It's Alright, Ma(Chords)

	        G/B 
Darkness at the break of noon 
D 
Shadows even the silver spoon 
    Csus2 
The handmade blade, the child's balloon 
G/B 
Eclipses both the sun and moon 
   Bb6 
To understand you know too soon 
                     D 
There is no sense in trying. 
 
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'd just be 
One more person crying. 
 
         D           A 
So don't fear if you hear 
  D                     G/B 
A foreign sound to your ear 
D    A  G/B   A            D 
It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing. 
 
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. 
 
Disillusioned words like bullets bark 
As human gods aim for their mark 
Made everything from toy guns that spark 
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark 
It's easy to see without looking too far 
That not much 
Is really sacred. 
 
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. 
 
An' 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. 
 
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. 
 
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. 
 
A question in your nerves is lit 
Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy 
Insure you not to quit 
To keep it in your mind and not fergit 
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 got nothing, Ma, to live up to. 
 
For them that must obey authority 
That they do not respect in any degree 
Who despise their jobs, their destinies 
Speak jealously of them that are free 
Cultivate their flowers to be 
Nothing more than something 
They invest in. 
 
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 then say God bless him. 
 
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. 
 
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. 
 
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. 
 
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 them naturally 
Life sometimes 
Must get lonely. 
 
My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards 
False gods, I scuff 
At pettiness which plays so rough 
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs 
Kick my legs to crash it off 
Say okay, I have 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 
But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only. 
 

	        

Written by Bob Dylan