Chimes of Freedom: Dylan Rings It Out

We take it for granted now how nearly all knowledge, all literature, all music ever recorded, all experience has migrated to the internet these past two decades. Wikipedia alone has become a phenomenal knowledge and research resource. The saying goes that you can't trust what you find there, but for the most part it's a pretty reliable resource. Here's Wikipedia's opening description for its "Chimes Of Freedom" entry:

"Chimes of Freedom" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan (see 1964 in music), produced by Tom Wilson. It was written in early 1964 and was influenced by the symbolist poetry of Arthur Rimbaud. The song depicts the feelings and thoughts of the singer and his companion as they wait out a lightning storm under a doorway. The singer expresses his solidarity with people who are downtrodden or otherwise treated unjustly, and believes that the thunder is tolling in sympathy for them. Music critic Paul Williams has described the song as Dylan's Sermon on the Mount. The song has been covered many times by different artists, including The Byrds, Jefferson Starship, Youssou N'Dour, Bruce Springsteen and U2.

A comparison to the Sermon on the Mount may be a bit of hyperbole but the song certainly aspires toward a higher zenith than you'd typically find in the songs of its time. 1964 was the year of the British Invasion, spearheaded by the Beatles performances on the Ed Sullivan Show. Their songs "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You" captured the top slots on the Billboard chart that year. Louis Armstrong ("Hello, Dolly") followed in third, Roy Orbison next with "Pretty Woman" and the Beach Boys placed fifth with "I Get Around." As you can see straight up Chimes Of Freedom is an utterly different breed of song, and Dylan was an altogether different breed of songwriter. Go through the rest of the list and you will find nothing like it.

Right off, from the opening lines, one is aware that we're in the presence of something wholly other.

Far between sundown’s finish an’ midnight’s broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing

When all is said and done John Hinchey declares it to be "the most extravagantly self-indulgent song
Dylan has ever gotten away with. But he does get away with it here." This, too, is a bit of hyperbole.

When compared to the other songs on this album Hinchey calls it an anomaly. In this assessment the author of the Bob Dylan Commentaries agrees when he writes, "I have mixed feelings about the inclusion of this song on Another Side. It’s certainly an ambitious song, a great song, a song that makes a powerful statement. It’s nicely written and contains some very creative, powerful images. On the other hand, it does not fit in well with the small scale, personal songs of Another Side."

I disagree. It's a companion to "My Back Pages" which along with this song anchors Another Side in another sphere. The picture in my mind is a giant straddling a body of water, one foot planted on each of two shores. The first foot is rooted in traditional realm while the other foot is planted firmly in the new territory Dylan is headed toward in Bringing It All Back Home. I believe it would have been a mistake to leave this song off Another Side. And I'm more than comfortable with the context in which this song was introduced. In fact, it never entered my mind when I was young, middle-aged or old that it would have been better suited elsewhere, so natural does it feel in this context.

Perhaps it wasn't till the Bootleg Series collections emerged that one began to notice how challenging these albums may have been to assemble, or how many various options there were. Other outtakes included "Mama, You Been On My Mind", as well as a whole collection of songs recorded during those remarkabe early years that never saw release until The Bootleg Series Volume 9: The Witmark Demos came out in 2010.  I can imagine that it must have been agonizing as far as what to leave in and what to leave out for many of Dylan's albums but especially so in this time period.

The Byrds, with Jim McGuinn's jingle jangle 12-string Rickenbacker guitar and chorale harmonies, produced memorable versions of this and numerous other Dylan songs from the period including "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "My Back Pages." The Byrds were an early adopter of this stance that Dylan took, bringing philosophical and literary sensibilities into the rock realm. "Turn, Turn, Turn" which Pete Seger adopted from the famous passage in the Book of Ecclesiastes, was one of two songs The Byrds carried to number one on the pop charts.

Here are the lyrics to Dylan's "Chimes," a story in verse about a pair of friends huddled in a doorway while a thunderstorm is exploding. The flashing sky and crashing thunder becomes a metaphor for something greater.  

Chimes Of Freedom

Far between sundown’s finish an’ midnight’s broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An’ for each an’ ev’ry underdog soldier in the night
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

In the city’s melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden while the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin’ rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an’ forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burnin’ constantly at stake
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
An’ the unpawned painter behind beyond his rightful time
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations
Tolling for the deaf an’ blind, tolling for the mute
Tolling for the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw, chased an’ cheated by pursuit
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Even though a cloud’s white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An’ the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An’ for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Starry-eyed an’ laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an’ we watched with one last look
Spellbound an’ swallowed ’til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an’ worse
An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Copyright © 1964 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1992 by Special Rider Music

* * * *

EndNotes: Many of the performers of the early Greenwich Village scene have become legendary. Among them were names like Phil Ochs, Dave Von Ronk, Ramblin' Jack Elliot and countless others. One of these, who made his appearance in 1964 and immediately garnered attention, was a singer/songwriter named Eric Andersen. In two weeks Andersen will be performing here in the town of Bob Dylan's birth.

