"Money doesn't talk, it swears" - still one of my favorite lines from Mr. Dylan.

Remember, Dylan wrote this in 1964 and released it in 1965. Take a look at what else was popular music in 1965. Dylan was decades ahead of the curve.

This song is the single greatest lyrical achievement in the history of folk-pop rock, rivaled only by Dylan's other great works and the best of Leonard Cohen. It cannot be fully grasped (some parts are obvious others are not) at first listen.

Now you know why he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. You have to let great poetry wash over you. Then you get the overall meaning. The Subterranean Homesick Blues video he created in ‘65 is the first rap video ever. The video visuals are a must!

It’s about the era… Vietnam. He was a stunning poet.. appreciate your efforts

Absolute masterpiece .. first time I heard this song as a teenager, it stayed w/ me .. still hasn't left. ps: one of the very few early Dylan tunes that Bob still plays in concert.

His genius won him a Nobel Prize in Literature. He's a wonder.

The "hundred dollar plates" reference may be to that sort of political/charity fundraiser where people pay to attend some sort of dinner with speakers and the like and network with other attendees. He was often invited to be a part of these kind of things, sometimes for pretty worthwhile causes, and he probably attended some.

An underated line in this song is "bent out of shape by society's pliers' . Feel that one ha

you cannot pigeonhole bob's "it's alright ma" it is groundbreaking timeless art and it is not of this world we now live in. The best way to appreciate this song is to sit alone in a room just you and the song. It will make you weep because of it's absolute perfection. Bob Dylan is a living legend.

Dylan doesn't attempt any thing it is always perfection. Because it is Dylan..

He's like an Impressionist painter; things are more suggested than said flat out. As you said, "trying to describe an emotion". Maybe even moreso, he's EVOKING an emotions in us by his images: we may not know exactly what he's saying, but we feel...We get the message, each in our own way. So much more artful than telling us what to feel. It doesn't really even matter what it 'means'. Genius.

Been watching your Dylan videos. So beautiful to watch new generations be moved by the power of this music and experience it for the first time.

I've always thought the earliest pop recordings that resembles modern Hip Hop came from Bob Dylan. Greatest lyricist of all time, imho.

Not normally a fan of this sort of reaction style videos but being obsessed with Dylan and seeing your hip hop background, I couldn’t help but watch and I’m so glad I did! Your critical analysis is astounding; very interesting to see how everybody interprets songs as complex as this differently. Would love to see you tackle Just Like A Woman, Sad-Eyed Lady or Stuck Inside of Mobile!

"money doesn't talk, it swears" - one of my many favorite Dylan lines.

"He not bust being born is busy dying" is one of the most profound and quotable lines of all time.

Dylan, an amazing poet.

As an old Dylan devotee I will only add that honesty and brilliant poetry are then seated in a musical form that is nearly perfect and hits me right in my brain and heart.

It is so satisfy to see someone from a different generation, who comes from a different cultural background and who has different musical tastes, discover this wonderful music and amazing song writing and poetry by Bob Dylan and make the connection between the music and culture of 1964 and the music and culture of today. THAT is magic of music and song writing, and it is a joy to behold.

Listen to the same song live at Budokan (It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) (Live at Nippon Budokan Hall, Tokyo, Japan - February/March 1978)

I know i've said this before, but this may be one of his best songs..(as long as i don't think of all the others). Thanks for bringing us the music with the lyrics and analysis, really makes you think about it on a deeper level. I think the line-"can lead to 100 dollar plates" refers to classy dinners with the bigwigs. This was the mid to late 60's, probably $5000 dollar plates these days...

I love how the title never shows up in the song. Fifty some years later and I'm still waiting for it.

It's great to hear the studio first, but the live performance from 1965 really shows the prototype rap nature of it. Subterranean Homesick Blues and Desolation Row are very similar in this style of vocal delivery.

As a massive Bob Dylan fan, it's amazing listening to your reaction. You got my subscription, notifications are on 🤘 Listening to people cover his songs are fantastic. His 30th anniversary concert was epic as, all the major players in the 90s doing his songs, then he does this last. Must be special to him.

