- - Disc 1 -
1 One Too Many Mornings [#] - 3:48 (Johnny Cash)
2 Leopard-Skin Pill Box Hat [#] - 3:43 (Raphael Saadiq)
3 Drifters Escape [#] - 3:21 (Patti Smith)
4 Ballad of Hollis Brown [#] - 5:12 (Rise Against)
5 Blind Willie McTell [#] - 5:15 (Tom Morello)
6 Corrina, Corrina [#] - 2:34 (Pete Townshend)
7 Most of the Time [#] - 5:16 (Bettye Lavette)
8 This Wheel's on Fire [#] - 3:06 (Charlie Winston)
9 Simple Twist of Fate [#] - 3:51 (Diana Krall)
10 You Ain't Goin' Nowhere [#] - 3:04 (Brett Dennen)
11 Love Sick [#] - 3:41 (Mariachi El Bronx)
12 Blowin' in the Wind [#] - 2:43 (Ziggy Marley)
13 Changing of the Guards [#] - 5:22 (The Gaslight Anthem)
14 Not Dark Yet [#] - 6:23 (Silversun Pickups)
15 You're a Big Girl Now [#] - 5:10 (My Morning Jacket)
16 Boots of Spanish Leather [#] - 5:12 (The Airborne Toxic Event)
17 Girl from the North Country [#] - 2:54 (Sting)
18 Restless Farewell [#] - 5:51 (Mark Knopfler)
- - Disc 2 -
1 Outlaw Blues [#] - 4:08 (Queens of the Stone Age)
2 Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35 [#] - 4:08 (Lenny Kravitz)
3 One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below) [#] - 4:43 (Steve Earle/ Lucia Micarelli)
4 Heart of Mine [#] - 5:30 (Blake Mills)
5 You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go [#] - 3:33 (Miley Cyrus)
6 Lay Down Your Weary Tune [#] - 4:18 (Billy Bragg)
7 License to Kill [#] - 5:13 (Elvis Costello)
8 Lay, Lady, Lay [#] - 3:09 (Angélique Kidjo)
9 Ring Them Bells [#] - 4:09 (Natasha Bedingfield)
10 Love Minus Zero/No Limit [#] - 4:20 (Jackson Browne)
11 Seven Curses [Live] - 5:04 (Joan Baez)
12 No Time to Think [#] - 8:05 (The Belle Brigade)
13 Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You [Live][#] - 3:56 (Sugarland)
14 Mr. Tambourine Man [#] - 4:27 (Jack's Mannequin)
15 4th Time Around [#] - 4:22 (Oren Lavie)
16 All I Really Want to Do [#] - 5:18 (Sussan Deyhim)
17 Make You Feel My Love [Recorded Live at WXPN] [Live][#] - 4:06 (Adele)
- - Disc 3 -
1 With God on Our Side [#] - 3:39 (K'naan)
2 I Want You [#] - 3:36 (Ximena Sariñana)
3 She Belongs to Me [#] - 2:58 (Neil Finn/ Pajama Club)
4 Bob Dylan's Dream [#] - 3:54 (Bryan Ferry)
5 Tomorrow Is a Long Time [#] - 3:58 (Zee Avi)
6 Just Like a Woman [#] - 5:11 (Carly Simon)
7 The Times They Are A-Changin' [#] - 3:01 (Flogging Molly)
8 Buckets of Rain [#] - 3:13 (Fistful of Mercy)
9 Man of Peace [#] - 7:42 (Joe Perry)
10 It's All Over Now, Baby Blue [#] - 3:06 (Bad Religion)
11 Desolation Row [Live][#] - 3:01 (My Chemical Romance)
12 Knockin' on Heaven's Door [#] - 3:52 (Redone)
13 Abandoned Love [#] - 4:32 (Nils Lofgren/ Paul Rodgers)
14 New Morning [#] - 3:06 (Darren Criss)
15 The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll [#] - 5:01 (Cage the Elephant)
16 It Ain't Me, Babe [#] - 3:22 (Band of Skulls)
17 Property of Jesus [#] - 3:36 (Sinéad O'Connor)
18 Shelter from the Storm [#] - 4:11 (Ed Roland/ the Sweet Tea Project)
19 Don't Think Twice, It's All Right [#] - 3:49 (Ke$Ha)
20 Don't Think Twice, It's All Right [#][Instrumental] - 4:03 (Kronos Quartet)
- - Disc 4 -
1 I Shall Be Released [#] - 4:09 (Maroon 5)
2 Political World [#] - 2:48 (The Carolina Chocolate Drops)
3 Like a Rolling Stone [#] - 7:24 (Jeff Beck/ Seal)
4 Bob Dylan's 115th Dream [#] - 5:01 (Taj Mahal/ the Phamtom Blues Band)
5 Señor (Tales of Yankee Power) [Live][#] - 3:50 (Dierks Bentley)
6 One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later) [#] - 4:58 (Mick Hucknall)
7 I'll Remember You [#] - 4:47 (Thea Gilmore)
8 John Brown [#] - 4:49 (State Radio)
9 All Along the Watchtower [Live][#] - 7:03 (Dave Matthews Band)
10 Subterranean Homesick Blues [#] - 2:17 (Michael Franti)
