Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International went on sale January 24, 2012. This incredible 4CD set features 80 musicians ranging in age from 19 year old Miley Cyrus to Pete Seger, who is 92 and recorded Forever Young with a children’s choir. All of the songs on the CDs are Bob Dylan songs that are sung by other artists, except for the original 1964 recording of Chimes of Freedom that is sung by Bob Dylan.
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In 1961, in London, Peter Beneson, a British lawyer and his friends started a campaign that would become Amnesty International. For over half a century now, Amnesty International has fought to secure the fundamental rights of the imprisoned and persecuted around the world. They believe in the individual conscience above arbitrary authority. Bob Dylan started playing his songs in January of 1961 in a coffee house in Greenwich Village. He explored the anguish and hope of the modern human condition and expressed it with his music. It was a coincidence that Amnesty International and Bob Dylan were on the same page, so to speak.
The Civil Rights movement was in full swing during the early 1960’s and Bob Dylan captured that spirit of change and unrest in his songs. Although Bob Dylan never officially joined any political organization, his music encouraged people to take action for human rights. We Shall Overcome could have been the Civil Rights Movement anthem and songs like Blowing in the Wind and The Times They Are A- Changin defined the ideals of the foot soldier in the movement. Dylan explored racial hatred and inequality through his songs like Only a Pawn in Their Game. He believed that universal human rights were something that all mankind should share in equally and his songs communicate how the world conspires against individual freedom. He sings about ordinary people who are complicit in that conspiracy.
Articles about Human Rights notoriously list bob Dylan as a finger pointer in the early 1960’s and berate him for not joining a political organization, some even call him a “sell out”. In actuality, Bob Dylan has held to his convictions in regards to his sympathy to the oppressed and unfree. His later music seems to be about one thing, but as you really listen to it, you see it is about something completely different and at the same time about many things, all at once.
Chimes of Freedom is a testimony to Bob Dylan’s understanding of his own involvement and affinity to the mission of Amnesty International. The last set of lyrics in the song, expresses the theme of Bob Dylan’s musical career and who Amnesty International was created to help. “Tolling for the aching whose wounds cannot be nursed, for the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones and worse. And for every hung up person in the whole wide universe, and we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.”
The musicians and music genres included in Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International cover rock, hip hop, country, jazz, rap, pop and blues. Most of the tracks are being released for the first time. Visit Miley Cyrus Album Best Price blog http://mileycyrusworldalbum.blogspot.com/ and Stay in touch with Entrepreneur https://twitter.com/tanminchun