It's interesting to see a younger person reacting to this song that is so iconic but it's really interesting hearing your take on the origins of rap. Subterranean Homesick Blues (from the same Dylan album) is often cited as an 'origin of rap' and that seems influenced by Chuck Berry (Nadine, Too Much Monkey Business) but It's Alright Ma seems to have come out of nowhere. Dylan's own talking blues (via Woody Guthrie) are a sort of model but the song is so uniquely centred on poetry that it's a very long way from anything else.

Well done, Syed. As you implied, it’s somewhat of a fool’s errand to try to get one of Dylan’s lengthy wandering songs in one take, but Ithought your discussion was mostly right on. The thing about Dylan’s most masterful pieces is we tend to like them more as we hear them more. He was and remains brilliant. There are others who compare well, but he is the gold standard over the last 60 years (!). Thank you and Happy Holidays to you.

Well said my friend. Dylan was truly one of a kind. First time I've seen your video, so I don't know what you covered. I am a Dylan fanatic, and there are so many lines that are unforgettable. Imho, lyrically speaking, on that very album is Mr. Tambourine Man, which has to be the greatest lyrics he has ever written. But, not really a hip-hop structure, but so much meaning in a stoned way. Great try to figure out the lyrics, on It's Alright Ma, a daunting task! Rolling Stone put out what would be a fairly accurate list of the top 70 Dylan songs in order. ( I believe everyone agreed with #1-Like a Rolling Stone), but this song was placed at # 7. Great job!

"Subterranean Homesick Blues" is another great one in this style, or perhaps "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues". If your want to get some of Dylan's absolute spite at it's most scathing, "Positively 4th Street" is brutal.

check out Hard rain's gonna fall and Masters of war

I think there is a real beat poetry influence on this...

Love to see you cover some late-period Dylan too! Things Have Changed is a great inverse of The Times They Are A-Changin’, Not Dark Yet is a masterpiece of impending mortality, Cold Irons Bound is one of his grooviest songs musically, etc. Also I&I is superb with Bob and Mark Knopfler of the Dire Straits working together.

Great reaction, as always. I enjoy seeing you appreciation Dylan's writing style as well as listening to your superb comments. I've been a huge Dylan fan since the late 60s and particularly find his early works (up into the 80s) most fascinating. This song has always been a favorite in the way it is structured. Not only does each line in the verses rhyme, but so does the final line of each verse rhyme with the chorus that follows it. Ofc, the last line is the kicker that makes me laugh everytime (they'd probably put my head in a guillotine). An excellent example of his humor. One tune I'm confident you would appreciate is Chimes of Freedom. Practically every line in that song creates its own story. It's one of his best, imo. Listening to it will be time well spent. Cheers and happy holidays to you and yours!

One of Dylan's absolute best songs. So happy you got around to it. You picked up on some basic stuff, but you need to hear this many, many times to get anywhere near it, IMHO. -- As for the internal rhyming, did you pick up on the other rhymes between the last lines of each block? For instance V. 7, 8, 9, 10 last lines also rhyme ( you, you, to, to).

Great Dylan song. I know you like to listen to the studio session first but there’s a black and white video on KZfaq of Dylan’s live performance of this, it’s great, he completely commands the room.

"Beautiful laid flat." Brilliant comment. I've always loved Dylan on this basis alone. But I enjoy you taking the next step and moving up to try to interpret the lyrics, as you say, crazy to do on the first listening. thanks.

Bob appreciates hip hop and has mentioned artists he likes in various interviews over the years.

Oh, I strongly recommend Not Dark Yet if I haven't already. Heartbreaking!

Born as this released, never heard til this year. Wow. Incredible stream of scathing assembly of words and sounds. Waiting for a cover of this - it surely wouldn't match but wortha go.

