Know something about this song or lyrics?
Add it to our wiki.
Another head hangs lowly
Child is slowly taken
And if violence causes the silence
Who are we mistaking
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 their bombs and their guns
In your head in your head they are crying
[Chorus]
In your head
In your head
Zombie zombie zombie ei ei
What's in your head
In your head.
Zombie, zombie, zombie ei, ei, ei, oh do,do,do,do,do,do,do,do
Another mother's breaking heart is taking over the violence causes silence
We must be mistaken
It's the same old thing since 1916
In your head in your head
Their still fighting
With their tanks and their bombs
And their bombs and their guns
In your head in your head they are dying
[Chorus]
Child is slowly taken
And if violence causes the silence
Who are we mistaking
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 their bombs and their guns
In your head in your head they are crying
[Chorus]
In your head
In your head
Zombie zombie zombie ei ei
What's in your head
In your head.
Zombie, zombie, zombie ei, ei, ei, oh do,do,do,do,do,do,do,do
Another mother's breaking heart is taking over the violence causes silence
We must be mistaken
It's the same old thing since 1916
In your head in your head
Their still fighting
With their tanks and their bombs
And their bombs and their guns
In your head in your head they are dying
[Chorus]
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
The violence / silence line, as well as rhyming nicely, may be a reference to the silence of death caused by the violent act of using the bombs and grenades.
The ‘but you see it’s not me / It’s not my family…’ line is the key one. IMO, Dolores almost takes the role of the grieving mother(s), saying what those parents must think – ‘we are not part of this war, this conflict. Our family is not part of this. Why are our children being killed? Why are we suffering? Why did you do this to us?’ An attack on an army barracks or an enemy position is understandable, but an attack on random innocent families in a busy town centre was truly revolting.
The ‘war’, such as it is, exists only in the heads of these ‘zombies’. In their heads, there are tanks and bombs and guns directed against them. They must see every person who does not support them as an enemy who, by their lack of support, has put themselves in opposition to the terrorists, and is therefore a legitimate target for attack. They must do. Otherwise why would you do this, and to what end? You would question, as the writer does, what could possibly be in the heads of anyone who would contemplate and carry out such an atrocity, knowing who the victims are likely to be. You would believe that they could not be human, hence the use of the term ‘zombie’. Only a ‘zombie’, whose mind has been turned, and whose very essence of humanity has been corroded by hatred and paranoia, could do this.
Despite her origins, I don’t believe that this song is political. Not every Irish person is a rabid Republican, in the same way as not every English person is a rabid unionist. Most just want peace and freedom from fear, and an end to this war that nobody understands any more.
The line ‘with their tanks and their bombs and their bombs and their guns’ isn’t intended to be representative of the actual hardware used in the Troubles (tanks have not been used!) – it’s just a cry of frustration by someone who does not understand the hatred and the willingness to deploy military weaponry to kill for this cause.
The line ‘it’s the same old thing since 1916’ – the year of the Easter Rising – again indicate a tiredness with the fighting and the hatred. ‘Same old thing’ – you don’t use those words about a conflict that you understand – you use this expression out of weariness and exasperation. These are feelings that I can identify with, being of an age to remember coverage of the Troubles and violence on a daily basis throughout the70s and 80s. I simply did not understand what was so bad about the place that people felt so divided, and why they just couldn’t rub along together, as Catholics and Protestants did over here – even the Irish ones! You simply couldn’t reconcile the madness in NI with the Irish people in my own circle of friends. We bombed the Hell out of Germany in the war, but as soon as it ended, it seemed that we all forgave each other. What was so different about the Irish situation? Maybe if Britain pulled out of NI and the UN sent a task force in to keep the peace during the transition to a united Ireland, we could let them decide their own destiny without being the butt of their hatred. Then, I suppose, the Unionists would start. I just don’t know, and nor, I suspect, does the subject of this song.
Again, ‘what’s in your head?’. The line is repeated as if screamed in impotent rage. The same impotent rage felt by every innocent person caught up in violence in which they have no part. You would want to find these people, who sneak about planting bombs and pulling triggers, and ask them this very question. I wish somebody would, but unfortunately even if they were caught, our legal system only seeks technical proof of a crime, not answers to the motivation behind it, or the mindset of the perpetrators. We catch, we punish, we let them back out. We rarely seek the answer to the most important question – WHY ?
I can’t comment on whether the writer herself is politically active or aware (the use of an important year indicates some good knowledge of the subject though!). I do not know which side of the fence she sits on, but here she is trying to see things through the eyes of someone who is not aware. The parents of those killed and injured perhaps who, like most English/Irish people, simply don’t understand what the problems are, or why someone would kill children to try to solve them. As a writer, you do not always have to write from your own viewpoint – with the gift of imagination you can try to see things from other angles.
I love this song – Dolores’s cracked and powerful vocals, the grungy and driving beat, the real sense of emotion that shines through. It’s reminiscent of Skunk Anansie, another great singer / songwriter from this golden era. They don’t make ‘em like this any more…
Outside that zombie mindset the actions of war based on hatred and prejiduce cannot even begin to be understood let alone justified. "What's in your head.........zombie" An innocent person in the song is challenging that zombie mindset, "can't you see it's not me, it's not my family.........what's in your head?"
While the longstanding conflict in Ireland obviously inspired and influenced the songwriter I think the underlying meaning could relate to any conlict where seemingly mindless acts impact the innocent ie racism, religious extremism etc.
One is because they were afraid of losing people's support, the other is that they KNEW they would inflict damage to their own country and people, wheter is Northern Ireland or Éire. Specially since republicans reject vehemently the division.
Even trying, they could not avoid casualities entirely. But the Brittish never did much about it, despite previous comments. Never ,never were peacemakers, they stayed in the island to protect their interests, not to protect the Northern Irish.
