For Whom the Bell Tolls (Metallica song)

"For Whom the Bell Tolls"
Promotional single by Metallica
from the album Ride the Lightning
B-side "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (album version)
Released August 31, 1985 (1985-08-31)
Format 12-inch single
Recorded February 20 – March 14, 1984
Studio Sweet Silence, Copenhagen, Denmark
Genre Thrash metal
Length
  • 3:59 (promo edit)
  • 5:10 (album version)
Label Elektra
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Audio sample
  • file
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"For Whom the Bell Tolls" is a song by American thrash metal band Metallica. It was first released on the group's second album, Ride the Lightning (1984). In 1985, Elektra Records released it as a promotional single, with both an edited and full-length versions. The song is one of their most popular; by March 2018, it ranked number five on Metallica's live performance count.[1] Several live albums and video albums include the song.

Composition

The song was inspired by Ernest Hemingway's 1940 novel of the same name about the dishonor of modern warfare and the protagonist's imminent doom during the bloody Spanish Civil War. Specific allusions are made to the scene in which five soldiers are obliterated during an airstrike, after taking a position on a hill.

Cliff Burton plays the bass guitar introduction, which is often mistaken for an electric guitar, with heavy distortion and a wah pedal. Burton wrote the intro before joining Metallica and first played it during a 12-minute jam at a battle of the bands with his second band Agents of Misfortune in 1979.

Track listing

"For Whom the Bell Tolls" was released as a promo single with two versions of the song. An edited (shortened) version appears on the A-side, with the full-length album version on the B-side.

Promotional 12-inch single
No.TitleLength
1."For Whom the Bell Tolls" (Edit)3:59
2."For Whom the Bell Tolls"5:10

Other versions

Metallica

In 1999, Metallica recorded "For Whom the Bell Tolls" with the San Francisco Symphony. It is included on live album S&M (1999). Other live versions appear on Live Shit: Binge & Purge (1993), Français Pour une Nuit (DVD, 2009), Orgullo, Pasión, y Gloria: Tres Noches en la Ciudad de México (2009), The Big Four: Live from Sofia, Bulgaria (DVD, 2010), Quebec Magnetic (DVD, 2012), and Metallica: Through the Never (soundtrack, 2013).

Samples

  • "Mope" by the Bloodhound Gang features the chromatic introduction riff in the chorus of the song.
  • "For Whom the Bass Tolls" by Bassnectar heavily samples the song.
  • "Bowties" by Yelawolf and DJ Paul on their mixtape "Black Fall" takes a sample from the song.

Mixes

  • A remix by DJ Spooky appeared on the Spawn soundtrack, titled "For Whom the Bell Tolls (The Irony of it All)". Metallica later released it on "The Memory Remains" single re-titled "For Whom the Bell Tolls (Haven't Heard It Yet Mix)". Despite the different names and song lengths (the former is about 4 sec's longer), the two are the same.

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ "Song Statistics". Metallica.com. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
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