What an incredible lyric on top of a somewhat unorthodox rythym structure. My probably over-simplified impression of the lyric is that he is just describing what he has observed in life and although troubled by it he's pretty sure that he can carry on without getting sucked into the madness and hypocrisy. I feel blessed to have lived through this period in popular music.

Love this song. There is a folk tradition called the talking blues. This song kind of falls in that vicinity. And I agree - what an awesome song name! What does this song mean? I have no clue and yet I love it. He's acid and salt. Thanks for the mention of Kendrick Lamar. I'm going to check him out and start with Count Me Out.

When my aunt was a freshman at the University of Minnesota Bob Zimmerman was in one of her classes.

Dylan illustrates a feeling and brings home the point in the last line of each verse.

Yes! I've been waiting for this one.

Dylan changed music because he was the first one to speak your mind. Positively 4th Street is a very scathing Dylan song with a pop music organ sound, The Ballad Of A Thin Man is another scathing Dylan song with an church organ sound. Dylan is really the ultimate musical chameleon, you'll realize this as you listen to his catalog. Just Like A Women, I Want You are also Dylan must listens.

There is a live solo performance of this song from sixty five which is incredible. Thanks for doing this song.

Another Dylan masterpiece! I suggest the following Dylan songs: Things Have Changed & It's All Over Now Baby Blue

This was the first Dylan album I bought. As a sixteen year old Oasis fan I knew it was a rite of passage. Tried to learn this one. I just ended up kind ripping off the chorus hook for my own song! Song helped get me a distinction diploma so worth it in the end.

Now this song he performs AMAZING live from 1965. Great that you reacted!

Bro, FINALLY! I’ve been requesting this one in the comments for a while. Hope it was worth the wait.

Dylan took music to incredible new heights. Sophisticated more in depth serious written lyrics. Rap (a fake coin, used to get away wish theft, followed by a quick dialogue to distract a store keeper.

Bob Dylan’s the man I remember the first time I heard him back in 1993 when everybody was listening to dance music hip hop etc it was a cassette tape one side had another side of bob dylan and the other side was blood on the tracks blew my young mind at the time I’ve never looked back since

Dylan is a masterpiece. Takes people with an intelligent deep thinking within oneself to appreciate. Thankfully, there are millions. Dylan will live with us forever.

The greatest lyrical song ever. No contest.

The mark of an intelligent man, when he says that he can't break it all down just listening once. Measure twice, cut once.

One of my favourites of his, in the top 5.

One time I saw Jim in concert and he did this song. The crowd went crazy when he sang the line about the President standing naked. The President at the time was Richard Nixon. Can you imagine the audience reaction?

The whole album is a masterpiece, first track subterranean homesick blues is more rap, but tambourine man is the strongest song on the album for me,

1965!! Bob Dylan TOP First and always. Check his Positively 4th Street. Classic line ….You’d know what a drag it is to see you!

Nice choice. Love Dylan.

It’s growing up in the 60’s with drugs and war, it’s was a struggle in many peoples lives

Oh my this is the song ive been hoping youd get to Bent out of shape by societys pliars

He' s nobel laureate, probably one of the best writers of all time in regards to his reach in and influence. It's good to know a new generation is discovering and appreciating his work.

DAMN. As a huge Bob Dylan fan, I'd never made the connection to Kendrick's cadence being similar but you are 100% spot on

The thing that a hip-hop artist should notice about Dylan immediately is his timing. Epecially with his early stuff, which is basically just human voice and guitar, sometimes with a very simple bass/drum rhythm section but often with none at all, it is the cadence of the voice, the pattern of the consanants and the way that he bounces off each syllable ... that creates ALL of the rhythm. And yet you cant help but to tap your fingers to the beat, because it is so catchy. It's alright ma is a decent enough example. 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 Put ANY beat track behind that and it will sound phenomenal. The words bounce off your mind in the way that any truly insightful rap lyric does. I could definitely see Bob putting out a successful Hip-Hop album, simply because the musical gift that he has can grow into a perfect song no matter what genre you choose. Go listen to Bob's stuff with the Staple Singers if you want to hear some good old gospel. And of course in the country category he did Nashville Skyline among others. Rock, pop, americana, blues, folk, and yeah, he could surely do hip-hop too.

