Literary excellence in songwriting. I think they give away an award for that every year.. Thank you for reading through this song, Jeff. The words and how Dylan has put them together are beautiful. Of course his songs are poetry and you have a natural ability for reading them as such. I agree that Dylan is focused on freedom, in fact I think he's obsessed with it and despises those authoritarians that try to stop it. What captured me from the beginning like many people were his lyrics. He will go down in history as not just being a great songwriter, but an even greater poet, that is if people are alive enough in their souls to hear him. Thx. for doing this, I really enjoyed it.
Yes, long after the music dies away, Dylan will still be remembered as a poet, I truly believe. That was his true calling. But yeah, it all depends on whether we are heading into another dark ages or not as to whether any great art will survive.
Thank you @CalicoSilver . This was time we'll spend/used...to listen to your lyrical review. I love the song, it's all clear to me (the lyrics) and as English is not my native language your review gives me deeper, more nuances understanding. Well done.
@@CalicoSilver Just today before I saw your video on Chime of Freedom, I was listening to podcast called Pod Dylan, often excellent show where they talk about Dylan, one song at the time. This week they did "Chimes of Freedom" and they wrestle a little with it, I have never had any hard times understanding the lyrics. It has always been clear to me. But mind you it is nice to hear other possibilities, or other take on it. Thank you again for all the work you do for us all - and I have recommended your TH-cam site to my fellow Dylan friends in Iceland (so called Íslenska Dylan Mafían.) Thanks Sveinbjörn.
I look forward to these reviews and appreciation of Dylan songs..Chimes Of Freedom is the best song on Another Side...great insight and I love your usage of your Mom and your Aunt’s experience as an analogy..Just a great video Jeff..❤️❤️👍👍glen
I've just listened to your reviews of Mr Tambourine Man and Chimes Of Freedom. I've been a Dylan fan since I was 18 and heard Hurricane on the radio on the way home from work. I know exactly where I was when this great song exploded into my life. I bought Desire that day and have had the privilege of listening to Bob ever since. I'm definitely going to get the lyrics of Chimes Of Freedom printed out. Thanks for your brilliant reviews.
Wonderful analysis, what I love about Bob is he never uses the obvious word for something, the hurricane breeze for example, works so well but would anyone else put these two words together?
I asked him in '65--That's an acid trip in nyc? he laughed, nodding..(LSD was legal until june '67). Good one, Bob. This "hung-up" guy is really tripping, on his own!
Thanks, Tony, for your encouraging comment. Sometimes I really wonder if I should be doing this thing, "analyzing" Dylan's lyrics like this. So it is nice to hear from folks like you. Thanks again. Jeff
Doing the work I wasn't qualified to do in my review! Incredible track, great analysis of it, I think these lyric analysis videos are really interesting and different from a lot of other music content on here, keep it up!
Thanks a lot for your encouraging words! I did a lot of lyric analyses in my individual Dylan review videos also, but these go a bit deeper (or attempt to anyway, haha). I enjoyed your review of Another Side... also. Cheers. Jeff
Thanks! This is true poetry, and thanks for your analysis of it. This don’t is so beautiful. As for your remark on the end, you know Dylan received the Nobel prize in literature in, think it was, 2016, based on his beautiful, poetic lyrics. So he’s already considered a giant in literature.
Indeed, Fredrik. I even posted a video a few years ago titled something like "why Dylan deserved the Nobel prize". I agree with you 100%. Poetry is all that I ever read, and I read it all the time, every day, and I have never encountered a poet that I would deem a finer poet than Bob Dylan.
@@CalicoSilver true. There is something about poetry well written. Myself being a Lutheran priest, I often use poetry (in my native language, Swedish) on eg funeral services. There is something deeply existential and often comforting about some of it. However, and that is tricky, it’s hard to make poetry in foreign languages, even such languages you know well, your own. It’s simply so obvious that poetry is more elated, complex than everyday language. Me not having English as my first language, I have difficulties with a lot of English poetry. Trying hard to get in on the writings for instance of Gerard Manley Hopkins, but his images and literary structures are above me. It’s a shame but I guess it’s natural. But Dylan is one of the more graspable poets of your language. Like his songs and texts a lot. A Hard Rain… is one of my favourites. The very dialogue-structure of it almost has some christian connotations to it. Like a discussion between the Father and the Son on the creation. You made an analysis of that song? Best regards.
