Lyric Analysis: "Ring Them Bells" (Bob Dylan)

Ring them bells, ye heathen
From the city that dreams
Ring them bells from the sanctuaries
’Cross the valleys and streams
For they’re deep and they’re wide
And the world’s on its side
And time is running backwards
And so is the bride

Ring them bells St. Peter
Where the four winds blow
Ring them bells with an iron hand
So the people will know
Oh it’s rush hour now
On the wheel and the plow
And the sun is going down
Upon the sacred cow

Ring them bells Sweet Martha
For the poor man’s son
Ring them bells so the world will know
That God is one
Oh the shepherd is asleep
Where the willows weep
And the mountains are filled
With lost sheep

Ring them bells for the blind and the deaf
Ring them bells for all of us who are left
Ring them bells for the chosen few
Who will judge the many when the game is through
Ring them bells, for the time that flies
For the child that cries
When innocence dies

Ring them bells St. Catherine
From the top of the room
Ring them from the fortress
For the lilies that bloom
Oh the lines are long
And the fighting is strong
And they’re breaking down the distance
Between right and wrong

Listening to this song yesterday, it occurred to me that this is one I've never had anything resembling a firm grasp on. On one hand, there is the continuation of the "the world is going to Hell in a hand basket" theme of "Political World" and "Everything is Broken". There appear to be some shots at organized religion (the sleeping shepherd?) , and 8 years later it looks like the groom is STILL waiting at the altar for his bride. Some times it appears that the narrator wants the bells rung to honor nature or God and sometimes he seems to want them rung to wake people up (the blind and deaf may not be literally so).

So take on the whole song, take on a verse, or take on one image. Whatcha got?

 

It's a religious song. Armageddon is closer, lots of biblical images. Ring them bells, let people know that the end is near.

 

Whatever it's about, it's a great song, i wish it had a melody to go with it.I personally think it's about the apocalypse.

 

Reading the lyrics I thought of this:

What is the "fourfold sense of Scripture"?

 

One quick take before I head out for brunch with the mother-in-law: it's not a song announcing apocalypse--not a "the end if nigh" song. It's a song of yearning for that, of yearning for the wake-up call, for a gathering, a clarification, and a judgement.

It also feels to me like the kind of yearning that's not so sure it will ever be satisfied.

In some ways it sounds like a song Dylan might have written in the heat of his initial conversion, but it's actually in a different, more weary mode. And it's less specifically Christian (calling on the heathen to ring, too). More later.

L.

 

I always took it as a song reflecting the passing or falling from favour of religion in todays (well, 1989's) high flying society...
However, since religion and politics invariably cause arguments, I'm saying no more and leaving that one with you...

 

I think that's a big part of what makes the singer yearn for the bells to ring.

L.

 

The getting ready for brunch is taking longer than I was led to believe--like the apocalypse delaying. So, here are four earlier Dylan songs that are analogous, but also tellingly different, each in their own ways: "A Hard Rain's A'Gonna Fall," "Chimes of Freedom," "When the Ship Comes in," and "Slow Train Coming."

L.

 

I love the feeling I get listening to these type songs from Bob. Hard to describe.

 

To me, it's not so dramatic as announcing the apocalypse, but more of a Victorian account of those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it knell.

I hope your brunch is 10% as good as Dylan.

 

Well, I love my mother-in-law very much, and the restaurant is a good one, so the signs are auspicious!

L.

 

My first impression:

The narrator is commenting that action in face of impending doom that is limited to only a warning - or "ringing of bells" - will not be enough to thwart the coming danger.

He suggests this has been going on throughout time - and that it hasn't - and will not be enough, the warning or ringing of bells is not action, but historically has been mistaken for it.

 

Sorry to break it out to you like this chap, but these are also about the Armageddon.

Order an extra glass of champagne.

 

The "Last Brunch"?

 

I think it's an optimistic song. If all the bells in the world were rung so that everybody would hear them, there might still be a chance to reverse all that's gone wrong.

