"Zombie" is about the ethno-political conflict in Ireland. This is obvious if you know anything of the singer (Dolores O'Riordan)'s Irish heritage and understood the "1916" Easter Rising reference.
"Another head hangs lowly
Child is slowly taken
And the violence caused such silence
Who are we mistaken
-
Another mother's breaking
Heart is taking over"
Laments the Warrington bomb attacks in which two children were fatally injured on March 23rd, 1993. Twelve year old Tim Parry was taken off life support with permission from his mother after five days in the hospital, virtually braindead.
"But you see it's not me
It's not my family"
References how people who are not directly involved with the violence feel about it. They are "zombies" without sympathy who refuse to take action while others suffer.
"Get on down"
"Get on down"
"Get on down"
"Get on down"
I want to fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
I want to fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Knock knock, who is it? What my moms is the wizard
I'm about to land like an avalanche or a blizzard
So open up, let me in, then
Check out the ill motherfuckin' Les swing
Wickedy wicked, your girl's tit I lick it
And shwin-g it, like my man Wilson Pickett
I kick it, the Spanish Psycho's a lunatic
Rip a show, get the dough, and stick the hoe with my super dick
It's a ah nut, then I be ghost
You got ta be clean everything not gross
I bust a ill style that your ears are not used to
Beat nuts make tracks for the crowd to get loose to
So honies in the house if you're hot rip your blouse off
My brothers if you're thirsty, crack the forty ounce
Beats I smack em out the stadium I never bunted
I rock all night, you got a light, let's get blunted
So light up, and pass it, so I can puff
You can't get enough of the rugged and rough
Anti-pop I ain't singin like a klutz
The world's (world's) famous (famous) Beat (beat) Nuts!
Well it's the junkyard nigga with the funk flow screamin'
Hardcore, crazy bad breath like a demon
Retarded from birth see I ain't got no class
I used to fart in church and tell the preacher kiss my ass
Freakin mad styles catchin Caesars yo
It's the Psycho Dwarf killer with a stezo bro
Ugly like shit but sized crooked
Any piece of ass I ever got is 'cause I took it
Yo I'm invisible, niggas can't see me kid
I did a short bid and came out cock diezel kid
Junkyard JuJu so you know
Strap a metal jacket every fuckin' place I go
So play Dionne Warwick's song and Walk On By
Or maybe stick around for a Columbian Necktie
Whatever the fuck you do, just get out the place
I got some shit to blow, that's my right off in your face
I want to fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
I want to fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
I want to fuck!
(Hey bro, what's happenin'? Got that good cheeba cheeba?)
"Get on down"
Ah-ah-ah, I just ripped, out the dirt from my coffin
Flippin' through loops like a lunatic dolphin
I'm back, reincarnated
Psycho Les runnin' through the graveyard intoxicated
Thuggin', titty huggin' graf art muggin'
Keep ya where your worst nightmare snuck in
Yeah! Ya think I'm buggin here's my Glock 10
I have you singin like New Edit-it-edis-distion
Punk, play and get yo, smoked
I put two caps and I laughed up then joke around
I gets down, like cool and
The Gang my slang got your girlfriend droolin'
Yo I flip, and, land in the split
Then pop, man, bust your whole shit
Like a Shaolin Monk I kicks the grand funk
Drunk and I'm still fat out the trunk
I want to fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
I want to fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
I want to fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
I want to fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Yeah, your mother!
"Get on down"
"Get on down"
"Get on down"
I want to fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
I want to fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Knock knock, who is it? What my moms is the wizard
I'm about to land like an avalanche or a blizzard
So open up, let me in, then
Check out the ill motherfuckin' Les swing
Wickedy wicked, your girl's tit I lick it
And shwin-g it, like my man Wilson Pickett
I kick it, the Spanish Psycho's a lunatic
Rip a show, get the dough, and stick the hoe with my super dick
It's a ah nut, then I be ghost
You got ta be clean everything not gross
I bust a ill style that your ears are not used to
Beat nuts make tracks for the crowd to get loose to
So honies in the house if you're hot rip your blouse off
My brothers if you're thirsty, crack the forty ounce
Beats I smack em out the stadium I never bunted
I rock all night, you got a light, let's get blunted
So light up, and pass it, so I can puff
You can't get enough of the rugged and rough
Anti-pop I ain't singin like a klutz
The world's (world's) famous (famous) Beat (beat) Nuts!
Well it's the junkyard nigga with the funk flow screamin'
Hardcore, crazy bad breath like a demon
Retarded from birth see I ain't got no class
I used to fart in church and tell the preacher kiss my ass
Freakin mad styles catchin Caesars yo
It's the Psycho Dwarf killer with a stezo bro
Ugly like shit but sized crooked
Any piece of ass I ever got is 'cause I took it
Yo I'm invisible, niggas can't see me kid
I did a short bid and came out cock diezel kid
Junkyard JuJu so you know
Strap a metal jacket every fuckin' place I go
So play Dionne Warwick's song and Walk On By
Or maybe stick around for a Columbian Necktie
Whatever the fuck you do, just get out the place
I got some shit to blow, that's my right off in your face
I want to fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
I want to fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
I want to fuck!
