What does Zombie mean?

The Cranberries: Zombie Meaning

Album cover for Zombie album cover

Covered By: Bad Wolves (2018)


Get "Zombie" on MP3: Get MP3 from iTunes

Zombie Lyrics

Another head hangs lowly,
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...

  1. pomskua
    click a star to vote
    Jan 10th 2014 !⃝

    I come from Thailand where there is a healthy appreciation of zombies, ghosts and the undead and they adore this song so have a slight different interpretation.

    When she sings 'with your tanks and your bombs and bombs and guns - in your head', you can interpret this as any form of delusional thinking is in fact simply in your head ergo we create our own versions of reality. The world is a blank slate and we create our own personal monsters emotions that festure in the nether regions between life and death which we can soothe my calming our minds. In some ways the message is very similar to Just by Radiohead.

  2. anonymous
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    Nov 4th 2012 !⃝

    look folks you all tried tellin' the meaning with ur perspective of war....lets not stick here around war and the irland conditions and aftermath,,,,,,lets come and peek in to the mind of the cranberries....the song very clearly is talkin' about something in the head.....then she also says .....its not her neither her family....they were not affected by the war......yet their head has those memories ....and in your head zombie.....that means these memories are zombies.....she doesnt have neither her family has anything to do with that war....and then why she hears those screams and dyin' in head.....becoz these memories will not die and will come back like zombie....all those ppl who were killed have actually become a memory of pain and keep hauntin' us as a memory in the form of zombie .....still not dead.....becoz if u wanna look up for the real meaning of song u gotta know what a zombie is....it means something which is dead and again comes back to life.....zombies cant kill unless they have been killed......zombies have to come from somewhere and that can only be once they are dead....not that zombies are these ppl who are killin' .....how can the be dead ....unless they actually are....the song is a question that she has got nothing to do with that fuckin' war....then why she feels bad about it.....why do we feel bad about it.....whats in our head......this is a memory and those ppl killed have been hauntin' like some zombies who make us feel bad......they were killed ...innocent ppl so they make us feel bad ....and remind us what war can do.....this doesnt sound like a question to the killer ....this sounds more like a question to our own head that why we still have these memories .....are they some zombies.....who faced so much and now are haunting us in our head....?

  3. anonymous
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    Jun 12th 2012 !⃝

    When I hear this song it kinda makes me think of war and the Holocaust. "and the violence, caused such silence" I feel like it talks about the horrors of the holocaust and WW2. It also makes me think of the civil war in ireland.

  4. anonymous
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    Mar 22nd 2012 !⃝

    I always thought that there was a special significance of the lyric

    "With their tanks and their bombs,and their bombs and their guns."

    I think this is lifted directly from an Irish rebel song "The man behind the Wire"

    That's just my two cents from a Belfast lad.

  5. anonymous
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    Mar 2nd 2012 !⃝

    Interp: This song is about an old man with PTSD. He is now silent, living in his head like a zombie, with such pain. He relives the bombs, the tanks, the air attacks, in his head, and the people in the room are not really his family, but in his head they are the enemy coming to kill them. He doesn't recognize them, doesn't snap out of it in time to prevent fighting them. He thinks they are going to kill them, so he fights them. In his head they are Japs/Nazis/Protestants-- instead of being his family. The family lies silent in their fear. He was once an innocent child but that innocence was taken. Now he is a zombie living inside his own head.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  6. anonymous
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    Jan 23rd 2012 !⃝

    its a very batty song

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  7. anonymous
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    Jan 4th 2012 !⃝