 

It's definitely one of those songs that's grown more complex to me over time, particularly as Bob was performing it sporadically in the mid-2000s. Alongside tunes like Every Grain of Sand, Senor, Saving Grace, Shooting Star, it's one of those slow, serene tunes that puts you in a kind of dark, apocalyptic noir film of sorts. Changes every time.

I'll also add that the definitive versions for me are either Supper Club '93 or that Japanese mega-concert with the orchestra in '94.

 

Did Van Morrison ever cover this one? If he didn't, he really should have!

 

It is a complex song and can be taken in so many directions. I do agree with L. that there is an overriding felling of yearning in the song.

One thing that is an interesting coincidence (or not) to me is in the line Ring them bells, ye heathen From the city that dreams.
The album was recorded in New Orleans and and many years later (after Katrina) Rounder Records put out a compilation of New Orleans called City of Dreams. It's not the same phrase but every time I hear the song I think of New Orleans which has its share of heathens, saints and everything in between.

 

You have the lyrics, you have the four-pronged analysis tool ... get to work, and then share.

 

lol, I was waiting for that.

 

One of my favorite songs on one of my favorite Dylan albums. Bob writes about struggling with the lyrics in his book:

There was one line in the song that I was trying to fix, but never did… the last line…“ breaking down the distance between right and wrong.” The line fit, but it didn’t verify what I felt. Right or wrong, like it fits in the Wanda Jackson song, or right from wrong, like the Billy Tate song, that makes sense, but not right and wrong. The concept didn’t exist in my subconscious mind. I’d always been confused about that kind of stuff, didn’t see any moral ideal played out there. The concept of being morally right or morally wrong seems to be wired to the wrong frequency. Things that aren’t in the script happen every day. If someone steals leather and then makes shoes for the poor, it might be a moral act, but it’s not legally right, so it’s wrong. That stuff troubled me, the legal and moral aspect of things. There are good deeds and bad deeds. A good person can do a bad thing and a bad person can do a good thing. But I never did get to fix the line. On this take it’s outright, natural sound with little experimentation. I felt I could have done it unaccompanied. That aside, Lanois captured the essence of it on this, put the magic into its heartbeat and pulse. We cut this song exactly the way I found it… two or three takes with me on the piano, Dan on guitar and Malcolm Burn on keyboards. He definitely captured the moment. He might have even captured the whole era. He did the right thing—came up with an accurate, dynamic version. Anybody can hear it. The song sustains itself from beginning to end—Lanois brought out all its keen, harmonic sense. In this Dan was more than a sound man. He was like a doctor with scientific principles. I asked him once, “Danny. Are you a doctor?” “Yeah, but not of medicine,” he smiled.

 

I feel like "Ring Them Bells" is more ambiguous than any of those four examples. At the risk of oversimplifying - "Chimes" and "Ship" are "One day soon the good guys are going to win" songs, and "Hard Rain" and "Slow Train" are "one day soon there will be consequences to pay for these trespasses" songs. The younger Dylan seems to lament the coming of that day in "Hard Rain", and relish it in "Slow Train" (in part because the consequences would be coming down on THEM, not HIM, because he was saved and they were not).

I'm not thoroughly convinced that the Dylan of "Ring Them Bells", wants, to paraphrase Elvis Costello, doomsday to hurry down.

 

Based on other statements that Dylan made from 1979 onward, which stand in juxtaposition to his earlier proclamation about "lies that life is black and white", I always felt that he was lamenting the breaking down of the distance between right and wrong. The Dylan of the last 40 or so years generally isn't much for moral ambiguity. Remember, there's no left or right, just truth and untruth. Those who blur moral lines are part of the problem, not part of the solution in the Dylan mindset.

 

Yep.
"You either got faith or you got unbelief and there ain’t no neutral ground"
—Precious Angel, 1979 (as you know)

 

It's a wonderful song and demonstrates the difference between song and poetry. The words in isolation are quite dark. However, the melody and meter provide a measure of optimism and bring hope to a hopeless situation. I think it's got elements of both Armageddon and a new and better world arising from ash.

Here is a nice version by some supremely talented young musicians who are carrying the mantle of acoustic music.

Sarah Jarosz Ring Them Bells - Bing video