The Cranberries: Zombie Meaning
Covered By: Bad Wolves (2018)
Zombie Lyrics
child is slowly taken.
And the violence caused such silence;
Who are we mistaken?
But you see, it's not me, it's not my family.
In your head, in your head, they are fighting.
With their tanks and their bombs,and...
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I think by zombie she means all of us. And i say that because for people to get into war usualy what needs to be done is a terrifying accident to be implanted in theyr heads. All the war is born and still happenin in our heads. The tanks the bombs the guns are fightin in our heads and so it fuels anger deep inside of us..in our cultures....then all the government need to do is push our buttons by an event, a statement, an accusasion of terrorism and we let our inside wars get out, and we blindly follow our hate. The war isnt out there. Its in our heads. And so we move around in this world and act as there is a war.
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With their tanks and their bombs
British- they have tanks
With their bombs and their guns
IRA-no tanks -
Well, The song is about children suffering in war in general and particularly irish war.
All time favorite. -
This song about fight between Ireland and England. They used the children for war. That's it.
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I feel this song is about child abuse, and the aftermath. It sounds like she is referring is the adult that has suffered from major trauma. PTSD comes to mind. "The tank and the bombs in your head" It's like a flashback of being abused as a child. Back when I was a child, abuse was not something that was talked about and rarely reported. "When the violence causes silence" and the families denial “It’s not me it's not my family" that was the mindset of most families 20-25 years ago.
My mother’s denial of my father physical abuse and later my uncle’s sexual abuse, still to this day is rarely talked about. I suffer from PTSD and totally relate to this song. -
my teacher told me earlier today that the lyrics were actually something to do with abortion
i'm not entirely sure but i looked it up and ended up here... -
LMFAO zombie, is a native word that translates to war. They probably chose this word because it can go either way for the song.
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A lot of support for the "freedom fighters" of the IRA on these comments which is disgusting.
You obviously don't get the meaning of irony, when this song is obviously about the brain dead (on BOTH sides) who fight in a "war", when the VAST majority of people on BOTH sides just want to live in peace.
Your glorification of the "struggle" does the decent people of Northern Ireland a great dis-service
I'd recommend you listen to Bono's speach on this video shot the day of the Poppy day massacre , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdceKu89SxY, copy of it below
Now lemme tell you somethin'. I've had enough of Irish Americans who haven't been back to their country in twenty or thirty years come up to me and talk about the resistance, the revolution back home. And the glory of the revolution, and the glory of dyin' for the revolution. Fuck the revolution! They don't talk about the glory of killing for the revolution. What's the glory in takin' a man from his bed and gunnin' him down in front of his wife and his children? Where's the glory in that? Where's the glory in bombing a Remembrance Day parade of old-aged pensioners, their medals taken out and polished up for the day. Where's the glory in that? To leave them dyin', or crippled for life, or dead, under the rubble of a revolution that the majority of the people of my country don't want. Sing no more!
Bono is an Irish catholic from Southern Ireland BTW -
I read this as directed towards the IRA and its various offshoots.
The references to children throughout concern the Provisional IRA's double-bombing in 1993 of Warrington, in Liverpool, in which two children: Jonathan Ball and Tim Parry were murdered. The song is well documented as having been written as a protest response to the attacks.
"And the violence caused such silence," is, I think, pointing out that the murder of innocents does nothing to garner support for the pIRA's cause either in Ireland or the British mainland.
"But you see it's not me... they are fighting," seems to be stating that people in Northern Ireland are no longer fighting for independence but that the pIRA insist upon continuing with their doomed aims. She and her family are no longer fighting and those perpetrating the attacks have not noticed that they are the only ones who are. This continues to the end of the verse with the singer stating that it is only in the heads of the IRA that a majority are crying for freedom from British rule.
The reference to zombies is sung as an accusation as much as it is a query. It seems that she is asking the bombers both how they can continue, unthinking and unaware of what is wanted by those around them, a lasting peace for their children. But more than that it accuses them of having no emotion; of being ignorant of the pain they're causing to people who are as innocent as the IRA consider their fellow Irish to be.
