rock band formed in New York City in the late 1960s, known primarily for backing John Lennon and Yoko Ono from late 1971 to 1973. For live performance ...

for an edition of ''

The Mike Douglas Show ''The Mike Douglas Show'' was an American daytime television talk show that was hosted by Mike Douglas. It began as a local program in Cleveland before being carried on other stations owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting. The show went into nati ...

'' which aired on 14 February. Activist

Jerry Rubin Jerry Clyde Rubin (July 14, 1938 – November 28, 1994) was an American social activist, anti-war leader, and counterculture icon during the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1980s, he became a successful businessman. He is known for being one of the ...

played percussion for this performance. Lennon also played the track during a benefit concert at Madison Square Garden on 30 August 1972. The version from the album ''Imagine'' was included in the documentary '' Gimme Some Truth: The Making of John Lennon's 'Imagine' Album''. It was also included in a version of the film '' Imagine: John Lennon'' for a scene where Lennon and Ono attended a party at the New York home of

Allen Klein Allen Klein (December 18, 1931 July 4, 2009) was an American businessman whose aggressive negotiation tactics affected industry standards for compensating recording artists. He founded ABKCO Music & Records Incorporated. Klein increased profits ...

, but the scene was cut from the film.

Chris Goss Christopher Ryan Goss (born August 17, 1958) is an American record producer and musician. Best known for producing records for Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age, he is regarded as an important figure in the development of stoner rock and deser ...

and

Masters of Reality Masters of Reality is an American rock band formed in 1981 by frontman Chris Goss and guitarist Tim Harrington in Syracuse, New York, United States. They took the name for the band from a misprinted label of the third Black Sabbath album. G ...

covered "It's So Hard" on their 2004 album ''

Give Us Barabbas ''Give Us Barabbas'' is the fifth studio album of the American rock band Masters of Reality, released in 2004. Material for the album comes from sessions for a planned release on Epic Records in the mid 1990s entitled ''The Ballad of Jody Frosty ...

''.

Personnel

– vocals, electric guitar, piano *

– bass *

– tenor saxophone * Jim Gordon – drums, tambourine *The Flux Fiddlers – strings

References

{{Authority control John Lennon songs 1971 songs Songs written by John Lennon Song recordings produced by John Lennon Song recordings produced by Phil Spector Song recordings produced by Yoko Ono Apple Records singles British blues rock songs