Far between the sundown's finish an' midnight's broken toll We ducked inside the doorway, thunder 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
Even though a cloud's white curtain in a far off corner flashed 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 drifting
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
Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Tolling for the aching ones 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 flashing