Music Review By A Non-Musician: Chimes of Freedom The Songs of Bob Dylan

I was excited when I read several weeks ago about the Amnesty International Bob Dylan tribute record.  I’ve long been a Dylan fan (bought my first album – Slow Train Coming – in 1998).  I looked forward to Chimes of Freedom both because Dylan’s catalogue is so large that I can’t possibly know it all and because so many other performers prior to this collection have covered his work that many “Dylan songs” are cemented in my mind as someone else’s.  I expected this album to introduce me to brand new music and remind me of past favourites.  It did and I would (and have) recommend it to a friend.  

Dylan is the standard in my mind for several of the tracks on the collection.  Dylan’s original recording of Gotta Serve Somebody remains as my preferred version.  The Eric Burdon cover is fantastic and stands alongside Dylan.  Similar can be said for the Jeff Beck and Seal offering of Like a Rolling Stone.  This is my favourite Dylan song (cliché alert), so I was a bit nervous before hearing the Chimes of Freedom version. The cover doesn’t displace the original, but does stand up and will find its way to Windows Media Player playlists often.

Chimes of Freedom replaces Dylan as the standard a couple of times.  Flogging Molly’s The Times They Are-A Changin’ is the best version of this song I have ever heard.  Sinead O’Connor also impressed me with Property of Jesus.  I always imagined Dylan giving a bit of a wink when he originally recorded the track.  O’Connor’s seems a bit frustrated and even angry.  The tone of the song is interesting alongside its lyrics.  I think what makes Flogging Molly and O’Connor stand out is that they make the songs their own without straying too far from what Dylan originally did.  They are certainly not copying him, but they don’t seem pressured to change the song so drastically that it is unrecognizable.    The collection also introduced my to some songs I didn’t know at all.  Natasha Bedingfield’s Ring Them Bells, Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Political World, Queens of the Stone Age’s Outlaw Blues, and Raphael Saadiq’s Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat are my favourite of the songs in this category. 

Burdon, QOTSA and Saadiq also illustrate how often I found myself attracted to the blues-tinged songs.  This didn’t surprise me.  Time Out of Mind and Modern Times are my favourite Dylan albums and each has more a blues feel to it.  Tom Morello’s Willie McTell and Rise Against’s Hollis Brown are worth a listen.

There were also few surprises in the collection.  I was fully prepared to hate Dave Matthews Band’s All Along the Watchtower.  Like all of you, I first heard Watchtower on U2’s Rattle and Hum.  With this standard in mind, the Jimi Hendrix version blew me away later.  Not being a Dave Matthews fan and having heard so many versions of this track (Dylan, Dylan & The Dead, Hendrix, U2, whoever performed it on Battlestar Galacticca), I thought it was an aberration when I found myself mouthing along when first hearing this version.  I listened again and my foot tapped, forcing me to admit I like it.  I was also iffy on Maroon 5 and I Shall Be Released.  This song still belongs to The Band and I can't see myself picking up one of their discs, but this song is a good opening to the final disc in the collection.   

I bought the iTunes version.  It cost a bit more, but was absolutely worth it.  As far as I know, Queens of the Stone Age, K’Naan, and the Johnny Cash/Avett Brothers duet are all only available in Canada through Apple and each track is worthy of your attention.  This edition of the collection also contains When the Ship Comes In by Outernational.  I’ve never heard of this band before.  Along with Flogging Molly, O’Connor, Morello, and Krall, Outernational stands out as my favourites in the set.

Chimes of Freedom is my second Amnesty International tribute.  I greatly preferred this to Instant Karma, the collection of John Lennon covers.  The Dylan combination seems more cohesive as a unit.  Most of the songs lead from one to another.  A few heavier tracks, like My Chemical Romance, and alt offerings by Silversun Pickups and Daniel Bedingfield interrupt the flow at times, but are still very good and aren't so shocking that they throws you off.  While the Lennon tribute includes some great tracks (Working Class Hero, Mother, Beautiful Boy), I never felt that it worked as an album.  Chimes of Freedom does.

About the cause & the collection




A Couple of Samples