FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS: MEANING

This song describes a scene in the book "for whom the bell tolls" by ernest hemmingway. In this part of the book, a man known as el sordo is a guerilla leader fighting in the mountains of spain during the spanish civil war (which occured in the 1930s, when the second spanish republic came to power and spanish facists declared war on said republic). He ends up under attack and, massively outnumbered, he makes his last stand on a hilltop. He and his four remaining men hold off the attackers until planes come and bomb the hilltop, killing them all. The worst part of all this is that they were just trying to steal horses in order to retreat after aiding robert jordan, the novel's protagonist, in a highly improbable attack on a bridge required for the republic's forces to possibly take a city. As a result, sordo's men sort of have died for nothing, as their last stand will have little significance in the war or in history. This song comments on that, and on the futility of war.