(Hey bro, what's happenin'? Got that good cheeba cheeba?)
"Get on down"
Ah-ah-ah, I just ripped, out the dirt from my coffin
Flippin' through loops like a lunatic dolphin
I'm back, reincarnated
Psycho Les runnin' through the graveyard intoxicated
Thuggin', titty huggin' graf art muggin'
Keep ya where your worst nightmare snuck in
Yeah! Ya think I'm buggin here's my Glock 10
I have you singin like New Edit-it-edis-distion
Punk, play and get yo, smoked
I put two caps and I laughed up then joke around
I gets down, like cool and
The Gang my slang got your girlfriend droolin'
Yo I flip, and, land in the split
Then pop, man, bust your whole shit
Like a Shaolin Monk I kicks the grand funk
Drunk and I'm still fat out the trunk
I want to fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
I want to fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
I want to fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
I want to fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit!
Yeah, your mother!
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Mel And Kim
Mel And Kim
Just listening for the 784,654th time....and it's just perfect in every way. Just incredible. The only reason it was remade was to scoop up a boatload of money from a more modern and accepting audience. But it is a completely different song than the other one that sounds slapped together in a few takes without a thought for the meaning.
This song captivates me still, after 50+ years. Takes me to the deep South and the poverty of some who lived thru truly hard times. And the powerful spirit of a poor young girl being abandoned to her future with only a red dress and her wits to keep her alive.
She not only stayed alive, she turned her hard beginnings around, became self sufficient, successful and someone with respect for herself. She didn't let the naysayers and judgers stop her. She's the one sitting in the drivers seat at the end.
So, not a song about a poor girl, but a song of hope and how you can rise up no matter how far down you started.
There is a huge difference between a singer who simply belts out a song that is on a page in front of them, and someone who can convey an entire experience with their voice. Telling not just a story with words, but taking you inside it and making you feel like you are there, with their interpretation.
X French T-Shirt
Shudder to Think
Shudder to Think
This song is timeless, and nearly 20 years after its creation, still possesses the mystique it did the first time i heard it ~1994. To me, at first blush, all those years ago, it had some kind of homo-erotic allure. The line "so that the others may do" tells of something which must be done for others to follow suit. It felt like like some kind of roxy-glam-pop invitation to sexual liberation.
Upon further introspection I think the song may not have an intrinsic meaning, but simply represents a sort of "holding open the door" for people who otherwise might be affronted by this song/band's unusual style. I know, as a sort of armchair rock-historian, that there have been few bands so daring and so true to the sound that wanted to emerge from within, whether the creator wanted it or not. This band handled it with elegance and grace seldom, if ever, seen.
Alma Matters
Morrissey
Morrissey
The man has pseudo-friends who constantly criticize his actions. They moralize him, "teach" him and advise him to make a significant change in his life, because the way he is and what he does is not what they say it should be. They may find his life lame or immoral. They hold themselves up as role models. The man replies that he will make his own choices and decisions and he does not agree to unconditionally make himself under the influence of questionable quality advice. He justifies this by saying that there is always someone for whom he will be important, no matter what he does and no matter what he is. Although it is not said directly, I read it as meaning that he will always be important to himself in every way and he will always have his own support.
"Everyone is different and maybe that's a good thing, but you exceeded that mark 1000 times" - I remember very well how sad the words I once heard (from my peers and it was in negative context) at school made me feel.
Mad Hatter
Avenged Sevenfold
Avenged Sevenfold
Matt Shadows their lead singer says the song was written as per request from the developers of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Watching the initial trailers for the game & looking at production sketches reminded him of the 'S-Town' podcast & its main protagonist, John B. McLemore. Matt also comments specifically on the lyrics: "I decided that the lyrics would shadow McLemore's life." In 2012, antiquarian horologist John B. McLemore sent an email to the staff of the show 'This American Life' asking them to investigate an alleged murder in his hometown of Woodstock, Alabama, a place McLemore claimed to despise. After a year of exchanging emails & several months of conversation with McLemore, producer Brian Reed traveled to Woodstock to investigate. Reed investigated the crime & eventually found that no such murder took place, though he struck up a friendship with the depressed but colorful character of McLemore. He recorded conversations with McLemore & other people in Woodstock. McLemore killed himself by drinking potassium cyanide on June 22, 2015 while the podcast was still in production. In the narrative of the podcast, this occurs at the end of the second episode; subsequent episodes deal with the fallout from McLemore's death while exploring more of McLemore's life & character.