Audio Example 5.5:

"It's Alright, Ma," live, two excerpts

Here are two instances of contour-inventive delivery in a live "It's Alright, Ma" from around the turn of the millennium. The first—drawling and wry, shot through with seen-it-all-before cynicism—is a chant-escape variant that begins on a striking, bluesy F. The second is a four-note descending figure, also bluesy, that he sings no fewer than eight times, to a great cheer from the crowd.