The Armory Arts and Music Center is presenting Eric Andersen in his first-ever appearance in Duluth, along with a return visit by Scarlet Rivera, as part of the fifth annual benefit concert to support the Armory. Andersen and Rivera first performed together at the debut Rolling Thunder Revue show at the historic Gerde’s Folk City in 1975. Concert details and ticket information can be found here on Facebook.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Open your eyes!

Dylan No Stranger to Plagiarism Charges; They're In the Wind

My first 45 was "All Day and All of the Night" by the Kinks. The song was released the year our family moved from Cleveland to New Jersey, a year of many big events for me including my 12th birthday which included a trip to Manhattan with my dad to buy a reel-to-reel tape two-speed Estey tape recorder. I also got my first record player, and first records.

The Kinks were part of the British Invasion which was hot, in large part due to the Beatles and the Ed Sullivan Show. And disc jockeys like Cousin Brucie, on WABC, introduced us to everything that was climbing and flaming. The Kinks reached a top ten with that song.

By the time The Doors broke through a few years later I had a much nicer Lafayette stereo system and was collecting albums in earnest. Waiting for the Sun came out in the summer of '68 and was immediately added to my collection. I loved the sound. "Hello I Love You (Won't You Tell Me Your Name)" flew to number one. It had a catchy great sound and a catchy riff. It never entered my mind to connect it to my first 45, but Ray Davies who wrote it for the Kinks certainly. He sued in a high profile plagiarism case and won, after which he received all royalties from sales of the Doors' song.

George Harrison similarly stumbled stumbled when he released My Sweet Lord after the breakup of the Beatles. He evidently failed to notice that the tune which emerged in in his head had an earlier origin: "He’s So Fine," the Chiffons' 1963 hit.

In recent years critics have been taking Bob Dylan to the woodshed with charges plagiarism. He’s purportedly stolen tunes, lyrics and arrangements. I've half wondered if the nearly countless strands of sentences and phrases in the songs on Tempest and a deliberate "in your face" response to these critics. That is, "I read the news today, oh boy, and how many other lines can you find here that came from somewhere else?"

Lee Marshall's Bob Dylan: The Never Ending Star defends Dylan's use of other material by explaining how a lifetime of internalizing the history of folk and blues music, it's all inside him and part of him now. Or, to quote Alex Moore, "Bob Dylan is not plagiarizing, he’s just way better read than you are."

While reading Robert Shelton's Dylan bio No Direction Home this week I discovered that even in the beginning Dylan had to deal with charges of pilfering a song, in this case one of his most significant, Blowing in the Wind. After it hit the charts via Peter, Paul & Mary, a rumor began to circulate that Dylan had stolen the song. Shelton, who wrote for the Times, got a call from a Rutgers prof that Dylan bought the song from a kid in Millburn, NJ, named Lorre Wyatt. The prof offered details that when presented to Dylan only made him angry.

In 1963 the young Wyatt wrote a letter to Broadside (a periodical that covered music scene then) that dissed the professor's story, but that he had actually written a song called "Freedom Is Blowing in the Wind." Because the titles were similar, he had friends who felt he'd been ripped off.

Interestingly enough, the story doesn't end here. In 1974, Wyatt wrote a story for the New Times about this whole stolen song incident. In the '74 piece he confessed to having lied with regard to haveing written anything remotely like Blowing in the Wind. He ended by stating, "I'm just sorry it's taken me 11 years to say 'I'm sorry.'"

Thinking of the incredible events that unfolded from 1963 to '74, globally and in Dylan's amazing epoch of song production, it's easy to imagine that this little blip had been long forgotten.

Lesson: don't believe everything you read and hear.  

Meantime, life goes on all around you.

NOTE: Today is FREE FRIDAY. Download for free my featured eBook of the Day: Newmanesque

The British Invasion

According to Rolling Stone magazine's list of top 500 albums, four of the top ten are by the Beatles, who also own the Gold Medal position of Numero Uno with their ground breaking Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The other three Beatles albums on the top ten are Revolver (3), Rubber Soul (5) and The White Album (10).

I remember when The White Album came out there were all kinds of rumors about what would have been on the cover of this album had not the censors interfered. I'm not up to speed on the trivia here but suspect that the mystique created by this album devoid of even a title was a brilliant concept that helped maintain the buzz for these now maturing mop tops who took America by storm only a few short years earlier.

It was called The British Invasion by the media heads, with groups like the Dave Clark Five and The Animals and The Rolling Stones all having a go at American audiences via the trend setting Ed Sullivan Show. Beatlemania was so over the top that when they appeared in concert it was impossible to hear them perform because of the girls shrieking and shaking and screaming.

Other groups that cross-pollinated with American audiences, influencing emerging Stateside bands, included Herman's Hermits, Peter & Gordon, Manfred Mann, Petula Clark, Freddie and the Dreamers, Donovan and the Kinks. My first 45 single was the Kinks' All Day and All of the Night. All these groups had hits in the American pop scene.

