Take It So Hard

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“Take It So Hard”
“Take It So Hard” cover
Single by Keith Richards
from the album Talk is Cheap
Released 1988
Format CD, 7"
Recorded August 1987 – May 1988
Genre Rock
Length 3 min 11 s
Label Virgin
Writer(s) K. Richards/S. Jordan
Producer Keith Richards and Steve Jordan
Keith Richards singles chronology
""Run Rudolph Run""
(1979)		 "Take it so hard "
(1988)		 ""You Don't Move Me""
(1988)

"Take It So Hard" is the first single from Keith Richards first solo record, Talk is Cheap. The long-time Rolling Stones guitarist recorded the record after band mate Mick Jagger refused to tour in 1986 in support of the album Dirty Work . The second song of the eleven track record, it is a powerful example of vocal rock harmonies and rhythmic guitar, piano and percussion syncopation, with an overlay of vocal tracks that bury the lyrics within the push and pull of the music.

Richards described writing and recording Talk is Cheap as a bit by bit accumulation of song threads and recording sessions. Except for "Make No Mistake", which he said came to him all at once, "Take It So Hard" like other songs was put together through several recording sessions in 1987 and 1988[1]. Steve Jordan and Richards wrote the song and the lyrics reflect an esoteric tone. The opening lines thump with the hard percussion and overtracked fuzz guitar sound; the raspy voiced Richards sings plaintively- he ain' that way.

“ Giving up lovin' - easy to do; People so pityful;They never come through; Honey, honey, honey I ain't that way ”

The lyrics play on Richards reputation as a party pirate, yet the they also reflect a cautionary note.

“ You want a little bit - once in a while; Come on and get a bit; You shouldn't take it so hard - Yeah ”

The song was reviewed in Rolling Stone magazine positively, but Richards never explained the lyrics. Kurt Loder called it the "perfect Keith single"[2] . The music video for the song shows Richards and the X-Pensive Winos- the name for Richards' backing band- in the ruins of a sports stadium playing in the nuclear dust after an atomic bomb has destroyed everyone but the cat-like musician. "Take it So Hard" led off the 1988 concert tour sets, and was played in the 1992-1993 Main Offender dates as well.

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ DeCurtis, Anthony. (1988). "Keith Richards: The Rolling Stone Interview". Rolling Stone. No. 536. 6 October 1988
  2. ^ Loder, Kurt. "Liner Notes". Live at the Hollywood Palladium, December 15, 1988. Virgin Records. 1991.

[edit] External links