Jump to content

Chimes of Freedom (song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Rhbihm (talk | contribs) at 12:03, 5 August 2009. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

"Chimes of Freedom"
Song
"Chimes of Freedom"
Song
This article is about the Bob Dylan song. For the Bruce Springsteen album, see Chimes of Freedom (EP).

"Chimes of Freedom" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan, produced by Tom Wilson. Dylan reportedly based the song on "Chimes of Trinity" by Michael J. Fitzpatrick, a song that Dylan had been introduced to by Dave Van Ronk, who learned it from his grandmother.[1] The song has been covered many times by a variety of different artists, including Joan Baez, The Byrds, Bruce Springsteen, U2 and Stephen Stills.[2][3] Music critic Paul Williams has described the song as Dylan's Sermon on the Mount.[4]

Bob Dylan's version

"Chimes of Freedom" was written in early 1964, shortly after the release of the The Times They Are a-Changin' album, during a road trip that Dylan took across America with musician Paul Clayton, journalist Pete Karman and road manager Victor Maimudes.[5] It was written at about the same time as "Mr. Tambourine Man", which is similarly influenced by the symbolism of Arthur Rimbaud.[6] There are a number of stories about exactly when during the trip this song was written. One story is that Dylan wrote the song on a portable typewriter in the back of a car the day after visiting civil rights activists Bernice Johnson and Cordell Reagon in Atlanta, Georgia.[4][7][6] However, a handwritten lyric sheet from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Toronto, Canada that was reproduced in The Bob Dylan Scrapbook 1956-1966 indicates that this story cannot be entirely true.[6][8] Dylan was in Toronto in late January and early February, before the road trip on which the song was supposedly written.[6] So, although parts of the song may well have been written on the road trip, Dylan had started working on the song earlier.[6] In any case, the first public performance of the song took place in early 1964, either at the Civic Auditorium in Denver on February 15,[6] or else at the Berkley Community Theater in San Francisco.[9] "Chimes of Freedom" was an important part of Dylan's live concerts throughout 1964, although by late 1964 he ceased playing it live and did not do so again until 1987, when he revived it for some concerts with the Grateful Dead and with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.[7][6]

The master take of the song was recorded by Dylan during the recording sessions for his Another Side of Bob Dylan album on June 9, 1964.[6] It tool seven takes before Dylan got the song right, which is somewhat odd since this is one of only three songs he recorded that day which he had performed live.[6]

The song is a lyrical expression of feelings evoked while watching a lightning storm.[5] The singer and a friend are caught in a thunderstorm in mid-evening and the pair of them duck into a doorway, where they are both transfixed by one lightning flash after another.[5] The natural phenomena of thunder and lightning appear to take on auditory and ultimately emotional aspects to the singer, with the thunder experienced as the tolling of bells and the lightning bolts appearing as chimes.[5] Eventually, the sights and sounds in the sky become intermixed in the mind of the singer, as evidenced by the lines:

Majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds,
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing.[10]

Over the course of the song, the sun slowly rises, and the lyrics can be interpreted to proclaim the hope that as the sky clears after a difficult night all the world's people rise together to proclaim their survival to the sound of the church bells.[7]

In Chimes of Freedom: The Politics of Bob Dylan's Art, author Mike Marqusee notes that the song marks a transition between Dylan's earlier protest song style (a litany of the down-trodden and oppressed, in the second half of each verse) and his later more free-flowing poetic style (the fusion of images of lightning, storm and bells in the first half).[11] In this later style, which is influenced by 19th century French symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud, the poetry is more allusive, filled with "chains of falshing images".[12] In this song, rather than support a specific cause as in his earlier protest songs, he finds solidarity with all people who are downtrodden or otherwise treated unjustly, including unwed mothers, the disabled, refugees, outcasts, those unfairly jailed, "the luckless, the abandonned and forsaked," and finally in the last verse "the countless confused, accused, misused, strung out ones and worse" and "every hung-up person in the whole wide universe."[12][4] By having the chimes of freedom toll for both rebels and rakes, the song is more inclusive in its sympathies than previous protest songs, such as "The Times They Are A-Changin'", written just the prior year.[12][13] After "Chimes of Freedom", Dylan's protest songs would no longer depict social reality in the black and white terms he renounces in "My Back Pages" but would rather use satirical surrealism to make his points.[12]

The assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy is one possible inspiration for Dylan starting the song.[6] Dylan has denied that this is the case, but Dylan drafted a number of poems in the fall of 1963 in the aftermath of Kennedy's death.[6] And one of those poems in particular, a short six line poem, appears to contain the genesis for "Chimes of Freedom":[6]

the colors of friday were dull
as the cathedral bells were gently burnin'
strikin for the gentle
strikin for the kind
strikin for the crippled ones
and strikin for the blind.