The next verse "A mother's breakin' heart..." suggests that the people are polarised against the bombers because they see the pain of a mother losing her son, and "When the violence causes silence, we must be mistaken..." explains that people are not willing to pay the price of a mothers anguish. If people wanted what the IRA did before and no longer want it now, then they must have been wrong.
The reference to 1916 is of course the Easter Rising, and suggests that the IRA are stuck in the same old mentality they were then. -
The first major rebellion in Ireland was 1798 in Wexford.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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When I first heard this song I thought it was about WW1 and 'shell shock', now known as post-traumatic stress.
"And the violence caused such silence" - I took this to mean that because violence leads to killing it leads to the permanent silence of that person(s)
"in your head they are fighting" - I took this to mean that the person suffering the shell shock still relives those images of war
"With their tank and their bmbs ad their bombs and their guns" - I took this to mean that Shell Shock can be cause by all the sudden and deafening noises of war
"it's the same old theme since 1916" - He relives these images everyday since war
"it's not me, it's not my family" - Guilt which many sufferes experience
I thought all this before I knew about the Easter Rising in Ireland but I still think that I make valid points. -
I'm a war veteran and it seems to take on a double meaning for me. I do know it's about the troubles, but it can also describe veteran's feelings towards life and their past. Such as another head hangs lowly is the guilt you feel afterwards and the child is slowly taken, could mean the loss of innocence. and the the silence can mean that when its over and we go home we try not to talk about it. and of course in your head, is the inibility to stop thinking about it,their fighting, with their tanks,and their bombs, and their guns in your head, their crying. and again when she says their still dying coudl be the flashback and zombie can mean the blank stare called the thousand yard stare. The mothers breaking heart could mean she's heartbroken over what her sons become or fear while he's overseas. and the same old scene since 1916 could mean the last year before the US entered World War 1. because after that the US was involved in a conflict during every decade after that up to OIF/OEF. and its like we never learn. I'm sorry if I offend anyone for putting my own interpretation instead of the actual one. and if any other vets reads this I hope they can relate.
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The phrase "In your head" is repeated in her daring song about 16 times.
As this incredibly gifted singer repeats the phrase -- intoning creatively in various ways like an angry howling mantra, with that Irish accent dropping consonants -- it begins to sound to me -- personally -- like these three letters:
I.R.A.
I recognize this is a personal interpretation.
Of course, there is no possible way this smart artist would have purposely (consciously?) named a group that was, at least in the past, targeting innocent people with 'bombs and guns.'
Plus, of course she is decrying violence on BOTH sides, not taking sides.
But.... I've heard the song so many times, and that phrase eventually sounds to me like I.R.A.
If it is a double-meaning, it's an incredibly clever double-meaning. Because if someone in the I.R.A first heard the song and thought, "Hey is she talking about us?" ... Well, then the phrase sure applies to him... his guilty assumption itself would be "in your head"!
In other words, if the shoe fits, wear it, buddy.
(If this phrase is a political pun, and it would be wise for the artist to never admit that, it reminds me of the more humorous cleverness in the famous song "You're so vain.") -
The song references the Ira bombs detonated in Warrington on 20th March 1993. Two children, Tim Parry (12) and Jonathan Ball (3) were killed. Jonathan Ball died instantly. Tim Parry died 5 days later in hospital from the injuries sustained. "another child is slowly taken". The attack was a callous act. The first bomb planted in an iron litter bin drove panicking shoppers towards a second bomb also planted in an iron litter bin a little way away. There was a lot of shrapnel. Apart from the two children that were killed, 54 people were injured, 4 of them seriously. This bombing was one of the turning points in the "Troubles" as people on both sides of the debate, in Britain and Ireland united to condemn the attack. The Cranberries played in important part in this process, as an Irish band writing a protest song about an act carried out by the ira!
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