The Plastic Ono Band - It's So Hard (Mike Douglas Show 1972)

"It's So Hard" first appeared in 1971 on 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 Revolve album, plays bass on the song. Here The Plastic Ono Band perform It's So Hard, on The Mike Douglas Show in 1972.