It's All Right Ma (I'm only Bleeding)
Words and music by Bob Dylan

30th Anniversary Concert version
Transcription by Kelvin Sherlock (ksherloc@gnu.uvm.edu)

Drop D Tuning (DADGBe)
      DADGBe
      ++++++
D:    000232
D/A:  x00232
D/Bb: x1023x
G/B:  x20032
D/C:  x3023x
Dm7:  000211
Em7:  000433
A:    x02220

The riff between verses looks like:


   D   Dm7 Em7    Dm7 D      (use middle finger on 4th,5th strings)
e--2---1---3--3---1---2---------------------------------
B--3---1---3--3---1---3---------------------------------
G--2---2---4--4---2---2---------------------------------
D--0---0---0--0---0---0-----------0---3-----0-----------
A-----------------------------3-----------------3---0---
D-------------------------------------------------------


G/B
Darkness at the break of noon
D
Shadows even the silver spoon
    D/C
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
 G/B
Eclipses both the sun and moon
   D/Bb
To understand, you know to soon
                             D     riff
That there is no sense in tryin'
 
Pointed threats they bluff with scorn, 
suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece, the hollow horn
Plays wasted words, proves to warn 
that he not busy being born is busy dying

Temptation's page flies out the door 
You follow, find yourself at war 
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before 
You discover that you just be one more person crying.

D                    A   D/C
So don't fear if you hear 
  D                     G/B  (hammer 5th string: A---2--0h2--0h2--)
a foreign sound to your ear
D    G/B D    A                D     riff
It's allright ma, I'm only sighing

As some warn victory, some downfall, 
private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eys of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all 
except hatred

Disillusioned words like bullets bark 
as human gods aim for their mark
Make everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
not much is really sacred

Preachers preach of evil fates, 
teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred dollar plates, 
goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States 
must sometimes have to stand naked

And though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you've got to dodge
And it's allright ma, I can make it
 
Advertising signs that con you 
into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done, 
that can win what's nver been won
Meantime life outside goes on all around you

You lose yourself, you reappear 
you suddenly find you've got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near 
when a trembling distant voice unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
somebody thinks they really found you

A question in your nerves is lit 
yet you know there is no answer fit
To satisfy, ensure you not to quit 
keep it in your mind and not forget
That it is not he or she or them or it that you belong to

Although the masters make the rules 
for the wise men and the fools
I've got nothing ma, to live up to
 
 
Old lady judges watch people in pairs, 
limited in sex they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stares 
Money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares, 
propaganda all is phony

While them that defend what they cannot see 
with a killer's pride, security
It blows the mind most bitterly 
for them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally 
life sometimes must get lonely

My eyes collide head on with stuffed 
graveyards, false goals, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough, 
walk upside down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off, 
say OK I've had enough
What else can you show me?

And if my thought dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
It's allright ma, it's life and life only