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Rolling Stones songs: It’s Not Easy
Sit here thinking with your head of fire/ Go think the same thing and never tire…
Mick Jagger: vocals Keith Richards: guitar, backing vocals Brian Jones: guitar Bill Wyman: bass Charlie Watts: drums Guest musicians: Ian Stewart (organ)
It’s Not Easy often slips through the cracks of the Rolling Stones’ story, yet it captures the band at a fascinating moment of change. Released on Aftermath in 1966, the song finds the Stones moving beyond strict blues formulas and toward a more personal, melodic kind of songwriting—one that still bites, but thinks twice before it does.
Lyrically, the track pushes past swagger into uneasy self-reflection. Instead of blaming a woman for his troubles, Mick Jagger’s narrator admits that living alone is harder than expected. Regret, excuses, and wounded pride collide, creating a tension that feels more human than the band’s usual putdowns. Vulnerability sneaks in almost by accident.
Musically It’s Not Easy mirrors that emotional shift. Chugging rhythms, fuzzy textures, and call-and-response vocals blend blues grit with pop structure. It’s not a hit, but it’s a revealing snapshot of the Stones learning how to sound like themselves.
More about It’s Not Easy by The Rolling Stones
*By Marcelo Sonaglioni
Looking beyond the swagger
For a band often accused of tossing out barbed lyrics about women without a second thought, It’s Not Easy offers a surprisingly different angle—though it takes its time getting there. Instead of the usual finger-pointing, the narrator slips into something like regret, admitting that living on your own isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and that taking a girl for granted is a pretty big failing in a man. It feels like the beginnings of a mea culpa… until he immediately falls back on excuses, comparing himself to a cat running through a thunderstorm and painting his lost lover as an almost mythic presence, glowing hair and all.
Whether she’s a honky-tonk woman in disguise or simply a romantic ideal he never appreciated, the tension between guilt and self-pity makes the song more nuanced than the Stones’ usual “she’s trouble” stance. In that sense, it quietly aligns with the band’s long-running “can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em· worldview, even as it exposes a rare moment of emotional imbalance.
A new kind of blues-pop
By the time Aftermath hit the shelves the Rolling Stones had started steering away from straightforward blues covers and rigid twelve-bar patterns. Instead, they were learning to master original material that felt bluesy in spirit without being bound by traditional blues structures, shaping a blues-pop hybrid that was highly original for mid-’60s rock. It’s Not Easy sits right in the middle of that shift, blending grit with a more melodic, radio-friendly framework while retaining the band’s raw edge. It never became widely known—especially among listeners whose exposure to the Stones comes mainly from radio, concerts, or greatest-hits collections—but within the album, it stands as one of the stronger examples of this transitional sound.
The opening moment hints at the roots they were reshaping: a brief unaccompanied guitar figure that sets the tone with a clear “make the best of it even when things are screwed up” attitude. From there, the chugging rhythm and fuzzy low-end texture—heard across several Aftermath tracks—underline the band’s growing confidence in bending blues language to their own ends.
Keith takes the spotlight
If there’s one person who really gets to flex on this track, it’s Keith Richards. His guitar work here is a compact study in tone and phrasing, beginning with that blues-jazz intro on his 6-string electric, likely the Guild M-65 Freshman with the treble rolled off for warmth. He keeps that guitar in play throughout, tossing out sharp, improvisational licks that sound relaxed but deliberate. He also overdubs the lead guitar and solo parts—probably with his Gibson Firebird—giving the song multiple guitar voices without crowding the arrangement.
Brian Jones, often overlooked in discussions of this era, supplies a solid rhythmic foundation with his own Firebird, while Ian Stewart’s organ lines add color without tipping into ornamentation. The fuzzy bass sound—innovative for 1966—remains ambiguous in origin, whether a fuzz bass played by Bill Wyman, something handled by Richards, or a more novel texture possibly involving Jack Nitzsche. Either way, that abrasive low end became part of Aftermath’s sonic fingerprint.
Holding everything together is Charlie Watts, whose Ludwig kit once again proves why he was the band’s quiet anchor. Even when the bottom end feels thin, Charlie drives the track with precision and restraint, letting momentum do the work rather than volume.
Vulnerability behind the punch
What ultimately gives It’s Not Easy its emotional weight isn’t just the arrangement, but the vocal structure. Instead of Mick Jagger dominating every line, the song leans heavily on a call-and-response pattern. Mick half-shouts, drawls, and stretches out his declarations—”it’s not easy, it’s hard, it’s rough“—while harmonized backing vocals answer him, turning the performance into something communal rather than confrontational.
That exchange reveals the song’s quiet subversion. While many Stones tracks from this period revolve around seductive but troublesome women, It’s Not Easyisn’t a putdown at all. It’s a man openly bemoaning how difficult life feels after his woman is gone. Beneath the casual delivery and sarcastic edges lies a rare admission of loneliness and dependence. Mick may sound playful or detached at times, but that contrast between tone and message only deepens the effect.
In the end, It’s Not Easycaptures a band at a crucial turning point—learning to write their own songs, blend genres, and let cracks show beneath the bravado. It’s messy, catchy, experimental, and unexpectedly honest, making it one of Aftermath’s most quietly revealing moments.
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