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