@@fredrikvicar9408 So true. One of my favorite poets, I think, was the French symbolist poet Stephane Mallarme. The reason I wrote "I think" and "was" is because it occurred to me that I was merely reading someone's translation of poetry that so depends on the precise choice of words for its symbolism. Each translation was different from the other. I finally had to abandon reading them. So unfortunately I only read poetry written in English. This is not the case, however, with other writing (stories, novels, essays), however. Yes I agree that Gerard Manley Hopkins was a superb poet indeed. No, I have not attempted an interpretation of Hard Rain because I frankly have never been able to get much from it other than an engaging series of images. Thanks again for your great comments, Fredrik. Jeff
Great chat, Jeff. I also think that context, as ever with Dylan, plays a big part here, like Restless Farewell did on 'Times'. All of Another Side was a goodbye to 'protest' (that wasn't really protest) and Chimes is a magnificent farewell with Dylan saying 'I'll always feel like this but I gotta go and look at some other things because there are so many of them.' Every hung-up person is literally everyone on the planet because we're ALL hung-up. 'So all the best, everyone, take care of yourselves and see you down the line. Hope you like it and don't feel I should stay here.' Enter: 'Judas!'
Thanks, Rick. That makes me very happy if anyone derives benefit from these videos, so I appreciate your encouraging words. Yes indeed, this is one of the finest lyrics/poems that Dylan has ever written. Cheers. Jeff
I've always been looking for a review or rather interpretation of this "different" kind of song and yours was thorough and interesting and the only one I know of in video or pros. Thank you. In my wondering about what Dylan intended it to mean, I have always been puzzled. The "wedding bells" line made me think it was about a wedding he'd just returned from or was going to. Whose and how does that relate to freedom and all these "shortcomings" he lists after the first four lines of set-up in each stanza. I also wondered about "we ducked." It means he was with somebody and I wondered who with. The wedding seems to be beside the point. I dabble in poetry and songwriting, but could never have come up with the seed that generated this stream of consciousness complaint list from either a natural lightning storm or attending a wedding, so I remain puzzled but will relisten in your light. It seems, in its way, patriotic and wanting some fight back (I think of Springsteen’s short version), but it lacks solutions, which is one reason I hesitate to sing it to others. Full of wonderful, almost apocalyptic word pictures which makes the song ring "important" and ultra-poetic.
Thanks for your very interesting comment, Richard. This is one masterpiece of a song/poem, for sure. It can speak to anyone with a poetic sentiment. Cheers! Jeff
nice one jeff....i always thought of chimes of freedom as a rapture analogy....the return, if you will.....but however it's interpreted, it is poetry....and brilliant poetry at that....thanks again fir the enlightenment....peace always my friend....rocky
Great interpretation, Rocky. I think you are right to suggest that the song has a potential "second coming" interpretation. So many of Dylan's lyrics can be seen in Biblical contexts, I agree completely. Not sure, of course, if it applies everywhere we see it, from Dylan's POV or his intentions when he wrote the lyric, but it sure can be seen in that light by those attuned to that approach. Thanks. Jeff
Glad to hear it, Mick. I had always planned to review all the albums, then do individual songs, so that is what I am doing. What I do have trouble with is the reviewing of the Bootleg Series.....I've done about 6 of them but it is always difficult to make myself do them, for some reason. I love the Bootleg Series and enjoy listening to them, don't get me wrong, but I just don't feel much desire to TALK about some of them like I did with the albums and now the lyrics. But eventually I will get back to them....I think. Haha! Thanks again, Mick. Jeff
@@CalicoSilver Thanks so much for your reply Jeff! I totally relate to your possible lack of enthusiasm for reviewing the Bootleg Series Jeff. It's hard to have the same 'intimate' relationship with those albums l find. Like yourself, l enjoy them, and in fact there are some Dylan classics hidden in among them. ' Across The Green Mountain ' for instance...what a song Jeff? Again, like the Crooner albums, I don't really consider those as part of the cannon at all !!
@@electricfence61 I love Across The Green Mountain as well, Mick. I think, in fact, that henceforth when I approach any kind of 'review' of the Bootleg Series I will just select a handful of especially fine tunes like that one. That way, I won't feel so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of material on each release that would need to be 'covered' or talked about, haha! Thanks for giving me the idea (whether you meant to or not). Cheers. Jeff
lyric of that masterpiece gives me the same impression and emotion ,like when I read at age 15 Rimbaud's "The drunken Boat",and always thought that B.D. is Rimbaud and all the simbolists poets in one person
I think you are right....but I'd go further....I think B.D. is everything he has ever read, seen, lived, and heard, all in one person. He seems to be a sponge that absorbs everything and is able to internalize it and express it all through his own lens. Or something like that. Haha! Thanks for your comment. Cheers. Jeff
@@CalicoSilver Thanks Jeff! And, for me, the live version (Live at Royal Festival Hall, London, UK - May 1964) from the album "Live 1962-1966 - Rare Performances From The Copyright Collections" is my favorite renditon!
Thank you for your analysis. You're right: "Chimes" is a wonderfully complex song-poem. One of Dylan's best. I wonder if you've heard the Grateful Dead and Dylan playing it live--but using such a captivating different-than-usual rhythm, it's almost hard to quit listening. The same goes for the duet Bob does with Joan Baez. MAGA
Thanks for your comment. Yes I have heard and love The Dead's version of this song (and other Dylan songs they like to cover.....in fact, I am one of the few, I think, who actually likes the Dylan & The Dead album, haha!). Thank you very much. ;-)
Lyricists? Beefheart or Dylan. I know what Beefheart though from a recent interview I heard. Second thoughts don’t answer but Id be interested in your thoughts if you’re so inclined? Thanks anyway you breath life into my record collection lol you do for my records what sunshine does for stained glass (got that out if reader’s digest 😉)
Dylan is the unparalleled maestro of lyrics to me, but I certain love the ingenuity of Beefheart also. Actually, comparing Dylan to Beefheart lyrics-wise is almost like comparing apples to oranges (as the tired old saying goes). Two totally different styles of lyrical expression, but both stunningly effective. What did Beefheart say in the interview? I'm curious. Oh, and thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words!! Jeff
@@CalicoSilver lol someone asked Beefheary if there were any current day poets in music that he liked “Oh er... me”. What about Dylan “Oh please” (he did say it with some charm tbh) but I would also disagree with Don though. Dylan stands alone and keeps on doing it. I didn’t see all Beefhearts lyrics until much after I got the albums and was so impressed. But so much Dylan has so many layers and he wrote some of that stuff at what 21/22!! Impeccable. Thanks fir all you do.
@@CalicoSilver thinking about it I reckon Beefheart got close on a couple of albums (as opposed to like 50yrs!!). Any thoughts on Mick Jagger as a lyricist? I think he’s underrated 👍
@@cavewaller Jagger, hands down.....well, I should say that I am MUCH more familiar with Jagger's lyrics than Lennon's, so I should at least be honest and upfront about it. I've never cared that much for Lennon's solo work.
Hi Thomas. I can enjoy the Byrds' versions of Dylan songs OK but I wouldn't say I "like" them very much because I know Dylan's versions which I think are so marvelous. Just my own bias, I reckon.
Literary excellence in songwriting. I think they give away an award for that every year.. Thank you for reading through this song, Jeff. The words and how Dylan has put them together are beautiful. Of course his songs are poetry and you have a natural ability for reading them as such. I agree that Dylan is focused on freedom, in fact I think he's obsessed with it and despises those authoritarians that try to stop it. What captured me from the beginning like many people were his lyrics. He will go down in history as not just being a great songwriter, but an even greater poet, that is if people are alive enough in their souls to hear him. Thx. for doing this, I really enjoyed it.
Yes, long after the music dies away, Dylan will still be remembered as a poet, I truly believe. That was his true calling. But yeah, it all depends on whether we are heading into another dark ages or not as to whether any great art will survive.
Thank you @CalicoSilver . This was time we'll spend/used...to listen to your lyrical review. I love the song, it's all clear to me (the lyrics) and as English is not my native language your review gives me deeper, more nuances understanding. Well done.
