The Bob Dylan Lyric That Put a Bow on His Protest Music Period

The new film No Direction Home captures Bob Dylan in a period of transition, moving away from the acoustic-based folk songs on his earliest recordings into the incendiary blues-rock songs that would signify his mid-’60s hot streak. His subject matter was also changing quickly, as he started to leave his protest material behind.

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“Chimes of Freedom,” found on his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan, represented one more topical song for old time’s sake. In many ways, it was his most all-encompassing protest song of all, rounding up all those who needed a boost under one benevolent umbrella.

“Freedom” Overspill

Bob Dylan upended the folk music world with his back-to-back albums The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and The Times They Are a-Changin’. These albums followed folk traditions in their structure and instrumentation. Sympathy for the oppressed and righteous anger at those doing the oppressing, also hallmarks of the folk tradition, were rampant as well.

It’s just that Dylan was so skilled as a writer he couldn’t help expand the boundaries of the genre. The folk music community saw him as a leading light, someone who could continue to push the brand and bring in more listeners. But Dylan was restless even at a young age, wishing to try new styles and express whatever was in his head and heart even if it didn’t fit the expectations.

His 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan found him writing more about relationships than he ever had before. Even though it was still mostly an acoustic album, the overt protest material was largely absent. “Chimes of Freedom” was one major exception.

Via allegory, Dylan found a way to write a song that seemed to empathize with every downtrodden person and/or group on the planet. And then, for the most part, he was on his way out of the protest-music game. His next album, Bringing It All Back Home, began his rock music period in earnest, as he indulged in a non-linear, ironic, evocative lyrical style that was a far cry from the directness of his protest period.

Behind the Lyrics of “Chimes of Freedom”

If we stick with the notion that “Chimes of Freedom” was indeed Bob Dylan’s last major salvo of his protest music era, then he certainly left it on a high note. He writes here with poetic precision, all while seeming to pull the imagery from a fever dream. It’s an effort worthy of William Blake, although even Blake would probably envy the way Dylan slow-builds the song to intense peaks.

The song is essentially split into two sections throughout. In the verses, Dylan depicts a bunch of people caught out on the cusp of a storm. They’re both frightened of its potency and awed by the sights and sounds it engenders. These sections allow him some of his most fantastical descriptions, such as majestic bells of bolts and hypnotic splattered mist.

He reserves the sections that lead up to the refrains for a catalog of all those who need our empathy and concern. While never mentioning a specific group, his descriptions cast a vast net. There are, as just a few examples, the warriors, whose strength is not to fight; the luckless, the abandoned an’ forsaked; and the guardians and protectors of the mind.

In the final stanza, the storm lifts, leaving these folks somewhat dumbstruck in wonder while the ever-present bells sound out their last chimes. This is when Dylan brings it to a stunning conclusion: For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones and worse / An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe / An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

“Chimes of Freedom” inspired some wonderful covers over the years, including a jangly take by The Byrds and a muscular live rendition from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. But Bob Dylan’s acoustic guitar-and-vocal original sets an unreachable standard, one that allowed him to leave folk-protest mode at the absolute top of his game.

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