Songfacts®:

• Running to 3 minutes 27 seconds, this uptempo Deke Leonard composition was released on United Artists as a promo although in New Zealand it was backed by "The Aching Is So Sweet."
  
  The song was produced by Dave Edmunds; according to Roger Trenwith writing for The Progressive Aspect: "Deke had to deconstruct Edmunds' layered production, lest it sounded 'exactly like a Dave Edmunds record.' Deke ponders in his wryly humorous way that had he left it alone he might have had a hit with it."
• "A Hard Way To Live" was also included on the 2008 reissue of the 1974 Man album Slow Motion. In spite of the glamour and high earnings, many time-serving rock stars find their profession a hard way to live. Deke Leonard used to say he was serving a life sentence in the music business, a sentence that came to an end on January 31, 2017 when he died at the age of 72 leaving a rich musical legacy. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2