Thank you. Jeff
@@CalicoSilver Just today before I saw your video on Chime of Freedom, I was listening to podcast called Pod Dylan, often excellent show where they talk about Dylan, one song at the time. This week they did "Chimes of Freedom" and they wrestle a little with it, I have never had any hard times understanding the lyrics. It has always been clear to me. But mind you it is nice to hear other possibilities, or other take on it. Thank you again for all the work you do for us all - and I have recommended your TH-cam site to my fellow Dylan friends in Iceland (so called Íslenska Dylan Mafían.)
Thanks Sveinbjörn.
@@possi156 Thanks, Sveinbjörn. Jeff
I look forward to these reviews and appreciation of Dylan songs..Chimes Of Freedom is the best song on Another Side...great insight and I love your usage of your Mom and your Aunt’s experience as an analogy..Just a great video Jeff..❤️❤️👍👍glen
Thanks Glen. Glad you liked it. I will be spending more time on these types of videos rather than rants henceforth, haha!
Thank you for this lovely review
Thanks Alejandro.
I've just listened to your reviews of Mr Tambourine Man and Chimes Of Freedom. I've been a Dylan fan since I was 18 and heard Hurricane on the radio on the way home from work. I know exactly where I was when this great song exploded into my life. I bought Desire that day and have had the privilege of listening to Bob ever since. I'm definitely going to get the lyrics of Chimes Of Freedom printed out. Thanks for your brilliant reviews.
Thank you very much, Robert!
Wonderful analysis, what I love about Bob is he never uses the obvious word for something, the hurricane breeze for example, works so well but would anyone else put these two words together?
Thanks Ian. I truly love this song. Jeff
I asked him in '65--That's an acid trip in nyc? he laughed, nodding..(LSD was legal until june '67). Good one, Bob.
This "hung-up" guy is really tripping, on his own!
Thankyou very much for explaining the song/poem. Now when I listen to it, it means so much more. You have given me that pleasure. Thanks
Thanks, Tony, for your encouraging comment. Sometimes I really wonder if I should be doing this thing, "analyzing" Dylan's lyrics like this. So it is nice to hear from folks like you. Thanks again. Jeff
Doing the work I wasn't qualified to do in my review! Incredible track, great analysis of it, I think these lyric analysis videos are really interesting and different from a lot of other music content on here, keep it up!
Thanks a lot for your encouraging words! I did a lot of lyric analyses in my individual Dylan review videos also, but these go a bit deeper (or attempt to anyway, haha). I enjoyed your review of Another Side... also. Cheers. Jeff
Thanks! This is true poetry, and thanks for your analysis of it. This don’t is so beautiful. As for your remark on the end, you know Dylan received the Nobel prize in literature in, think it was, 2016, based on his beautiful, poetic lyrics. So he’s already considered a giant in literature.
Indeed, Fredrik. I even posted a video a few years ago titled something like "why Dylan deserved the Nobel prize". I agree with you 100%. Poetry is all that I ever read, and I read it all the time, every day, and I have never encountered a poet that I would deem a finer poet than Bob Dylan.
@@CalicoSilver true. There is something about poetry well written. Myself being a Lutheran priest, I often use poetry (in my native language, Swedish) on eg funeral services. There is something deeply existential and often comforting about some of it. However, and that is tricky, it’s hard to make poetry in foreign languages, even such languages you know well, your own. It’s simply so obvious that poetry is more elated, complex than everyday language. Me not having English as my first language, I have difficulties with a lot of English poetry. Trying hard to get in on the writings for instance of Gerard Manley Hopkins, but his images and literary structures are above me. It’s a shame but I guess it’s natural. But Dylan is one of the more graspable poets of your language. Like his songs and texts a lot. A Hard Rain… is one of my favourites. The very dialogue-structure of it almost has some christian connotations to it. Like a discussion between the Father and the Son on the creation. You made an analysis of that song? Best regards.
