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The performance is from Live at The Supper Club November 1993
Although the song is deeply religious, it took Dylan until 1989 long past his Christian period to write it.
It’s featured on Oh Mercy
The words are both soothing and apocalyptic in Dylan’s view of for whom the bell tolls. They ring for the poor man’s son, for the lost sheep because God is the one and only one.
In the second verse Dylan starts kindly with the blind and the deaf. Then he moves to the chosen few and the view in Revelation that the chosen ones will rule over the world. The bells toll not so kindly for those excluded from his evangelical point of view.
In the third verse he invokes St. Catherine who one critic maintains is an incorrect Christian reference. The writer misses many references to this saint.
St. Catherine of Sienna a Dominican and patron saint of Italy who stood by Pope Urbain VI during the Great Schism. St. Catherine of Alexandria was martyred for her faith and angels carried her relics to the site of the burning bush on Mt. Sinai. There stands the 2nd oldest monastery in the world, St. Catherine’s Monastery Mt. Sinai, the spot where God delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses.
Although St; Catherine of Sienna was a prolific and beautiful writer (for the lilies that bloom), to me Dylan is evoking St. Catherine of the Monastery with the reference to height (Mt Sinai) and a fortress (the Monastery is a secure fortress). It’s a wonderful invocation as Dylan intones it might be hard but we will “breaking down the distance between right and wrong” – an optimistic hope for mankind.
Live At the Supper Club 1993 was recorded in New York for a television project that never got finished. The performers are Bob Dylan, Vocals/Guitar; Tony Garnier, Bass; Winston Watson, drums percussion; John Jackson, guitar; and Bucky Baxter, pedal steel and electric slide.
Bootlegs of the audio have been around ever since. The three shows present Dylan in an excellent light, relaxed swinging and in control. Later in 1994 he would put on a similar performance for MTV Unplugged [LIVE]
Some of the tracks have been released on Tell Tale Signs: the Bootleg Series Vol. 8
Words by Bob Dylan
Ring them bells, sweet Martha
For the poor man’s son
Ring them bells so the world will know
That a God is one
Oh the shepherd is asleep, where the willows weep
And the mountains are filled with lost sheep
Oh, ring them bells for the blind and the deaf
Oh, ring them bells for all of us who are left
Oh, ring them bells for the chosen few
Who will judge the many when the game is through
Oh, 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
Words, music and performance copyright by Bob Dylan, Sony/Columbia
Thank you. Your interpretation is deeply flawed, however, in two respects.
First, you assume that Dylan was past his Christian "period" when he wrote this song. In fact, there's much evidence that this wasn't a "period" at all, that he never abandoned belief in and devotion to Christ. For example:
http://www.getreligion.org/2009/12/dylan-the-mysterious-true-believer/
Much more could be provided. But just listen to his music for the last 22 years. It's suffused in the Bible. It's not as overt as his so-called "Christian period," but it's definitely there. One might say that while he formerly expressed his Christianity exoterically, he now presents it esoterically.
Second, Dylan is not here advocating the 'breaking down the distance between right and wrong." He's lamenting this breakdown.
You're picking a fight with yourself. Dylan has used Biblical imagery - and not just Old Testament - from his earliest days. Thanks for the comment.