Kennedy was killed on a Friday, and the cathedral bells in the poem would been the church bells heralding his death.[6] Using a storm as a metaphor for the death of a president is similar to Shakespeare's use of a storm in King Lear.[6] By the time Dylan wrote the first draft of "Chimes of Freedom" the following February, it contained many of the elements of this poem, except that the crippled ones and the blind were changed to "guardians and protectors of the mind."[6] And the cathedral bells had become the "chimes of freedom flashing", as seen by two lovers finding shleter in a cathedral doorway.[6]

Besides Rimbaud's sybolism, the song is also influenced by the alliterative poetry of Gerald Manley Hopkins, the poetic vision of William Blake and the violent drama mixed with compassion and romantic language of William Shakespeare.[7] Dylan had used rain as a symbol in earlier songs, such as "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall".[7]

Despite the song's excellence and appeal to cover artists, it has appeared sparingly on Dylan's compilation and live albums. A recording of Dylan performing the song at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival was included on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack compilation album. The same performance can also be seen on the 2007 DVD The Other Side of the Mirror: Live at Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965.[14] A version sung by Dylan and Joan Osborne appears on the original television sountrack album, The 60's.[15]

As of 2009, Dylan continues to perform the song in concert, although he did not play it live for 23 years starting at in late 1964.[16][6] In 1993, famously played it in front of the Lincoln Memorial as part of Bill Clinton’s inauguration as U.S. president.[6][17]

Cover versions

The Byrds included a recording of "Chimes of Freedom" on their 1965 debut album, Mr. Tambourine Man. The song was actually the last track to be recorded for the album[18] but unfortunately the recording session was not without its drama. After the completion of the song’s instrumental backing track, David Crosby announced that he wasn’t going to sing on the recording and that he was leaving the studio for the day.[18] The precise reason for Crosby’s refusal to sing the song has never been adequately explained but the ensuing fracas between Crosby and the band’s manager, Jim Dickson, ended with Dickson sitting on Crosby’s chest, telling him "The only way you’re going to get through that door is over my dead body...You’re going to stay in this room until you do the vocal."[19] According to a number of people present in the studio that day, Crosby burst into tears but eventually completed the song’s vocals with sterling results.[18] Dickson himself noted in later years that his altercation with Crosby was a cathartic moment in which the singer "got it all out and sang like an angel. He never sang better."[19]

The song would go on to become a staple of The Byrds’ live concert repertoire, until their final disbandment in 1973.[18] The band also performed the song on TV shows including Hullabaloo and Shindig!, as well as including it in their performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. The Byrds’ performance of "Chimes of Freedom" at Monterey can be seen in the 2002 The Complete Monterey Pop Festival DVD box set. The song has also appeared on several Byrds' compilation albums, including The Byrds Play Dylan, The Very Best of The Byrds, The Byrds' Greatest Hits and The Essential Byrds.[20]

"Chimes of Freedom" has also been covered by artists as diverse as Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn, Martyn Joseph, The Axis of Justice, Jefferson Starship, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, X, Bruce Springsteen, James Luchak and Stephen Stills.[2] And although U2 never released a recording of it, they played live in concert during the late 1980s.[3]

Bruce Springsteen's cover version managed to reach #16 on Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in 1988, although it was never released as a single.[21] It was, however, the title track of the live EP Chimes of Freedom, which was released to benefit Amnesty International based on a performance in Stockholm, Sweden from the Fall 1988 Human Rights Now! tour, celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the signing of the International Declaration of Human Rights.[22][23][24] Springsteen's performance is rousing and fervent, transforming the song into a ringing anthem for the full E Street Band, without losing the power of the words from Dylan's own solo performance.[24]

