It's Allright, Ma - chords

Subject: RE: It's Allright, Ma - chords
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 Mar 12 - 01:05 PM

Don Wise - The Em based chords you posted are sort of a vague approximation of the sound Bob gets in the song, but not what he was actually doing. I got a PM from a Mudcatter who was at shows in '64 or '65 in the front row and saw Bob playing the song, and watched carefully. I'll quote from his PM below:

"I saw Dylan when he first played these great songs in England.
I was in the front row,happy daze!
The base E was down to D.He starts of in G:550003,back to D,then the run down on the A string.
The "slide"is in Dm,sliding up to Em and back down again.
It's almost like the way he plays Hollis Brown,but there's no dropped D,and no slide.He pulls on the A and D strings while staying in the D shape chord.He doesn't play the bass E,nor the treble E.
But you and I both know that he could change all that in the wink of an eye!"

Subject: RE: It's Allright, Ma - chords
From: Nick
Date: 30 Mar 12 - 07:31 AM

Here's a labour of love if you haven't come across it. Must have taken him a while and there's a lot of accuracy there - for example, it changed the way I played Love Minus Zero as didn't play it with the bass string dropped down to C (actually do it differently now but there we go)

Eyolf Ostrem's transcribed Bob Dylan Songbook

Subject: RE: It's Allright, Ma - chords
From: GUEST,Don Wise
Date: 30 Mar 12 - 05:26 AM

According to the dots (Bob Dylan 'Bringing it all back home', Blossom Music, London- no date but cost me 15/-.)it's, probably for technical reasons, in Em:

Em                            Em7
Darkness at the break of noon, Shadows even the silver spoon, The

Em6                               Cmaj7
hand made blade,the childs balloon Eclipses both the sun and moon To

Em
understand you know too soon, There is no sense in trying. etc etc.

Em                   Bm    Am
So don't fear, if you hear A foreign sound to your ear,

Am
It's alright ma,I'm only sighing.

Subject: RE: It's Allright, Ma - chords
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 Mar 12 - 12:22 AM

Yeah, it's in the key of D. But goes to a G base on the first phrase which is really voicing a G chord. Then back to D. Then a descending base line under the D chord going C-B-Bb. Then back to D. Then a riff that slides up the neck to some other quick chords (F and G) and then back down to the D chord. Then on the chorus it goes D - A - G - A ...then the quick F and G slide.

Only I think Bob's got it capo'd up the neck a little. I'll have to check by listening to the original recording.

Subject: RE: It's Allright, Ma - chords
From: Cool Beans
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 05:57 PM

There's more than one chord?! (Just kidding, Bob.)

Subject: RE: It's Allright, Ma - chords
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 12:01 PM

Thanks, Nick. I've got it working so well in DADGAD that I may stick to doing it that way, but any further info is good.

Subject: RE: It's Allright, Ma - chords
From: Nick
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 11:26 AM

I've always found the Dylan chords tabs and info pretty good and it suggests drop D - It's Alright, Ma

Subject: RE: It's Allright, Ma - chords
From: GUEST,Whistle Stop
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 09:14 AM

It always sounded like plain old Drop D to me.

Subject: It's Allright, Ma - chords
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 Mar 12 - 06:15 PM

I'm guessing that Bob did this amazing song using the DADGAD tuning. It seems to work well in DADGAD. Can anyone else confirm that?

It might also have been double-dropped D.

And I think he capo'd it up a few frets to put it in a higher register.