The Bells Songtext
von Phil Ochs

Hear the sledges with the bells, silver bells
What a world of merriment their melody foretells
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle in the icy air of night
All the heavens seem to twinkle with a crystalline delight
Keeping time, time, time with a sort of Runic rhyme
From the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells
Hear the mellow wedding bells, golden bells
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells
Through the balmy air of night how they ring out their delight
Through the dances and the yells and the rapture that impels
How it swells, how it dwells, on the future how it tells
From the swinging and the ringing of the molten golden bells
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells
Of the rhyming and the chiming of the bells
Hear the loud alarum bells, brazen bells
What a tale of terror now their turbulency tells
Much too horrified to speak, oh, they can only shriek
For all the ears to know how the danger ebbs and flows


Leaping higher, higher, higher, with a desperate desire
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire
With the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells
With the clamor and the clanging of the bells
Hear the tolling of the bells, iron bells
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels
For all the sound that floats from the rust within our throats
And the people sit and groan in their muffled monotone
And the tolling, tolling, tolling feels a glory in the rolling
From the throbbing and the sobbing of the melancholy bells
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells
Of the moaning and the groaning of the bells
Hear the sledges with the bells, silver bells
What a world of merriment their melody foretells
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle in the icy air of night
All the heavens seem to twinkle with a crystalline delight
Keeping time, time, time with a sort of Runic rhyme
From the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells