Performance Management Blog

The words of Bob Dylan, talking about working

Sep 29, 2013 | employee motivation

I was listening to Bob Dylan’s old album, “Bring It All Back Home” (1965) and a couple of lyrics caught my attention as I was thinking of the workplace and engagement and similar. I sometimes share his “white guy music” with my younger friends who think that rap is such a new thing. Dylan had to be the original rapper – heck, I saw him in concert back in 1970, which is before most readers were born, I think.

I play with Square Wheels cartoons as a metaphor for people at the back of the wagon who cannot see far forward nor are they involved and engaged in workplace improvement. The reality looks like this:

A couple of his lyrics in “It’s Alright, Ma” just grabbed me:

You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover that you’d just be one more p
erson crying.

Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to…

For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destiny
Speak jealously of them that are free
raise what they grow up to be nothing more than something they invest in (alt lyric from live performance).

Dylan, born in 1941, was a poet, a protester and, “a seemingly reluctant figurehead of social unrest;” some people loved him and many could not simply understand. Many of his early songs, such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’“, became anthems for the US civil rights and anti-war movements and represent how he was remembered. But he sang and wrote about people and society.

Joan Baez and Bob Dylan in 1963

Joan Baez and Bob Dylan in 1963

Anyway, here is a link to the music itself and below are the lyrics.

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 trying

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool’s gold mouthpiece the hollow horn
Plays wasted words, proves 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 to your ear
It’s alright, Ma, I’m only sighing

As 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 mark
Make everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It’s 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 hundred-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 only people’s games that you got to dodge
And it’s alright, Ma, I can make it

Advertising signs they 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 lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody 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, Ma, to live up to

For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something they invest in

While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God bless him

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society’s pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he’s in

But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it’s alright, Ma, if I can’t please him

Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While 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 okay, I have had enough, what else can you show me?

And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They’d probably put my head in a guillotine
But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only

Copyright © 1965 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1993 by Special Rider Music
A wikipedia review of the song and its history is found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Alright_Ma_(I%27m_Only_Bleeding)

Anyway, I thought to write about it. Playing it now, actually.

You can listen his live performances on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ5XtabITh8 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtW6crUOFQs
where he adlibs and changes the lyrics and has obvious fun with the audiences…

Have fun out there!

square wheels author

Dr. Scott Simmerman is a designer of team building games and organization improvement tools. Managing Partner of Performance Management Company since 1984, he is an experienced presenter and consultant.

Connect with Scott on Google+ – you can reach Scott at scott@squarewheels.com

Follow Scott’s posts on Pinterest: pinterest.com/scottsimmerman/
Scott’s blog on Poems and Quips on Workplace Improvement is here.

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Dr. Scott Simmerman

Dr. Scott Simmerman is a designer of the amazing Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine team building game and the Square Wheels facilitation and engagement tools. Managing Partner of Performance Management Company since 1984, he is an experienced global presenter. -- You can reach Scott at scott@squarewheels.com and a detailed profile is here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottsimmerman/ -- Scott is the original designer of The Search for The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine teambuilding game and the Square Wheels® images for organizational development.

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1 Comment

  1. Tony Barrett

    Hi Scott, greetings from down under. I love Bob too. Catch Maggie Farm on the same album:

    Well, I try my best to be just like I am,
    But everybody wants you
    To be just like them.
    They sing while you slave and I just get bored.
    I ain’t gonna work on Maggie farm no more.

    Reply

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