    This response is somewhere around six years late. It is wonderfully unlikely that it will have readers. I heard Jay Brannan's cover of this on Pandora radio, and I am certainly one to ramble where my rambling is simply unnecessary.
    I've always seen the line "What's in your head?" to be a question asked to a retired soldier, as if he's turned into a zombie mentally regarding his experiences in battle. "In your head, they're still fighting." "They're still dying." In the former soldier's mind, the war is unending, and he is, perhaps, terrified by the lingering memory of death, the other side's dreadfully "creative" weapons at that time, their blatant destruction, their ignorant disregard for rational thought.
    Probably incorrect. I am indifferent as to which war or battle the song is referencing anyhow, since I've read more than one plausible explanation. I refuse to conduct research.
    I believe this song may include "Flashbacks" and manipulation of time in order to show both the present and past's differences.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  8. unclekevo
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    Dec 28th 2011 !⃝

    As far as I'm aware, it's about both the Irish Civil War including the Easter Rising and also partly about the Troubles in Northern Ireland

  9. anonymous
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    Dec 27th 2011 !⃝

    the first time when i listened to this music, i had an entirely different interpretation... but then i went in depth and did my researches on it and i came to the understandin that this song defines the struggle faced by the irish, the problems faced by them at the hand of the british... the song reflects the pain felt in voice .. wars should be eradicated and brotherhood should b brought in the neighbourhood.. call for truce, take pledge, make it happen....

  10. anonymous
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    Aug 3rd 2011 !⃝

    hmmmmmmmm... a very moving song, integrates both the memories of the people affected and the history of the event shaped by the memories.........

  11. anonymous
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    Jul 7th 2011 !⃝

    It's about Kids in the war But also in my opinion, could be about how children are exposed to violence in this time, and now kids are violent. ort of like 'zombies' They don't realise what they're doing, but they don't think, they are just violent.
    But the song was supposed to be about kids in the war

  12. anonymous
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    Jul 1st 2011 !⃝

    What if Zombie means that the atrocities of war are eating our minds from the inside. Like the horridness is feeding on our brains and that's why we can't sleep at night... :'(

  13. anonymous
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    Jun 22nd 2011 !⃝

    My thoughts, a few lines at a time.

    Another head hangs lowly, 
    child is slowly taken.

    Collateral damage created by the war (and shown in the video) manifests itself not in the grown population, who die fighting almost invariably, but in the children who don't know to fight back.

    And the violence caused such silence;
    Who are we mistaken?

    The fighting has darkened the streets - no one laughs, no one runs. Who is it that's being fooled: The soldiers lined up to die, or the civilians, pent up in their house, convinced the war can't touch then?

    But you see, it's not me, it's not my family.

    And here is why they're so convinced: It's a classic belief in that what you can't see can't see you.

    In your head, in your head, they are fighting.

    But they're here.

    With their tanks and their bombs,and their bombs and their guns, 
    in your head, in your head, they are crying.

    These are people.

    In your head, in your head, zombie, zombie, zombie - ie - ie
    What's in your head, in your head, zombie, zombie, zombie?

    They're people. How can you ignore them?

    Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, dou, dou, dou, dou, dou...

    (It's a song)

    Another mother's breakin' heart is taken over.
    When the violence causes silence, we must be mistaken.

    Casualties mean nothing to the sides fighting. The enemy must be dehumanized for war to work.

    It's the same old theme since nineteen-sixteen.

    In 1916, the IRA invented a new form of terrorism. It's continued since. 

    In your head, in your head they're still fighting.
    With their tanks and their bombs, and their bombs and their guns;
    In your head, in your head, they are dying.

    It's real.

    In your head, in your head, zombie, zombie, zombie - ie - ie.
    What's in your head, in your head,
    Zombie, zombie, zombie - ie - ie - ie,
    Oh, oh, oh, Oh, oh, oh, oh, hey, oh, ya, ya-a...

    (...yeah.)

  14. anonymous
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    Jun 17th 2011 !⃝

    I think it's about a solider who had shell-shock who in their head still thought the war he/she was in was still going on but only in their head and the solider is the "Zombie", as in a zombie to war. Or at least that's what I think.

  15. anonymous
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    May 31st 2011 !⃝

    The song talks about how a war can affect so many people and they feel like their still living the war and can't get back to the real world.




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