submissions
| The Cranberries – Zombie Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I'm not sure that this is about the IRA, as so many have said. What leads me to suspect otherwise is the connection of "Zombie" with "1916". See, the word "Zombie" has a very specific special meaning in that context. It was used to refer to Canadian soldiers, usually from Quebec, who refused to go offshore to fight.
The vast majority of the french population in Canada strongly resented being forced to fight in "Britain's war", and when conscription rolled around most opted for "home front" duty, a very obvious cop-out as there was little chance of the war ever actually spilling over onto Canadian soil (with the occasional exception of occasional events like the Halifax Explosion). Soldiers that went over to fight, and their families back home, had a great resentment towards these dissenters, and labeled them "zombies".
This ties into the song in several more points. The line "but you see it's not me, it's not my family" fits perfectly into the theme of a soldier who stayed away from the front because he didn't want to be involved. The rest of the song, then, would be the regrets, the sense of guilt, that this soldier would suffer. |
submissions
| VNV Nation – After Fire Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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In addition to the ubiquitous "Universal Soldier" quotes, there's also a clip at the end from "Forbidden Planet". |
submissions
| VNV Nation – Airships Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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I agree with MrMarouka, in that I think the title and imagery is both more and less literal that one might think. When intercontinental flights became possible, I would imagine that it opened up a grand new symbol of hope, to leave the old fading world behind and find a new place, a perfect place, somewhere past the horizons. To get away from it all and start fresh. I think that's why it's so powerful, because so many of us want that fresh start but have lost any idea of how to get it. But the singer knows.... |
submissions
| VNV Nation – Joy Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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*rereads the previous posts*
Huh... on hindsight, I guess Frankish was sorta saying the same thing... although I don't agree with the confusion thing that he and the previous people seemed to think was the point. I would read the questions he asks as being purely rhetorical, and simply an attempt to voice the violence latent in him. Sorta a "raging at the universe" motif. |
submissions
| VNV Nation – Joy Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I'm surprised nobody has said this so far: I think this song is about anger, and that the name is intentionally ironic. imho, what the chorus is saying is that the narrator has lost all joy in what he does (which doesn't have to be anything specific, just his life in general whever it may be), but is forcing himself onward regardless. Picture a burly man, chained to some great weight, straining forward, fighting it with the same determination and passion as if it was an opponent on a battlefield. To me, the narrator is the same, except what he's straining against is emotional and psychological burdens instead of physical ones. |
submissions
| VNV Nation – Arclight Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I'm not sure what you guys are talking about - I can certainly see how some of the lines could be taken as positive and uplifting, but listening to the tone of the song it seems to convey almost the opposite message. The first two lines remind me of Ozymandias by Shelly more than anything, and the rest seems only positive in the same way as Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. Am I alone in feeling this? |
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