It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) – A History in Performance, Part 6: 2004 – 2013. It blows the mind most bitterly.
- Part 1 1964 – 74 – From the fool’s gold mouthpiece
- Part 2: 1975/81 – Stuffed graveyards and false gods.
- Part 3: 1984 – One who sings with his tongue on fire.
- Part 4: 1988 – The darkness at the break of noon
- Part 5: 1999 – 2004. Stuffed graveyards, false goals.
By Mike Johnson
[I read somewhere once that if you wanted the very best, the acme of Dylan’s pre-electric work, you couldn’t do better than listen to side B of Bringing It All Back Home, 1964. Four songs, ‘Mr Tambourine Man,’ ‘Gates of Eden,’ ‘It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ and ‘It’s All Over Now Baby Blue’ represent the pinnacle of Dylan’s acoustic achievement. In this series I aim to chart how each of these foundation songs fared in performance over the years, the changing face of each song and its ultimate fate (at least to date). This is the sixth article on the third track, ‘It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ You can find the previous articles in this History in Performance series listed above.
Like ‘A Hard Rain’s A‐Gonna Fall,’ ‘It’s Alright, Ma’ is a report on experience. These two protest songs, Dylan’s greatest to my mind, have a lot in common. In both songs, a young man reports to a mother figure what he has seen and heard in the big bad world. In ‘Hard Rain’ the mother figure has to implore her ‘darling young one’ to tell her what he has discovered, whereas in ‘It’s Alright, Ma’ the singer spills it out in a jet of anguish without having to be asked. He assures his ‘Ma’ however that he is not going to be overwhelmed or done in by the ‘darkness’ of the world. He will survive, he will endure.
Stoical resistance is a term that springs to mind with regard to the underlying message of ‘It’s Alright, Ma,’ but we mustn’t forget that it is laced with anger, a moral outrage at the world where ‘goodness hides behind its gates.’ (Are these, by any chance, the gates of Eden?) In this world, ‘disillusioned words like bullets bark,’ which is a good description of the song itself.
Pushing fake morality (‘To push fake morals, insult and stare’) is nothing new, Jeremiah railed against it centuries ago, and surely that hypocrisy rules our contemporary world as much if not more than it did when the song was written. I am reminded of another song written much later (‘Slow Train Coming’ 1979) with an almost identical message:
Big-time negotiators, false healers and woman haters Masters of the bluff and masters of the proposition But the enemy I see wears a cloak of decency
These lines could fit into ‘It’s Alright, Ma’ without too much trouble, and I would once more argue for the consistency of Dylan’s critique of society over his career. Try these lines from ‘Unbelievable’ (1991)
They said it was the land of milk and honey Now they say it's the land of money Whoever thought they'd ever make that stick It's unbelievable you could get this rich this quick
Again, the sentiment fits ‘It’s Alright, Ma,’ a song we can now see as something of an urtext for these later songs, songs that will assail, again and again, the rank materialism of our age.
As we have seen, the song began as a solo acoustic number, but slowly evolved into a stadium rocker, which is what we find when we get to 2005, the point we have now reached. All traces of the acoustic origins of the song are gone, as you can hear in this recording from the fifth night of the Brixton residency of that year. It’s a powerful performance, full of swing and swagger, it’s dark and swirling, and may well be the best of the Sonny Boy Williamson rock riff versions. Not only is this a powerful vocal performance, but don’t miss the wonderfully sudden violin break at about 4.30 mins.
2005
From the earliest performances Dylan has spat the words out at breakneck speed, but I can’t help but feel that this particular riff has him babbling the words a little too fast at times, reminding me that I have never been quite convinced that this riff suits the extended vocal lines of the song, particularly with a brisk tempo.
In 2006 Dylan moved from the piano to the organ – although I can’t hear the organ in this recording – and again played the song multiple times The first thing I noticed, comparing this performance with 2005, is the much slower tempo. Slower and more deliberate, although there is still a tendency to babble out the words, which is fine if you already know them – and I did miss that violin break.
2006
The song stayed very much alive in 2007. The first thing I noticed was that Dylan had finally dropped the Sonny Boy Williamson riff and returned to the original chord structure of the song, now transformed into a rock riff of its own. There is no return to its acoustic roots. I prefer this performance from Albuquerque, July 22nd. Dylan is in great voice and powers the song along.
2007
We have two excellent YouTube videos from 2007, one from Birmingham (April 17th) and the other from Glasgow (April 11th). There is little to choose between these in terms of performance. I have chosen the Glasgow one as you can see more of the band than Birmingham. I notice Donnie Herron on the violin, although I don’t hear it that well – it’s just a part of the mix. Interestingly, Dylan returns to the guitar for this one, giving his audience a flash of the Dylan of old, the guitar playing menace.
2007 (Glasgow)
Again, the song features strongly in 2008, and we have two necessary performances from that year. We’re still with the original chord structure, but the addition of the banjo pushes the song in the direction of country rock. These 2008 performances are more restrained than what we have seen but, if we go right back to the 1960’s performances, we find a pleasing balance between passion and restraint that created the musical tension that drives the song, a tension that is arguably lost with the rock riff versions. Dylan may be trying to recapture that tension in these 2008 performances.
The first is a recording I used for my NET series (https://bob-dylan.org.uk/archives/23960) and is a passionate and committed vocal.
2008 (A)
I’m including this second recording from 2008 because I love the way it kicks along and has something of a sinister edge, that ominous tone that suits the song so well – maybe it’s that bit of an echo in Dylan’s voice that does it. And you can tap your feet to that banjo. Even get up and dance.
2008 (B)
Dylan keeps the ball rolling in 2009 with multiple performances once more. This one I used in my NET series
The vocal is very up-front in this recording. The banjo has gone, turning this one into a solid rocker.
2009
And then, suddenly, in the midst of this fascinating evolution, it disappears. Vanished from the setlists for three years. Why did he drop it, and why did he bring it back in 2013 for a mere two performances? We certainly don’t get the sense of Dylan losing connection to the song the way he did with ‘Mr Tambourine Man.’ It was powering along and then
Bang!
it’s gone.
And when it did return in 2013 for those two performances, both within a couple of days of each other in October, it was completely renovated. A new approach, a new arrangement, a new sound. There is no lack of interest or innovation.
This is the final performance from Stockholm, Oct 12th. The violin is back, and it all sounds good, but maybe Dylan thought it was a little too bouncy, a little too upbeat and countrified for the scathing social comment that drives the lyrics. We can only speculate. I like the descending riff, and feel that this could have been the beginning of a new evolution of the song. But no. This is it. The last we see of it. One of the greatest songs of the twentieth century.
2013
Finally, as an afterthought, you might enjoy this remix by J Period from 2015. It’s only a fragment, but takes us back to Dylan’s 1960’s voice. It’s fun.
Remix
So that’s it for ‘It’s Alright Ma.’ A sudden, unexpected end. But I’ll be back soon with the last song on side B of Bringing It All Back Home – ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.’
Catch you then.
Kia Ora