5/7/65 - Free Trade Hall, Manchester, EnglandnnDarkness at the break of noonnShadows even the silver spoonnThe handmade blade, the child's b...
5/7/65 - Free Trade Hall, Manchester, EnglandnnDarkness at the break of noonnShadows even the silver spoonnThe handmade blade, the child's balloonnEclipses both the sun and moonnTo understand you know too soonnThere is no sense in tryingnnPointed threats, they bluff with scornnSuicide remarks are tornnFrom the fool's gold mouthpiece the hollow hornnPlays wasted words, proves to warnnThat he not busy being born is busy dyingnnTemptation's page flies out the doornYou follow, find yourself at warnWatch waterfalls of pity roarnYou feel to moan but unlike beforenYou discover that you'd just be one morenPerson cryingnnSo don't fear if you hearnA foreign sound to your earnIt's alright, Ma, I'm only sighingnnAs some warn victory, some downfallnPrivate reasons great or smallnCan be seen in the eyes of those that callnTo make all that should be killed to crawlnWhile others say don't hate nothing at allnExcept hatrednnDisillusioned words like bullets barknAs human gods aim for their marknMake everything from toy guns that sparknTo flesh-colored Christs that glow in the darknIt's easy to see without looking too farnThat not much is really sacrednnWhile preachers preach of evil fatesnTeachers teach that knowledge waitsnCan lead to hundred-dollar platesnGoodness hides behind its gatesnBut even the president of the United StatesnSometimes must have to stand nakednnAn' though the rules of the road have been lodgednIt's only people's games that you got to dodgenAnd it's alright, Ma, I can make itnnAdvertising signs they connYou into thinking you're the onenThat can do what's never been donenThat can win what's never been wonnMeantime life outside goes onnAll around younnYou lose yourself, you reappearnYou suddenly find you got nothing to fearnAlone you stand with nobody nearnWhen a trembling distant voice, unclearnStartles your sleeping ears to hearnThat somebody thinks they really found younnA question in your nerves is litnYet you know there is no answer fitnTo satisfy, insure you not to quitnTo keep it in your mind and not forgetnThat it is not he or she or them or itnThat you belong tonnAlthough the masters make the rulesnFor the wise men and the foolsnI got nothing, Ma, to live up tonnFor them that must obey authoritynThat they do not respect in any degreenWho despise their jobs, their destiniesnSpeak jealously of them that are freenCultivate their flowers to benNothing more than something they invest innnWhile some on principles baptizednTo strict party platform tiesnSocial clubs in drag disguisenOutsiders they can freely criticizenTell nothing except who to idolizenAnd then say God bless himnnWhile one who sings with his tongue on firenGargles in the rat race choirnBent out of shape from society's pliersnCares not to come up any highernBut rather get you down in the holenThat he's innnBut I mean no harm nor put faultnOn anyone that lives in a vaultnBut it's alright, Ma, if I can't please himnnOld lady judges watch people in pairsnLimited in sex, they darenTo push fake morals, insult and starenWhile money doesn't talk, it swearsnObscenity, who really caresnPropaganda, all is phonynnWhile them that defend what they cannot seenWith a killer's pride, securitynIt blows the minds most bitterlynFor them that think death's honestynWon't fall upon them naturallynLife sometimes must get lonelynnMy eyes collide head-on with stuffednGraveyards, false gods, I scuffnAt pettiness which plays so roughnWalk upside-down inside handcuffsnKick my legs to crash it offnSay okay, I have had enough, what else can you show me?nnAnd if my thought-dreams could be seennThey'd probably put my head in a guillotinenBut it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only Less
