Life Can Be Hard

Written by: McCartney
Producers: Paul McCartney, Andrew Watt

Released: 29 May 2026

Available on:
The Boys Of Dungeon Lane

Personnel

Paul McCartney: vocals, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, piano, Mellotron, synthesizer, drums, tambourine, maracas, shaker
Andrew Watt: acoustic guitar, synthesizer

‘Life Can Be Hard’ is the 11th song on Paul McCartney’s 19th solo album The Boys Of Dungeon Lane.

The song was written during lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

A lot of people had a hard time, but then a lot of people didn’t. We were lucky. I was with Nancy and she had her niece and her spouse, and they had a new baby, so it was really cool, the two of us in the house with the two of them and the baby. Every morning Nancy would get up and say to Marissa, her niece, ‘Can I wake the baby up?’

McCartney arranged the strings, and the brass and woodwind were by Ben Foster and Giles Martin. Foster conducted the big band arrangement.