It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) - Live at LA Forum, Inglewood, CA - February 1974

Lyrics for It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) - Live at LA Forum, Inglewood, CA - February 1974

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 tryin' Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn Suicide remarks are torn And the fools gold mouthpiece The hollow horn plays wasted words proved 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 So don't fear if you hear A foreign sound in your ear It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing 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 marks To make everything from toy guns that sparks To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark 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 100 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 people's games that you got to dodge But 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 loose yourself, you reappear You suddenly find you got nothing to fear Alone you stand without nobody near When a trembling distant voice, unclear Startles your sleeping ears to hear, someone 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 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 got nothing more to live up to Old lady judges, watch people in pairs Limited in sex, they dare to push fake morals, insult and stare 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 alright, I have had enough What else can you show me? And if my thought-dreams could been seen They'd probably put my head in a guillotine But it's alright, Ma, it's life and life only