The influences went both ways though. Dylan made an impact "over there" as did Jimi Hendrix whose time in England gave him the traction his career needed to get out from the typecasting expected of a black guitarist in the States. Hendrix found his voice (or rather, his guitar did) and he carved out a new territory in rock history.

Rounding out the top ten of RS magazine's greatest albums, we have Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys (2), Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited (4), Marvin Gaye's What's Going On (6), Exile on Main Street by the Rolling Stones (7), London Calling by The Clash (8) and Dylan's Blonde on Blonde at number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine....

Not sure what I think of a couple of those. Elvis makes the list at number eleven with The Sun Sessions. And Miles Davis grabs the twelve spot with Kind of Blue, the first jazz album on the list.

What would be the top ten albums on your list... if you can narrow it down that far. You should check the Rolling Stone Top 500 for a good selection of ideas. Maybe it would be good to get a handle on their criteria. Pet Sounds? Exile on Main Street? Not sure I understand those selections. How about you?

Note: Picture at top right is from a wall in Haight-Ashbury, SF 2008.

Battle of the Brands

"Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid." ~Hedy Lamarr

About a month ago I read that Barbie turned fifty this year. In my opinion, she still looks pretty good for her age. A little nip and tuck along the chin line and some exercise to keep the muscle tone hasn't hurt any. She never seems to put on an ounce of weight, unlike a lot of other dolls, so apparently fame never led her to change her values, or or diet.

Back in the early Sixties my mom used to sew Barbie clothes for my cousins as well as other girls in the 'hood. For the purpose of fitting the clothes she sewed she had a couple Barbies we dressed for success, for the beach or for the ball at my mother's whim. Because it seemed unseemly to her, she eventually bought a Ken doll to keep her boys from playing with Barbie.

Barbie eventually became the unrivalled brand champion in the international toy category.

One of the hallmarks of capitalism is the manner in which companies battle for marketshare and top-of-mind awareness in consumers. In marketing, companies seek not only to define their brand, its name and assets, but also to place it in the center of the consumer's mind.

Branding is a way in which a company differentiates itself from the competition. You can see this in the variety of flavors in which rock and roll came to America in what is known as "the British Invasion." The Animals, Beau Brummels, Beatles, Dave Clark Five, Rolling Stones, The Who, Cream, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix were groups which crossed the seas to win the hearts of young Americans, with varying degrees of success. (Hendrix himself was from Portland, but his group originated across the big pond.)

Over time, with the onslaught of fame and the music scene tabloids, the individuals within these groups became brands in and of themselves, again with varying degrees of success. Each of the Beatles went this route, Eric Burdon of the Animals, Jimi Hendrix, Clapton. If you said Jagger, everyone would know what you meant. He was clearly defined -- the androgynous guy with big lips and hip walk -- and even became a caricature of himself. Keith Richards represented everything you didn't want your daughter to associate with. The Beatles played up their innocence and charm, though eventually their various personas emerged.

Brand images are not always a positive. The Standard Oil Company spent a great deal of money trying to come up with a unique company name that had no liabilities in any language. They came up with the word Exxon. Unfortunately for Exxon, the image that pops immediately to mind when much of the environmentally conscious public hears the word is Exxon Valdez. The 1989 oil spill off Alaska's Prince William Sound continues to rankle.

The top five global brands of 2008 were Coca-Cola, IBM, Microsoft, General Electric and Nokia, in that order. Number six on the list was Toyota, the highest ranked automobile company. In 2001, Ford was the world's top automotive brand, listed eighth, one slot behind Disney. But today, slotted at 49, Ford exemplifies the U.S. auto industry which has slipped badly.

When we say beer, Anheuser-Busch wants you to think of Budweiser, the King of beers. Ranked #33 in the 2008 list of Best Global Brands, Budweiser is now being challenged by a Chinese beer of all things.

Actually, Budweiser's number one seller is Bud Lite, which proves the company made a good move back in the Seventies when they saw the lite beer trend coming and fought hard to establish their cred in that arena. But SABMiller claims it sells more of its branded product Snow and has now become the world's best selling beer.

Well, back to Barbie, who in 2001 was ranked 84 in the list of Best Global Brands. Times have changed. In the current top one hundred, Barbie failed to make the cut. That's why she's recently been spotted in several Manhattan taverns crying in her beer. And rumor has it she's also been cited for drunk driving on Long Island. Twice. Fortunately, by keeping it out of the tabloids it hasn't done too much damage to her brand image... unlike some other ditzy blondes in the news, for better or worse, though in that celebrity culture, sometimes even bad news is good, as long as they're still talking about you.

PHOTO: While in Sedona we noticed that MacDonald's, home of the Golden Arches and the world's eighth-ranked global brand, was sporting Green arches, a very chic, New Age attire.