D A
Far between sundown's finish
D G
an' midnight's broken toll
D G
We ducked inside the doorway’
A D
As thunder went crashing
D A
As majestic bells of bolts
D G
struck shadows in the sounds
D G
Seeming to be the chimes of
A D
freedom flashing
A
Flashing for the warriors
D
whose strength is not to fight
G D
Flashing for the refugees of
E A
the unarmed road of flight
D
An' for each an' ev'ry
A D G
underdog soldier in the night
D G
An' we gazed upon the chimes
A D
of freedom flashing.
Through the city's melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden as the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin' rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an' forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burnin' constantly at stake
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
And the poet and the painter far behind his rightful time
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
In the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations
Tolling for the deaf an' blind, tolling for the mute
and the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw, chained an' cheated by pursuit
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
