It Ain't Easy (Baldry album)

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It Ain't Easy

Studio album by Long John Baldry
Released	1971
Genre	Blues Rock
Label	Warner Music
Producer(s)	Rod Stewart
All Music Guide link
Long John Baldry chronology
Wait for Me 1969	It Ain't Easy	Everything Stops for Tea 1972

It Ain't Easy is a 1971 album by Long John Baldry.

According to extensive notes about Long John Baldry's career in the re-release 2005 CD, Rod Stewart was brought on board to produce "It Ain't Easy" for Warner Brothers. Soon after in 1970, Stewart met Reg Dwight (later taking the name Elton John) at a party and the piano player joined on, too. Stewart and John each produced half of this bluesy album, with John contributing much of the piano work. Stewart brought in mate Ron Wood to play guitar, as well as many others who would appear on Stewart's Every Picture Tells a Story, released later in 1971.

The Baldry album features his biggest U.S. hit, "Don't Try to Lay No Boogie-Woogie on the King of Rock and Roll." In the liner notes, Baldry notes how Stewart's loose and late-night recording sessions affected the tracks, "especially those recorded on my thirtieth birthday when he showed up with cases of Remy Martin cognac and several measures of good quality champagne!" Baldry points out that "Don't Try to Lay No Boogie-Woogie on the King of the Rock and Roll" was recorded "whilst laying on the floor."

The 1971 release also features "Black Girl," the centuries-old American folk song most associated with Leadbelly, though covered by the likes of Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Dolly Parton and Nirvana. Baldry does an impressive version singing with Maggie Bell, who also appeared on Every Picture Tells a Story.

"It Ain't Easy" also includes Willie Dixon's classic "I'm Ready" and an Elton John-Bernie Taupin song, "Rock Me When He's Gone". The story goes that John, a budding star in the early 1970s, took his last name from Long John Baldry.