| Chimes of Freedom – performed by the Byrds live at the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival in Monterey County, California It will soon be 54 years to the day (June 16–18) that the first major music or open-air pop festival took place during the cultural transformation of the 1960s. In many ways, the Monterey festival set the template for other music festivals in the last five years of the decade such as Woodstock and culminating at the Isle of Wight festival in 1970. At Monterey one of the class acts on day 2 in the evening of Saturday June 17 was the Byrds – a band that made their name by playing “electric Dylan” poetry punctuated by the unique 12-string Rickenbacker guitar sound of the great Roger McGuinn who had originally learned his craft picking on a banjo. Due to the epic nature of Dylan’s poetry, this song has been performed by many artists such as the star-studded Traveling Wilburys, Dylan himself, Neil Young, Tom Petty (RIP), George Harrison (RIP), Eric Clapton amongst others and notably by Bruce Springsteen in an open-air concert held in July 1988 in East Berlin. In the Monterey video the Byrds lineup is Chris Hillman, David Crosby and McGuinn in a stellar performance of a song that meant so much to the 60’s generation and can be regarded as “real music” with a social/political undercurrent. In other words, a work of art and not a cheap product-managed auto-tuned marketing for artists who cannot sing to get kids to download and pay sites such as Spotify on their $300 smart phones. For readers that are interested, here are the lyrics of this Dylan poetry sun by McGuinn himself: Chimes of Freedom The Byrds (written by Bob Dylan) Far between sundown's finish An' midnights broken toll We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing As majestic bells of bolts Struck shadows in the sound Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight An' for each an' every underdog soldier in the night An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing Even though a cloud's white curtain In a far-off corner flashed An' the hypnotic splattered mist Was slowly lifting Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale An' for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing Starry-eyed an' laughing as I recall when we were caught Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended As we listened one last time an' we watched with one last look Spellbound an' swallowed 'til the tolling ended Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an' worse An' for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing. |