Was wondering about this earlier, these are the lyrics to the Clash's Spanish Bombs:
Spanish songs in Andalucia
The shooting sites in the days of '39
Oh, please, leave the vendanna open
Fredrico Lorca is dead and gone
Bullet holes in the cemetery walls
The black cars of the Guardia Civil
Spanish bombs on the Costa Rica
I'm flying in a DC 10 tonight
CHORUS
Spanish bombs, yo tequierro y finito
Yote querda, oh mi corazon
Spanish bombs, yo te quierro y finito
Yo te querda, oh mi corazon
Spanish weeks in my disco casino
The freedom fighters died upon the hill
They sang the red flag
They wore the black one
But after they died it was Mockingbird Hill
Back home the buses went up in flashes
The Irish tomb was drenched in blood
Spanish bombs shatter the hotels
My senorita's rose was nipped in the bud
CHORUS
The hillsides ring with "Free the people"
Or can I hear the echo from the days of '39?
With trenches full of poets
The ragged army, fixin' bayonets to fight the other line
Spanish bombs rock the province
I'm hearing music from another time
Spanish bombs on the Costa Brava
I'm flying in on a DC 10 tonight
Spanish songs in Andalucia, Mandolina, oh mi corazon
Spanish songs in Granada, oh mi corazon
Anyone got any idea what the bit in bold means?
Spanish Civil War Geeks - Whats this about?
Im gunna be really dissappointed if none of you know :p
Spanish Civil War Geeks - Whats this about?
Mockingbird Hill was a country and western song - lyrics here - kind of makes sense with the "They sang the red flag..." line, something about the depoliticisation of culture perhaps.
Haven't got a clue about the buses/irish tomb bit.
Spanish Civil War Geeks - Whats this about?
Hmm i was thinking - there were a bunch of irish fascists fighting in spain, who were part of an attack on the republicans when they were leaving a town or something... that might be it
Spanish Civil War Geeks - Whats this about?
How many blue shirts did go to spain? if i remember rightly there were about 250 irish volunteers for the international brigades.
And of course there was Jack White (but he wasn't a papist :wink: )
Spanish Civil War Geeks - Whats this about?
The song is about someone flying into Spain for a holiday remembering the Civil War. When the song was written (1979) ETA was planting bombs to scare off the tourists. “Spanish bombs on the Costa Rica/I'm flying in a DC 10 tonight” & “Spanish bombs rock the province/I'm hearing music from another time”. There was also the IRA bombing campaign. Hence “Back home the buses went up in flashes/The Irish tomb was drenched in blood/Spanish bombs shatter the hotels/My senorita's rose was nipped in the bud”
This song is about the
This song is about the spanish civil war but it is also an allegory to the conflict between the Irish and the English. "Steve" covered most of the major points.
"But after they died it was
"But after they died it was Mockingbird Hill"
There's no great 'meaning' here...
Mockingbird Hill is, at least in American lexicon, is a euphamism for an impromptu or informal burial ground (or mound) for primarily unknown bodies or paupers...especially in war time.
Also commonly associated with the American Wild West era.
The point in the song, I suppose, is simply that the freedom fighters often met an inglorious fate.
Why mockingbird?
Perhaps because of the scavenging nature of birds, though I know nothing of the feeding habits of mockingbirds. Or maybe just because they are a well-known songbird, and up there....that's the only send-off you'll get.
I would guess that the line -
I would guess that the line - ‘But after they died it was Mockingbird Hill’ - was meant to be taken ironically, inferring that once the freedom fighters were dead, everything was then happy and harmonious in Franco’s Spain – ‘Tra-la-la twiddly-dee-dee’.