Events like the Irish Famine or the famous Bloody Sunday are clear examples of how the Brittish acted upon Irish people.
AND, despite OTHER comments about people nowadays carring this hatred in the past, much goes on the same way today, mostly in Northern Ireland.
People getting into jail for supporting (peacefully) the republicanism, protesting against the United Kingdom.
They are locked away without hope, for no reason besides expressing an opinion that bothers a lot. The loyalists are scarred as hell.
Also, don't forget that deaths were caused not only by IRA, but by paramilitary groups formed by loyalists, too.
People in the Celtic Nations do use things and eat food from England, but this can be made in all the countries, or just bought. One of the reasons to the division exist is the money from England. There is nothing noble in rejecting your own identity and selling yourself for money you could get otherwise.
This song is pretty neutral about the conflict and is very hard to me to detect any opinion favoring one of the sides. In fact, most of the beauty of the song comes from this. The song is to the innocents trying to keep going during the war.
The problem with the words like "tanks" can be just interpretation.
Yes, tanks were not used in Ireland, but I think maybe the war is in the heads, like she sings: "With their tanks and their bombs
And their bombs and their guns
In your head in your head".
And then the part "they are crying/dying". War is all in your head, while innocents lives are wiped out of our country. How can you be a zombie and not to give a damn about it all?
All criticism about IRA is pretty easy to understand, but is not correct to compare with them to the English.
They had a huge empire in many countries. The personality of their politicians, and of the crown still carries this legacy of tyranny and domination.
I'm English - so you know where I'm coming from, but I've been to the Irish republic and the North many times, so I'm not totally unaware of the situation.
Firstly, this is ancient history. The Irish conflict dates back to William of Orange, and since that time the British government have treated many groups, including the Irish, and their own citizens, with brutality. Nowadays, the British and Irish states are modern liberal democracies, and it's wrong to label the government or general population of either country as Imperialists or Terrorists. The vast majority of people on both islands of whatever faith or belief are not if favour of conflict.
There was a peace agreement signed in 1997 (15 years ago) and the UK, Irish and Northern Ireland / Six Counties authorities and general population all agreed to this - war / armed struggle / whatever you want to call it benefits no-one, and the vast majority of people on all sides know this.
Back on topic, bearing in mind that the song was released before the peace accord, it seems (to me) to be saying that violence is wrong, whether from the UK, or the IRA. Note that the Irish government has never in recent times approved of the IRA bombings and has condemned them loudly many times.
I guess we all see things from our own viewpoint. I was listening to a Muslim cleric on the radio this morning who was refusing to condemn all the terrorist activity in the Middle East because it was a 'just cause', saying that Westerners were an evil empire that did what they wanted. It seems that you are using similar arguments.
The fact is that everything the British government did was *in theory* within international laws and subject to scrutiny by the UN and the respective governments. Note my emphasis on *in theory* here because I concede this wasn't always the case.
For example, the Bloody Sunday killings were very wrong, and the UK government has now (belatedly) apologized for them. The 40 years that have passed since then have changed the world immeasurably, so there's not much point going over right and wrong from that far back.
I concede that loyalists in the North were also involved in similar terrorist activity and it's widely believed that the UK security forces colluded with them. Despite this, more people (and many more innocent civilians) were killed by Nationalist paramilitary forces, acting without any formal justification, against the wishes of the Irish and US governments.
Finally, if you are Irish, please bear in mind that the British government is not the British people. The people on the British mainland are not interested in Irish politics, either from a Loyalist or Nationalist point of view. MAny people over here don't even know which side is which (seriously). Most people would only be too glad to "get rid" of Northern Ireland.
As Ringo would say. "Peace and love".
I believe the song is about the conflict in Ireland, but it focusses on the civilian casualties. The children in the video illustrate the innocence of these victims. The line
"it's not me, it's not my family" is a tragically brilliant summary of the attitude of people to war and death. I think this line is aimed mainly at the British citizens who were hardly sympathetic towards the death of Irish civilians, but may also be targeted towards some portions of the Irish community who cared little about what was going on unless they were directly affected.
The lyric 'in your head they are fighting' I believe is a reference to British soldiers killing civilians (whether by accident or on purpose) the lyric is saying to the British troops - or even the British Government and the British public itself - that you are murdering these innocent civilians and justifying it by saying they are actively fighting you in the conflict, as if it is in self-defence.
This idea is reinforced with the line 'it's the same old thing since 1916' the singer is suggesting that this arbitrary killing has been going on in recent memory since the Easter Rising, when over 300 civilians were killed and 2,000 wounded.
I think the 'violence causes silence' line is particularly poignant. The band seem to be saying that with all this violence and death comes no protest from the British public. They are seeing this bloodshed but are not appealing to their government to stop their actions. There is little sympathy; no-one is crying for the deaths of these innocents, it falls on deaf ears. The Irish are alone in the misery.
I think the cry of 'zombie' is directed at Britain. She is calling the British braindead for their attitude with regards to civilians. She's asking what we are thinking in allowing our government to commit these murderous acts, and why we are foolishly believing these civilians are a threat to our soldiers, when she shouts 'what's in your head'
I believe the song is about the conflict in Ireland, but it focusses on the civilian casualties. The children in the video illustrate the innocence of these victims. The line
"it's not me, it's not my family" is a tragically brilliant summary of the attitude of people to war and death. I think this line is aimed mainly at the British citizens who were hardly sympathetic towards the death of Irish civilians, but may also be targeted towards some portions of the Irish community who cared little about what was going on unless they were directly affected.
It's not me.
It's not my
Family."
This so perfectly describes a lot of people's feelings towards war. If it's not happening to them, then it isn't as important to them.
Favorite Cranberries song.. ever...