Chimes of Freedom

Far between sundown's finish and midnight's broken toll
 We ducked inside a doorway as thunder went crashing
 As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
 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
 And for each and every underdog soldier in the night
 And we gazed upon the chimes 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, they abandoned and forsaked
 Tolling for the outcast, burning constantly at stake
 And 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
 As the clanging 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 flashin'
 ♪
 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 and blind, tolling for the mute
 For the mistreated, mate-less mother, the mis-titled prostitute
 For the misdemeanor outlaw, chained and cheated by pursuit
 And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
 ♪
 Even though a cloud's white curtain in a far-off corner flared
 And 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 driftin'
 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
 And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
 ♪
 Starry-eyed and laughing as I recall when we were caught
 Trapped by no track of hours for they hang suspended
 As we listened one last time and we watched with one last look
 Spellbound and swallowed 'til the tolling ended
 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 flashin'