Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. LXXIV--Bob Dylan: It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

In 1977, Rolling Stone had a tenth anniversary issue (which means next year should mark fifty years of publication--and exactly where does the time go?) featuring their critics ten best musical moments of their first ten years, and for an eighteen-year-old lad just beginning to explore the depths of rock and roll, it was quite a revelation.  From the assorted lists I sought out "Heroin" by the Velvet Underground, Every Picture Tells a Story by Rod Stewart, and various works by The Band, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and Boz Scaggs, all of whom I still listen to to this day.

And I also sought out a song by some guy named Bob Dylan--a song whose title even to my inexperienced teenage ears sounded as cool as a title could be:  "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)."  And it started a lifelong love affair with the music of quite possibly America's greatest rock and roll artist.  And a long abiding respect and awe for arguably the greatest rock and roll song ever written.

There really isn't much I can say about Bob Dylan that hasn't been said or written by someone whose knowledge goes much deeper than my fanboy adoration--though I have to admit that most of it is gone as the heir to Woody Guthrie gave up a long time ago and ceded that mantle to Bruce Springsteen.  Dylan these days is busy making commercials for Victoria Secrets and IBM and recording Sinatra covers (gulp--two albums worth) and is about as culturally, socially, and politically relevant as your average blade of grass.  It wasn't always so--Dylan at one time was the voice of a generation and fans and critics alike hung on each word of every lyric of every song for a deeper understanding of the world we lived in.  It may have been overwrought--hell, it was overwrought--but rock and roll was art and art can answer anything, can't it?

Released in 1965 on his Bringing It All Back Home LP, "It's Alright, Ma" is a sparse, apocalyptic look at what America had become and was hardening into (amazingly enough, much of it is still relevant today, maybe even moreso).  Backed only by his own ominous acoustic guitar,  Dylan deftly weaves his way through fifteen verses, each spotlighting a rhyming scheme accentuating a single sound (noon, spoon, soon, balloon, etc,) in what could be called a rap (Dylan:  the original rapper), which leads into the more or less chorus:  "It's alright, Ma...." (surprisingly enough, "I'm only bleeding" is never uttered in the song).  It's a narrative of American consumerism, social disharmony, and our war machine, all of which Dylan wails against in a nasally (what else?) and wearied tirade.  "It's Alright, Ma" has been called a "grim masterpiece" and and has been said to be, unlike some of Dylan's previous politically inclined songs, without hope.  I beg to differ--while it certainly isn't a "shiny happy people: peace love dope!" message, I think the "It's alright, Ma" chorus is the hope--as you listen it's obvious that not only the music, but Dylan's vocals as well take a less somber turn .  It's a somewhat pyrrhic victory, but sometimes just surviving is more than half the battle in all things disappointing in life.

All in all, it's a masterwork by a master of American songwriting.

Fun fact:  Dylan has performed the song over 770 times in concert.  Woo-hoo!

Liner notes:  "It's alright, Ma, it's life and life only."

Enjoy:

Peace,
emaycee