Jefferson Starship covered the song on their 2008 release, Jefferson's Tree of Liberty, with vocals by Paul Kantner, David Freiberg and Cathy Richardson.[25] Additionally, the Senegalese musician, Youssou N'Dour, also recorded an unusual cover version of the song, in which he treated the song as an anthem for the many people in Africa struggling to survive.[4]

The melody of "Chimes of Freedom" was deliberately borrowed by Billy Bragg for the song "Ideology", from his third album, Talking with the Taxman about Poetry.[26] In addition, the Bon Jovi song "Bells of Freedom", from their Have a Nice Day album, is somewhat reminiscent of "Chimes of Freedom" in structure.[27]

Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan considered using the song over the closing credits of Lady in the Water, echoing the Dylan theme running throughout the movie, but instead opted for "The Times They Are a-Changin'".[citation needed]

Neil Young's song "Flags of Freedom" from his Living with War album mentions Dylan by name and melodically recalls the tune and verse structure of "Chimes of Freedom" (Young is listed as the song's only writer, however).[28]

References

  1. ^ "Chimes of Trinity Chimes of Freedom". Retrieved 2209-07-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  2. ^ a b "Chimes of Freedom". allmusic. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
  3. ^ a b "The U2 Setlist Archive". Retrieved 2009-07-22.
  4. ^ a b c d Williamson, N. (2006). Bob Dylan: The Rough Guide (2nd edition ed.). Rough Guides. p. 219. ISBN 978-1-84353-718-2. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
  5. ^ a b c d Williams, Paul (1990). Bob Dylan Performing Artist: Book One 1960 -1973. Xanadu Publications Ltd. ISBN 1-85480-044-2.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Heylin, C. (2009). Revolution in the Air. Chicago Review Press. pp. 176–181. ISBN 978-1-55652-843-9.
  7. ^ a b c d e Trager, O. (2004). Keys to the Rain. Billboard Books. pp. 104–105. ISBN 0-8230-7974-0.
  8. ^ Santelli, R. (2005). The Bob Dylan Scrapbook 1956-1966. Simon & Schuster. pp. 34–35. ISBN 978-0-7432-2828-2.
  9. ^ Clinton, Heylin (1991). Dylan: Behind The Shades – The Biography Viking Penguin. ISBN 0-670-83602-8
  10. ^ Dylan, Bob (2006). Lyrics: 1962-2001. Simon & Schuster Ltd. ISBN 0-74323-101-5
  11. ^ Marqusee, Mike (2003). Chimes of Freedom: The Politics of Bob Dylan's Art. The New Press. ISBN 1-85480-044-2
  12. ^ a b c d Gill, A. (1998). Don't Think Twice, It's All Right. Thunder's Mouth Press. p. 58. ISBN 1 56025 185 9.
  13. ^ Sawyers, J.S. (2006). Tougher Than the Rest: 100 Best Bruce Springsteen Songs. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-8256-3470-3.
  14. ^ "The Other Side of the Mirror: Live at Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965". Retrieved 2009-07-20. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |publsher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ "The 60's Original Television Soundtrack". allmusic. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
  16. ^ For example, "Stockholm, Sweden Globen March 23, 2009". Bob Links. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
  17. ^ "Chimes of Freedom". Britannica. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
  18. ^ a b c d Rogan, Johnny (1998). The Byrds: Timeless Flight Revisited. Rogan House. ISBN 0-95295-401-X
  19. ^ a b Rogan, Johnny (1996). Mr. Tambourine Man (1996 CD liner notes)
  20. ^ "Chimes of Freedom - Byrds". allmusic. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
  21. ^ "Bruce Springsteen Charts and Awards". allmusic. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
  22. ^ "Chimes of Freedom EP". allmusic. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
  23. ^ Marsh, D. (1996). Glory Days. Thunder's Mouth Press. pp. xxxi–xxxii. ISBN 1-56025-101-8.
  24. ^ a b Humphries, P. (1996). Bruce Springsteen. Omnibus Press. p. 125. ISBN 0-7119-5304-X.
  25. ^ "Jefferson's Tree of Liberty". allmusic. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
  26. ^ Schneider, Jason (May 2008). "Billy Bragg timeline". Exclaim. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
  27. ^ "Have a Nice Day". allmusic. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
  28. ^ Neil Young’s harsh words, Chris Lee, latimes.com, April 21, 2006
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chimes_of_Freedom_(song)&oldid=306193550"