Punk cover of Bob Dylan nails song from Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International

By Stephen Pate, NJN – Rise Against’s video of The Ballad of Hollis Brown shouts the anger of the poverty in America. Dylan understated the message 50 years ago. Rise Against hits you in the face.

I’m beginning to appreciate the wide diversity in styles on Chimes of Freedom. So far I’ve covered pop (Ke$sha, country pop (Miley Cyrus) and punk (Rise Against).  Breakfast music this morning was a witty Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream by Taj Mahal who does the impossible. More on that later.

Tim McIllrath of Rise Against performing at WaMu Theater in Seattle (Shawn McClung photo Creative Commons)

“I need a job. I’ll do anything,” says the man walking a road on the Great Plains.

“8 million Americans live in Poverty,” states the important voice over referring to President Johnson’s War on Poverty. As of 2011, 46 million Americans live in poverty.

The song is one of 72 covers of Bob Dylan’s songs against tyranny and for freedom on Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan contributed his original Chimes of Freedom recording to the 4-CD set. It’s still chilling to hear 5 decades later.

Ballad of Hollis Brown

Zach Blair, Rise Against lead guitarist, Cisco 2011 (Brennan Schnell Creative Commons)

Hollis Brown was written by Bob Dylan and released in 1963 on The Times They Are a-Changin’. It tells the dark story of a South Dakota farmer who shoots his family in desperation when he can’t feed or look after them.

Hollis Brown
He lived on the outside of town
With his wife and five children
And his cabin fallin’ down…

There’s seven breezes a-blowin’
All around the cabin door
Seven shots ring out
Like the ocean’s pounding roar…

There’s seven people dead
On a South Dakota farm
There’s seven people dead
On a South Dakota farm
Somewhere in the distance
There’s seven new people born (words by Bob Dylan)

The song is chilling and Dylan originally performed it in a drop D tuning which a drone sound, adding to the bleak monotony of his image of poverty.  The song has remained in Dylan stage set-lists for decades. His performances now are of course backed by his blues/rock band. They mirror the understated statement of desperation he recorded in 1964.

Rise Against

Brandon Barnes, Rise Against drummer Seattle (Shawn McClung photo Creative Commons)

Rise Against give Hollis Brown a chilling punk performance. Punk is a protest against the excesses of Western society commercialism, consumerism, drugs, consumption and greed. Lead singer Tim McIllrath spits the lyrics out with justifiable anger. The song is totally compelling and has none of the studied monotony of Dylan’s tour de force performances.

The closest Dylan comes to this level of anger is The Rolling Thunder Tour Rehearsal bootleg heard on Going Going Guam. Hollis Brown didn’t make it to the official bootleg Bob Dylan Live 1975 (The Bootleg Series Volume 5) which is still a great 2-cd set.

The message reinforced by the starkly black and video by Nick Sabenorio.  A narrator tells the story of poverty from the 1960s but we know poverty has only gotten worse since. People living in poverty add sound bites.

Joe Principe, Rise Against bassist Seattle (Shawn McClung photo Creative Commons)

Rise Against is an American punk band who gravitate to political activism and promoting animal rights. They are straight edge, meaning no alcohol, recreational drugs, tobacco. Some straight edge are also vegans and or opposed to promiscuous sex.

They started in Chicago in 1999 and have gone platinum with several albums. If you want more information, check out their page or Wikipedia.

This video I like.  My experience with punk and metal was holding a weekly open mic called Rock On! Open Jam (bring your axe and your attitude!) which became a contest between blues rockers and the punk metal boys. From that I judged a punk/metal band contest, a night to remember. The band that won 1st place thought I was too bourgeois.

Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International

Chimes of Freedom is a fund-raising project for Amnesty International. The profits go towards Amnesty. Many of the artists have donated their time. The recording, engineering and mixing was partially donated. Bob Dylan donated his royalties to the project, which is exceedingly generous.

“The diversity of the musicians and musical genres — from rock, rap, hip-hop to pop, folk, country, jazz and blues — attests to Amnesty’s depth of support in the music community, the universal appeal of the core message of human rights, and the breadth of Dylan’s impact on culture. Almost every track on the album is being released for sale for the first time — except for the title song, Dylan’s original 1964 recording of “Chimes of Freedom.” (Amnesty International)

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For more Rise Against photographs check out Shawn McClung (AKA Slightlynorth)  and Brennan Schnell (AKA eastscene) on Flickr. Thanks to them for allowing use under Creative Commons licenses.

Where to purchase

iTunes
Amnesty International for CD and MP3 downloads