One Bell Ringing

Album: National Ransom (2010)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • On the face of it this piece of jazz-folk appears to be about a nightmare where the dreamer is being interrogated before being shot. However, Costello discloses on the lyric sheet that it is set on the "London Underground, 22nd of July, 2005," which implies the song is about Jean Charles de Menezes.

    Jean Charles de Menezes was a Brazilian man shot and killed at Stockwell tube station on the London Underground by the London Metropolitan police, after he was misidentified as one of the fugitives involved in the previous day's failed bombing attempts. The tragic event happened on July 22, 2005.

Comments: 1

  • David from BostonAnybody else think this that song sounds remarkably like a Joni Mitchell composition?
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular Music

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular MusicSong Writing

Starting in Virginia City, Nevada and rippling out to the Haight-Ashbury, LSD reshaped popular music.

Matt Sorum

Matt SorumSongwriter Interviews

When he joined Guns N' Roses in 1990, Matt helped them craft an orchestral sound; his mezzo fortes and pianissimos are all over "November Rain."

Bible Lyrics

Bible LyricsMusic Quiz

Rockers, rappers and pop stars have been known to quote the Bible in their songs. See if you match the artist to the biblical lyric.

Dar Williams

Dar WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

A popular contemporary folk singer, Williams still remembers the sticky note that changed her life in college.

Wherefore Art Thou Romeo Lyric

Wherefore Art Thou Romeo LyricMusic Quiz

In this quiz, spot the artist who put Romeo into a song lyric.

Director Wes Edwards ("Drunk on a Plane")

Director Wes Edwards ("Drunk on a Plane")Song Writing

Wes Edwards takes us behind the scenes of videos he shot for Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley and Chase Bryant. The train was real - the airplane was not.