Chimes Of Freedom: The Songs Of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International is a monster. Take one of the most legendary songwriters of all time, combine it with the most legendary human rights organizations of all time… Lo and behold, everyone wants to get involved. This past weekend, The New York Times took a look at the making of the project.
When Amnesty International enlisted Jeff Ayeroff and Julie Yannatta to oversee a benefit album celebrating the organization’s 50th anniversary this year, the plan was for something on the scale of its 2007 benefit album, “Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur.” “Instant Karma,” which Mr. Ayeroff and Ms. Yannatta also produced, is a two-CD, 23-song collection of artists like U2, Green Day and R.E.M. performing John Lennon’s songs. It raised more than $4 million. So how did the organization’s latest project, “Chimes of Freedom” — which features Bob Dylan songs played by a genre-busting, cross-generational cast — become a sprawling 4-CD, 73-track (76 online) behemoth?
“This was like a rent party,” Ms. Yannatta said of making “Chimes of Freedom,” which is be released on Jan. 24. “We said: ‘Like other nonprofits in this economy Amnesty needs money. Would you help?’ Just about everyone said yes. You send out invitations, and when everybody shows up — and people start calling, saying, ‘We’d like to do a track too’ — it grows.”
Even a partial list of contributors is jaw dropping: Sting, Adele, My Morning Jacket, Pete Townshend, Elvis Costello, Johnny Cash, Cage the Elephant, Kesha, Miley Cyrus. All the songs but one are previously unreleased, and some of the most interesting tracks — Silversun Pickups’ spacey, hopeful “Not Dark Yet,” an electro-pop-tinged “I Want You” by the Mexican singer-songwriter Ximena Sariñana — display the kind of creative reinvention a project like this can inspire. But the expansive lineup created a challenge.
You can read the entire article online here.