Bob Dylan walks out to center stage.... Doubleday Field- Cooperstown N.Y. Crowd of around 7,000. He sits down with his guitar and sang the first verse of this masterpiece and the crowd went crazy screaming their approval that Bob stopped playing to say Thank You, then started the song over again. I was about 25 feet away and will never forget the way I felt and the crowds reaction. A Standing Ovation lasted for many minutes before Bob started doing...."Like A Rolling Stone" and that song was beyond description how everyone was blown away. A life changing event for me and my family.

The "simple musical approach"...that is, just the acoustic guitar and voice...was very much the standard way of recording a great many folk albums at that time. That is what's being done on Dylan's first 4 albums (with the frequent addition of his harmonica, of course), and on half the songs on his 5th album, which is where this song comes from. The singer just walked up to the microphone, played his instrument(s) and sang. No sidemen needed. There was nothing unusual about that at the time. That's the way most folksingers who did a solo act were recorded in the late 50's through the early 60's. Dylan's playing with a Dropped D tuning here, and he did that frequently. It provides a deep base and permits the notable riffs he uses in the song. I think this song is the single greatest piece of lyrical work Dylan has done in his entire career....(although that can certainly be debated). He later "electrified" the song and used a very powerful backup group to do it, which can be heard in some live recordings such as the one at Budokan (1978) or in the concert video "Hard To Handle" (1986), among others. It's very interesting to hear how that changes the effect of the song, taking it from an "intimate" performance on the original recording to an apocalyptic avalanche of sound in the late 70's and after, but the incredible words remain the same. "He not busy being born is busy dying" is probably the most stiking line in the whole song, but there are many others of similar power.

Desolation Row. DESOLATION ROW!! You gotta listen to that one. Mick Jagger said it was one of his favorites....the way he could just put stuff together and keep you fascinated for 11 minutes. Jagger said it was quite inspirational for him--and probably opened up the possibility of him doing stuff like Sympathy For The Devil and more compkex themed things. They all said that about Dylan--that he opened doors and creative channels for them.

nice video. I very much look forward to the next

Subterranean Homesick Blues is the Dylan song that always reminded me of rap.

In your reference to Eminem, it’s ironic that I just read an article where Eminem said Dylan was one his most important influences. I love Dylan and if you haven’t heard, Subterranean Homesick Blues. That song seems so connected to rap and the story and stories are awesome. Love your channel.

The rhyme scheme for this song is fabulous. Structured in three stanzas each with their own rhymes but with final lines of all three that rhyme with each other and the refrain. Mastery!

This is one of my two favorite BD songs (the other is "Visions of Johanna"). Remember this was recorded in the studio live without overdubs, and he was accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica as he was rapping/singing.

It is certainly interesting to hear the take of a Hip-Hop guy on this “proto-rap” song, as you call it , and I agree that many of the lyrics reach us on an emotional level. I also get the comparison to Kendrick Lamar-another artist always worth listening to. But the thing that sets Dylan apart is the sheer power and efficiency of his lyrics. They meet us head on when needed (see comments below for examples from this song) AND work on a metaphorical level, all in the least amount of words needed. The carefully selected notes he plays further underline the text, until many of the notions he “sings” about land like the bombs thousands of other rappers talked about and whose destructive power few have ever approached. This is why he won the Nobel Prize. In closing-I still get chills listening to this because of the guitar, because of the lyrics-dropping bombs on your moms, and most of all because no one hits as hard as Dylan does. It’s not even close. Wonderful video and thanks for doing this.

Wow, this was very informative! Thank you!!

Dylan is unique, a one off, irreplaceable, the likes of whom we will never see again. So much amazing output, like no other. Listen to "Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie" more of less my "yard stick" on Bob Dylan, who else has written anything like this ? He's just amazing ...

you do know that Dylan won a noble prize for his writing!!!