11 Mama, You Been on My Mind [#] - 3:29 (We Are Augustines)
12 Tryin' to Get to Heaven [#] - 4:41 (Lucinda Williams)
13 Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn) [#] - 2:38 (Kris Kristofferson)
14 Gotta Serve Somebody [#] - 4:56 (Eric Burdon)
15 I'd Have You Anytime [#] - 3:53 (Evan Rachel Wood)
16 Baby Let Me Follow You Down [Live][#] - 2:28 (Marianne Faithfull)
17 Forever Young [#] - 3:15 (Pete Seeger)
18 Chimes of Freedom - 7:12 (Bob Dylan)
Designed as a celebration for Amnesty International's 50th Anniversary,
Chimes of Freedom is the mother of all tribute albums: a four-disc salute to
Bob Dylan that runs some 76 songs performed by singers from all corners of the globe. Apart from
Lennon/
McCartney -- the former of which was the subject of producers
Jeff Ayeroff and
Julie Yannatta's previous 2007 collection
Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur -- no other songwriter of the rock & roll era could attract so many different artists from so many different genres as
Dylan, something that is a testament to the resilience of his catalog. From the very start of his career,
Dylan saw his songs covered by all manners of artists, ranging from colleagues and peers to longhair rock bands, easy listening outfits, and weirdos like
William Shatner, so the absurd abundance of
Chimes of Freedom in a way fits into the grand pattern of history: his songs were always up for grabs, they've survived terrible misguided covers, they've been performed with loving faith, they've been reinvented once and again. Given its monumental length, it should be of no great surprise that
Chimes of Freedom has songs that fall into each category, although it is surprisingly bereft of awfulness. Not even
Miley Cyrus' painful-in-theory straight-ahead cover of "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" is awful: she may not know who
Verlaine and
Rimbaud are, but she focuses on the melody and winds up selling the song in the process. Most of the artists here perform a similar trick, choosing love songs over protests, keeping things intimate instead of anthemic. Naturally, there are exceptions to the rule, but the scales on
Chimes of Freedom are tipped toward pretty stripped-down sincerity -- even
Ke$ha abandons Auto-Tune for a nearly a cappella interpretation of "Don't Think Twice It's Alright" -- an aesthetic that's easy to digest and helps make the artists that do something different pop out dramatically:
Flogging Molly's
Pogues-ian run through "The Times They Are A-Changing,"
Bryan Ferry's eerie reading of "Bob Dylan's Dream,"
Elvis Costello adding spikes to "License to Kill,"
Sinéad O'Connor tearing up "Property of Jesus," and
Queens of the Stone Age tapping into
Bob's rowdy side with a tremendous "Outlaw Blues." After a parade of faithful salutes ranging from
Billy Bragg's impassioned "Lay Down Your Weary Tune" to
Lenny Kravitz's absurd re-creation of "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35," it's great to hear actual re-interpretations of
Dylan's songs -- after all, even
Bob himself doesn't always sing the same song the same way twice. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
- Mastering - Adam Ayan
- Mixing - Bob Clearmountain
- Mastering - Bob Ludwig
- Assistant - Brandon Duncan
- Art Direction - Frank Maddocks
- Design - Frank Maddocks
- Executive Producer - Helen Garrett
- Art Direction - Jeff Ayeroff
- Executive Producer - Jeff Ayeroff
- Photography - Jerry Schatzberg
- Executive Producer - Julie Yannatta
- Executive Producer - Karen Scott
- Producer - Martin Lewis
- Art Direction - Mick Haggerty
- Illustrations - Mick Haggerty
- Liner Notes - Sean Wilentz