@@fredrikvicar9408 So true. One of my favorite poets, I think, was the French symbolist poet Stephane Mallarme. The reason I wrote "I think" and "was" is because it occurred to me that I was merely reading someone's translation of poetry that so depends on the precise choice of words for its symbolism. Each translation was different from the other. I finally had to abandon reading them. So unfortunately I only read poetry written in English. This is not the case, however, with other writing (stories, novels, essays), however. Yes I agree that Gerard Manley Hopkins was a superb poet indeed. No, I have not attempted an interpretation of Hard Rain because I frankly have never been able to get much from it other than an engaging series of images. Thanks again for your great comments, Fredrik. Jeff
Great chat, Jeff. I also think that context, as ever with Dylan, plays a big part here, like Restless Farewell did on 'Times'. All of Another Side was a goodbye to 'protest' (that wasn't really protest) and Chimes is a magnificent farewell with Dylan saying 'I'll always feel like this but I gotta go and look at some other things because there are so many of them.' Every hung-up person is literally everyone on the planet because we're ALL hung-up. 'So all the best, everyone, take care of yourselves and see you down the line. Hope you like it and don't feel I should stay here.' Enter: 'Judas!'
Right on, Peter. I agree with every word you wrote here. Thanks! Jeff
Jeff I got a lot out of your analysis of Chimes - it is seriously lyrically dense, poetic, and storytelling!!! Thanks!!!
Thanks, Rick. That makes me very happy if anyone derives benefit from these videos, so I appreciate your encouraging words. Yes indeed, this is one of the finest lyrics/poems that Dylan has ever written. Cheers. Jeff
I've always been looking for a review or rather interpretation of this "different" kind of song and yours was thorough and interesting and the only one I know of in video or pros. Thank you. In my wondering about what Dylan intended it to mean, I have always been puzzled. The "wedding bells" line made me think it was about a wedding he'd just returned from or was going to. Whose and how does that relate to freedom and all these "shortcomings" he lists after the first four lines of set-up in each stanza. I also wondered about "we ducked." It means he was with somebody and I wondered who with. The wedding seems to be beside the point. I dabble in poetry and songwriting, but could never have come up with the seed that generated this stream of consciousness complaint list from either a natural lightning storm or attending a wedding, so I remain puzzled but will relisten in your light. It seems, in its way, patriotic and wanting some fight back (I think of Springsteen’s short version), but it lacks solutions, which is one reason I hesitate to sing it to others. Full of wonderful, almost apocalyptic word pictures which makes the song ring "important" and ultra-poetic.
Thanks for your very interesting comment, Richard. This is one masterpiece of a song/poem, for sure. It can speak to anyone with a poetic sentiment. Cheers! Jeff
nice one jeff....i always thought of chimes of freedom as a rapture analogy....the return, if you will.....but however it's interpreted, it is poetry....and brilliant poetry at that....thanks again fir the enlightenment....peace always my friend....rocky
Great interpretation, Rocky. I think you are right to suggest that the song has a potential "second coming" interpretation. So many of Dylan's lyrics can be seen in Biblical contexts, I agree completely. Not sure, of course, if it applies everywhere we see it, from Dylan's POV or his intentions when he wrote the lyric, but it sure can be seen in that light by those attuned to that approach. Thanks. Jeff
Love it , love it, love it Jeff!
I'm really enjoying these lyric videos man.
Thanks again Jeff ✊
Glad to hear it, Mick. I had always planned to review all the albums, then do individual songs, so that is what I am doing. What I do have trouble with is the reviewing of the Bootleg Series.....I've done about 6 of them but it is always difficult to make myself do them, for some reason. I love the Bootleg Series and enjoy listening to them, don't get me wrong, but I just don't feel much desire to TALK about some of them like I did with the albums and now the lyrics. But eventually I will get back to them....I think. Haha! Thanks again, Mick. Jeff
@@CalicoSilver
Thanks so much for your reply Jeff!
I totally relate to your possible lack of enthusiasm for reviewing the Bootleg Series Jeff.
It's hard to have the same 'intimate' relationship with those albums l find.
Like yourself, l enjoy them, and in fact there are some Dylan classics hidden in among them.
' Across The Green Mountain ' for instance...what a song Jeff?
Again, like the Crooner albums, I don't really consider those as part of the cannon at all !!
@@electricfence61 I love Across The Green Mountain as well, Mick. I think, in fact, that henceforth when I approach any kind of 'review' of the Bootleg Series I will just select a handful of especially fine tunes like that one. That way, I won't feel so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of material on each release that would need to be 'covered' or talked about, haha! Thanks for giving me the idea (whether you meant to or not). Cheers. Jeff
Great review! Dylan was so incredible in the sixties.
