Toreador

Album: Himalayan (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • This was inspired by Ernest Hemingway's book The Sun Also Rises. Bass player and co-vocalist Emma Richardson explained to Tonedeaf: "It just really got me, it's only a short novel but it's got a real atmosphere too it. It really transports you to Spain and that scene in the 20s you know, of people with a lot of money, just wondering around and you know just having an amazing social life basically."

    "They go to this bullfight in the book and the way he describes it is brilliant and it made me really wanna go and see one for myself just to see what it actually felt like so," she continued. "I guess it's kinda loosely based on that experience but it has that Spanish feel too it I think.''
  • Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899 - 1961) was an American author and journalist whose style of simple sentences attracted many imitators. His life of adventure and love of big game hunting and fishing all added to his macho public image. Here are some more songs inspired by the life and works of Hemingway.

    "Mrs. Hemingway" by Mary Chapin Carpenter. About the author's first wife, Hadley Richardson Hemingway.

    "Hemingway's Whiskey" by Kenny Chesney. This song about living life to its fullest without compromising is a theme that many of Hemingway's novels revolved around.

    "For Whom The Bell Tolls" by Metallica. Based on Hemingway's novel of the same name.

    "Losing It" by Rush. The band's drummer and lyricist Neil Peart is an enthusiastic reader of Hemingway and this song refers to the author and his novels, The Sun Also Rises and For Whom the Bell Tolls.

    "I Am Disappeared" by Frank Turner. The song finds the English singer-songwriter crooning about having dreams involving Bob Dylan, Patti Hearst and Ernest Hemingway.

    "Islands in the Stream" by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. The song title came from an Ernest Hemingway story which was published posthumously in 1970.

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