Chimes of Freedom: music and freedom

Above is an image from a clip of the song Chimes of Freedom, during the Human Rights Now! tour in 1988. You can see Bruce Springsteen and Tracey Chapman. I was reminded of this when someone pointed out "International Music Freedom Day" to me this week. It's celebrated annually on March 3.

I was 14 or 15 years old.

A high school student, in my second or third year at the Mollerlyceum in Bergen op Zoom (The Netherlands). Going through puberty, but (of course) never extremely difficult or anything like that. I think. 🙂

I was breaking free, no doubt about it. Looking for freedom. Away from the parental nest, into the wide world.

A safe world. At least, for me.

At the end of that year, 1988, a group of musicians made a huge impression on me. Of course, Springsteen was part of it, along with Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman, Youssou N'dour, accompanied by the E Street Band. The Human Rights Now! tour for Amnesty International. Unlike previous major benefit concerts such as Live Aid and Band Aid, it was not about raising (a lot of) money, but about drawing attention to Amnesty and the 40th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Of course, it was primarily Springsteen, whom I am a big fan of, that drew me to the tour. But I also became interested in the underlying message. In the story of Biko, of Peter Gabriel. In the songs of Tracy Chapman and Youssou N'dour. In Sting's struggle.

One song that has always stayed with me and that I have listened to many times is Chimes of Freedom (listen on YouTube).

The tour was a great success. I became involved in human rights (violations). And with me, millions of people worldwide.

I wanted to know more about Amnesty's work. About the struggle symbolically described in the song Chimes of Freedom, originally written by Bob Dylan. A struggle that many people are fighting, disadvantaged, less happy in life due to circumstances, politics, injustice, and oppression. Even now, 38 years later, Iranian artists and protesters, for example, use music and art as a way to protest against oppression and lack of freedom of expression, despite harsh censorship, arrests, and violence by the authorities.

I think that song, that tour, and the message behind it planted the seed that made “global citizenship” one of the themes I still write about regularly.

International Day of Musical Freedom

The freedom to express yourself in music and words, or any other art form, about what concerns you. Without censorship. Nowadays, there is a ‘Day of’ for everything, which I sometimes find tiresome. But this theme certainly deserves an International Day, because violations are unfortunately still a daily occurrence.

I wrote a blog (in Dutch) about it a while back: International Day of Musical Freedom.