Thanks Machata!
Think he’s amazing ever since. I feel his religious inclinations have pushed his lyrics far beyond his peers 😀
@@cavewaller So true. I think his willingness to delve deeply into Biblical and other sources for inspiration is unparalleled.
lyric of that masterpiece gives me the same impression and emotion ,like when I read at age 15 Rimbaud's "The drunken Boat",and always thought that B.D. is Rimbaud and all the simbolists poets in one person
I think you are right....but I'd go further....I think B.D. is everything he has ever read, seen, lived, and heard, all in one person. He seems to be a sponge that absorbs everything and is able to internalize it and express it all through his own lens. Or something like that. Haha! Thanks for your comment. Cheers. Jeff
My favorite poem ever!
You sure picked a great one to be your favorite, yan jiaxu. A masterpiece, I agree. Jeff
@@CalicoSilver Thanks Jeff! And, for me, the live version (Live at Royal Festival Hall, London, UK - May 1964) from the album "Live 1962-1966 - Rare Performances From The Copyright Collections" is my favorite renditon!
One of his greatest songs......
Bee-yooo-teee-fulll indeed! Sublime poetry with a sweet melody to boot! Can't go wrong. ;-)
I agree it is beautiful
Thank you for your analysis. You're right: "Chimes" is a wonderfully complex song-poem. One of Dylan's best. I wonder if you've heard the Grateful Dead and Dylan playing it live--but using such a captivating different-than-usual rhythm, it's almost hard to quit listening. The same goes for the duet Bob does with Joan Baez. MAGA
Thanks for your comment. Yes I have heard and love The Dead's version of this song (and other Dylan songs they like to cover.....in fact, I am one of the few, I think, who actually likes the Dylan & The Dead album, haha!). Thank you very much. ;-)
Hi Jeff! Very nice series. Please consider ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ for this. 😊
Good suggestion, yes. What a great song.
I think the two people in the song are looking at the storm through the lens of acid or pot
Lyricists? Beefheart or Dylan. I know what Beefheart though from a recent interview I heard. Second thoughts don’t answer but Id be interested in your thoughts if you’re so inclined? Thanks anyway you breath life into my record collection lol you do for my records what sunshine does for stained glass (got that out if reader’s digest 😉)
Dylan is the unparalleled maestro of lyrics to me, but I certain love the ingenuity of Beefheart also. Actually, comparing Dylan to Beefheart lyrics-wise is almost like comparing apples to oranges (as the tired old saying goes). Two totally different styles of lyrical expression, but both stunningly effective. What did Beefheart say in the interview? I'm curious. Oh, and thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words!! Jeff
@@CalicoSilver lol someone asked Beefheary if there were any current day poets in music that he liked “Oh er... me”. What about Dylan “Oh please” (he did say it with some charm tbh) but I would also disagree with Don though. Dylan stands alone and keeps on doing it. I didn’t see all Beefhearts lyrics until much after I got the albums and was so impressed. But so much Dylan has so many layers and he wrote some of that stuff at what 21/22!! Impeccable. Thanks fir all you do.
@@CalicoSilver thinking about it I reckon Beefheart got close on a couple of albums (as opposed to like 50yrs!!). Any thoughts on Mick Jagger as a lyricist? I think he’s underrated 👍
So... just s Sunday morning thought.... Lennon or Jagger fir lyrics? Im thinking Jagger atm
@@cavewaller Jagger, hands down.....well, I should say that I am MUCH more familiar with Jagger's lyrics than Lennon's, so I should at least be honest and upfront about it. I've never cared that much for Lennon's solo work.
Great tune, very difficult to sing as the stanzas and wording are so complex. I love hearing Springsteen playing it too, take care!
Haha, so true - you have to really focus hard to even read the lyrics to this song without tumbling over the words, haha!
@@CalicoSilver I've tried to cover it a few times and can't quite get it
Good job as always Jeff -do you like the Byrds version?
Hi Thomas. I can enjoy the Byrds' versions of Dylan songs OK but I wouldn't say I "like" them very much because I know Dylan's versions which I think are so marvelous. Just my own bias, I reckon.
Great song, but WTF is his game!