Chimes of Freedom (Live at Stockholms Olympiastadion, Stockholm, SE - July 1988)

Bruce Springsteen

One cannot listen to this enough.

[Spoken intro:] Oh! Oh, yeah a little bit now. Earlier, uh, today Amnesty International announced a worldwide tour to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Declaration Of Human Rights (cheers). The Declaration Of Human Rights is a document that was signed by every government in the world 40 years ago, recognizing the existence of certain inalienable human rights for everyone regardless of your race, your color, your sex, your religion, your political opinion, or the type of government that you're living under. I, I was glad to be asked to participate and I'm proud to join Sting, and Peter Gabriel, Youssou N'Dour, Tracy Chapman, in a tour that's gonna begin in early September, and is gonna run for about six weeks (cheers). So, I'd like to get a, dedicate this next song to the people at Amnesty International and their idea. So when we come to your town, come on out, support the tour, support human rights for everyone now, and let freedom reign.

Well far between sundown's finish and midnight's 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 crashing
Yeah flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on their unarmed road of flight
And for each and every underdog soldier in the night
We gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Well in the city's melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden here while the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowing rain
Dissolved into the wild bales of lightning
Yeah tolling for the rebel, yeah tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned and forsaken
Yeah tolling for the outcast, burning constantly at stake
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Alright now!

Now and then through a cloud-like curtain in a far off corner flashed
As the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Well electric light still struck like arrows
Fired but for the ones condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Well tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
And for each unharmful gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
Yeah we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Well starry-eyed and laughing, I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time and we watched with one last look
Spellbound and swallowed as the tolling ended
Yeah tolling for the aching ones 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, yeah!
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Alright, now!