It's So Hard

Infobox Single
Name = It's So Hard


Artist = John Lennon
from Album = Imagine
A-side = Imagine
Released = October 11, 1971
Format = 7" vinyl
Recorded = 1971
Genre = Blues rock
Length = 02:25
Label = Parlophone
Writer = John Lennon
Producer = Phil Spector, John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Certification =
Chart position = * #6 (UK Oct. 1975);#1 (UK Dec. 1980)
* #3 (U.S. Oct. 1971)
Last single = "Power to the People"/"Open Your Box"
(1971)
This single = "Imagine"/"It's So Hard"
(1971)
*| Next single = "Happy Xmas (War is Over)"/"Listen, the Snow is Falling"
(1971)

"It's So Hard" is a song written and performed by John Lennon which first appeared on his 1971 album "Imagine". Shortly after the album's release, the song was released as the B-side to the single "Imagine."

The lyrics of the song describe Lennon's attitude towards life, that though things are hard and sometimes you "feel like going down," "you got to live, you got to love, you got to be somebody," and so forth. It demonstrate's Lennon's prankster streak with its double entendres ("it's so hard" and "going down").

The song, when taken into context with "Imagine" or some of the other overtly political tracks on the album such as "Gimme Some Truth," could be heard as having political connotations, saying that one must rebel against the clear-cut lines drawn by the government to live their own lives and to love.

The saxophone break comes courtesy of King Curtis who played on many jazz and pop recordings of the 1950s and 60s, including The Coasters' 1958 hit Yakety Yak. It was one of his final performances, as he was murdered just one month before the U.S. release of "Imagine"

Klaus Voormann, a longtime friend of the Beatles and designer of the cover for their "Revolver" album, plays bass on the song.