This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Linuxlad (talk | contribs) at 10:35, 11 February 2005 (link to book stub (doh! did we need it!)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 10:35, 11 February 2005 by Linuxlad (talk | contribs) (link to book stub (doh! did we need it!))(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)"Chimes of Freedom" is a song by Bob Dylan. It has been covered many times by various artists including Bruce Springsteen, The Byrds, and Roger McGuinn who took very different perspectives it.
Chimes of Freedom is also the title of a book, subtitled The Politics of Bob Dylan's Art, by Mike Marqusee (The New Press, NY, 2003) - the book's purpose, (according to reviewer Mike Davis), is to rescue Dylan's early work "from the condescension of his own later cynicism".
As Marqusee notes, the song marks a transition between Dylan's earlier "protest song" style (a litany of the down-trodden and oppressed, in the 2nd 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)
The song has often been used as a template as a near-perfect protest song. Most notably, it formed a strong influence (almost to the point of plagiarism) for Billy Bragg's song ideology.
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