It's Alright Ma, I'm only bleeding

Bob Dylan, "It's Alright Ma, I'm only bleeding", (1969 acoustic). (1978 electric).

[Expand]Lyrics

[Verse 1]

Darkness at the break of noon

Shadows even the silver spoon

The handmade blade, the child's balloon

Eclipses both the sun and moon

To understand you know too soon

There is no sense in trying

[Verse 2]

Pointed threats they bluff with scorn

Suicide remarks are torn

From the fools gold mouthpiece the hollow horn

Plays wasted words, proves to warn

That he not busy being born

Is busy dying

[Verse 3]

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'd just be one more

Person crying

[Chorus]

So don't fear

If you hear

A foreign sound

To your ear

It's alright, Ma

I'm only sighing

[Verse 4]

As some warn victory, some downfall

Private reasons, great or small

Can be seen in the eyes of those that call

To make all that should be killed to crawl

While others say don't hate nothing at all

Except hatred

[Verse 5]

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 lookin' too far

That not much is really sacred

[Verse 6]

While 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

Sometimes must have to stand naked

[Chorus]

And though the rules of the road have been lodged

It's only people's games that you got to dodge

And it's alright, Ma, I can make it

[Verse 7]

Advertising signs that con

You into thinking you're the one

That can do what's never been done

That can win what's never been won

Meantime, life outside goes on

All around you

[Verse 8]

You lose yourself, you reappear

You suddenly find you got nothing to fear

Alone you stand, with nobody near

When a trembling distant voice, unclear

Startles your sleeping ears to hear

That somebody thinks they really found you

[Verse 9]

A question in your nerves is lit

Yet you know there is no answer fit

To satisfy, ensure you not to quit

To keep it in your mind and not forget

That it is not he, or she, or them, or it

That you belong to

[Chorus]

But though the masters make the rules

For the wise men and the fools

I got nothing, Ma, to live up to

[Verse 10]

For them that must obey authority

That they do not respect in any degree

Who despise their jobs, their destiny

Speak jealously of them that are free

Do what they do just to be

Nothing more than something they invest in

[Verse 11]

While some on principles baptized

To strict party platform ties

Social clubs in drag disguise

Outsiders they can freely criticize

Tell nothing except who to idolize

And say "God bless him"

[Verse 12]

While one who sings with his tongue on fire

Gargles in the rat race choir

Bent out of shape from society's pliers

Cares not to come up any higher

But rather get you down in the hole

That he's in

[Chorus]

But I mean no harm, nor put fault

On anyone that lives in a vault

But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him

[Verse 13]

Old lady judges watch people in pairs

Limited in sex, they dare

To push fake morals, insult and stare

While money doesn't talk, it swears

Obscenity, who really cares

Propaganda, all is phony

[Verse 14]

While them that defend what they cannot see

With a killer's pride, security

It blows the minds most bitterly

For them that think death's honesty

Won't fall upon 'em naturally

Life sometimes must get lonely

[Verse 15]

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, okay, I've had enough

What else can you show me?

[Chorus]

And if my thought-dreams could be seen

They'd probably put my head in a guillotine

But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only