THE BYRDS 📀 Chimes Of Freedom {Stereo} 1965

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 20:02:22 +0000

From The Byrds LP titled, "Mr. Tambourine Man."
Original video edited and remastered with HQ stereo sound.
"Chimes of Freedom" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his Tom Wilson produced 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan. The song depicts the thoughts and feelings of the singer and his companion as they shelter from a lightning storm under a doorway after sunset. The singer expresses his solidarity with the downtrodden and oppressed, believing that the thunder is tolling in sympathy for them.
Initially, critics described the song as showing the influence of the symbolist poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, but more recent biographers of Dylan have linked the origins of the song to verses the songwriter had written as a response to the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. Some commentators and Dylan biographers have assessed the song as one of Dylan's most significant compositions, and critic Paul Williams has described it 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.
The Byrds released a version of "Chimes of Freedom" on their 1965 debut album, Mr. Tambourine Man. The song was the last track to be recorded for the album, but the recording session was marred by conflict. After the band had completed the song's instrumental backing track, guitarist and harmony vocalist David Crosby announced that he was not going to sing on the recording and was quitting the studio for the day. The reason for Crosby's refusal to sing the song has never been fully explained, but the fight between the guitarist and the band's manager, record producer Jim Dickson, ended with Dickson sitting on Crosby's chest, telling him, "The only way you're going to get through that door is over my dead body...You're going to stay in this room until you do the vocal." According to a number of people in the studio that day, Crosby burst into tears, but finally completed the song's harmony part with sterling results. Dickson himself noted in later years that his altercation with Crosby was a cathartic moment in which the singer "got it all out and sang like an angel."
The song went on to become a staple of the Byrds' live concert repertoire, until their breakup in 1973. The band also performed the song on the television programs Hullabaloo and Shindig!, and included it in their performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. The Byrds' performance of "Chimes of Freedom" at Monterey can be seen in the 2002 The Complete Monterey Pop Festival DVD box set.
The song was also performed by a reformed line-up of the Byrds featuring Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, and Chris Hillman in January 1989. In addition to its appearance on Mr. Tambourine Man, "Chimes of Freedom" has appeared on several Byrds' compilation albums, including The Byrds' Greatest Hits, The Byrds Play Dylan, The Very Best of The Byrds, and The Essential Byrds.