For Whom the Bell Tolls (Metallica song)
The song was inspired by Ernest Hemingway's 1940 novel of the same name about the process of death in modern warfare and the bloody Spanish Civil War. Specific allusions are made to the scene described in Chapter 27 of the book, in which five soldiers are obliterated during an airstrike after taking a defensive position on a hill. Cliff Burton plays the bass guitar introduction with heavy distortion and a wah pedal. Burton wrote the intro long 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. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" was released as a promo single with two versions of the song. An edited version appears on the A-side, with the full-length album version on the B-side. Metallica
In 1999 and 2019, Metallica recorded "For Whom the Bell Tolls" with the San Francisco Symphony for the live albums "S&M" and "S&M2", respectively. Other live versions appear on "Cliff 'Em All" (VHS, 1987), "Live Shit: Binge & Purge" (1993), "Cunning Stunts" (DVD, 1997), "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). Mixes
Track listing
Elektra Records also released it as a promotional single, with both edited and full-length versions.