Great choice of a song for you to react to, Syed! If you like Bob Dylan now, just wait because within a couple of years from now he'll be essential listening to you. I know you're focused on Dylan's early works now, but when you reach the 80s, you'll have to hear "Infidels", an album produced by Dylan and Marc Knopfler. Dylan chose Knopfler and former Rolling Stones member Mick Taylor as the guitarists he plays with on the album. There's a song from the 90s that stands with Dylan's best work called "Not Dark Yet" that's stunning. I've a friend who's a huge Dylan fan and seen him a hundred and fourteen times, last I heard. He knows a guy who had the chorus of this song tattooed on his arms. On one arm he has "it's not dark yet", and on his other arm he has "but it's getting there". I've seen Dylan a few times and it's amazing how he's like a chameleon from one song to the next, almost like he's actually become a different character. He would've been a great actor if he'd wanted to; thank God he chose to be a songwriter.

I really enjoyed your take on this gem by Bob Dylan. Your insights made me appreciate his genius even more. Well done.

Have been listening to this and dylan for 55 years and he never gets old. Glad you are on the dylan train. If you want hip hop listen to subterranean homesick blues. How about "even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked"?

"Dylan was a big hip-hop fan-ever since rapper Kurtis Blow turned him on to artists like N.W.A and Public Enemy. 'These guys were definitely not bullshitting, Dylan wrote in "Chronicles." 'They were beating drums, tearing it up, hurling horses over cliffs.' "It's All Good" is his most gangsta moment: He adopts a Howlin' Wolf growl to flip the hip-hop catchphrase, kissing off a collapsing world where it isn't all good at all" (Rolling Stone "Bob Dylan: The Complete Album Guide" p. 67).

Young Dylan : "Bob Dylan ~ Town Hall, New York City. 60 years ago today. Full concert. 8:30pm New York time " -- at youtube

Bob's six-line stanzas where all lines rhyme except the last one is signature Dylan. You'll find it in other songs of his as well.

Like the reaction. Agree with the comments that Subterranean homesick blues is a song worth your attention.

"He not busy being born is busy dying.” - Bob Dylan

I think you'll enjoy Subterranean Homesick Blues. Sick bars! Cheers!

Been so waiting for you to respond to this

Another great example of the “talking blues” also with some pretty good word-smithing check out “The Establishment Blues” by Rodriquez.

You nailed it. There's nothing to figure out by digging deep into the lyric, there's nothing there, it's all on the surface of the text,

Listen to his early live stuff the emotion is amazing

The man basically invented rap. Forget the electronics and button pushers, it's the words and vocals.

For the rhyming scheme, you might also want to check out Mozambique from the Desire album. Co-credits go to Jacques Levy.

It's about time hip hop heads found this song

I love your analytical reactions👍

Try to imagine hearing this 60 years ago !!!

'Bars' is an understatement, the man was awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature.

Bob won a NOBEL for Literature, The Presidential Medal of Honor, bestowed by President Obama and..... Isn't he amazing? DIG, BLOOD ON THE TRACKS.. FEELS LIKE... NO MORE WORDS. GENIUS.

He's got any cadence he wants. & a vocabulary on the level of Churchill, Shakespeare, and Mathers. 😂

My favorite song ever, possibly

Dylan started off as just a folksinger, then he started doing social commentary and suddenly found many people agreed with what he was saying in his songs. At first, he reveled in the role of spokesperson, but eventually came to see that role as a kind of trap they'd never let him get out of. They tried to make him "the voice of his generation" and he rebelled against that. Then he started to explore the abstract, daring to go where very few had ever gone. I'll admit, sometimes I don't get him at all. He's still doing something no one quite can explain, but that's what's so cool about him. But this particular song isn't really as deep as it seems. He's just talking about the many reasons he feels alienated, while at the same time trying to assure his mom that he'll be all right. I think this song is from 1964 or 1965, when most people were still trying to deal with The Beatles.