“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”
I was in year 8 when this song was released in 1994. And it has been stuck in my head for a long time. Someone only needs to say “you’re in your head’ and this song pops in (see, it just happened to you too! – now sing it out loud. Ok. Ok. Let’s focus on the blog at hand).
Little did I know what was behind the lyrics until recently.
The song was written in response to the death of Johnathan Ball, 3, and Tim Parry, 12, who had been killed in the IRA bombing in Warrington, northwest England, when two devices hidden in litter bins were detonated.
Ball died at the scene of the bombing as a result of his shrapnel-inflicted injuries and, five days later, Parry died in his fathers arms in Liverpool‘s Walton hospital as a result of fatal head injuries. 56 others were injured, some seriously.
The two boys had gone shopping to buy Mother’s Day cards on one of the town’s busiest shopping streets (#pullontheheartstrings).
This is what Dolores O’Riordan wrote about writing “Zombie” the song in 2017.
“There were a lot of bombs going off in London and I remember this one time a child was killed when a bomb was put in a rubbish bin – that’s why there’s that line in the song, ‘A child is slowly taken’. We were on a tour bus and I was near the location where it happened, so it really struck me hard – I was quite young, but I remember being devastated about the innocent children being pulled into that kind of thing. So I suppose that’s why I was saying, ‘It’s not me’ – that even though I’m Irish it wasn’t me, I didn’t do it. Because being Irish, it was quite hard, especially in the UK when there was so much tension.”
Not only did she rise to fame because of this song but it changed alternative rock forever.
O’Riordan said ‘We were just a different type of a band… and we had a lot of our own ideas.’
It wasn’t easy either, there had been a battle over censorship and she had to fight with her record label to see the song even released (and she even gave up a sweet one million to work on another song instead of releasing Zombie).
She believed in the message from the song, she believed in the meaning behind what she wanted to share with the world.
Maybe because in her lyrics it says “And the violence caused such silence” and she didn’t want to be silenced anymore, no amount of money or others telling her no would do it.
“If I think something, I have to say it. And I really don’t care what anybody thinks.” O’Riordan said once in an interview.
Now, flash forward 18 years and if you check out Youtube, you’ll see that she has had over a billion views (For the geeks of the group, it’s 1,123,033,438 and counting).
No denying her message is not out there in the world. Undeniably she changed the music industry too.
It was quoted by some music industry guy ‘They insisted on being genuine, original innovators, crafting their own place in the ethos of alternative rock.’ And that led to a change in music forever.
All because of seeing something as tragic, it impacted her, and then using that as fuel for her craft her message to the world.
So, who else gets in their head that it blocks their inner wisdom and knowledge of the message to share?
I hear a lot of ‘hell yes.’
I love the question ‘what do you want?’ No, ‘what do you really want.’ (I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha), I wanna really, really, really wanna zigazig ah).
Can’t help but talk about this guy as he knows what he wants. And that is Elon.
When he sold Paypal he had $180 million which he reinvested into SpaceX, SolarCity and Tesla. And he allocated half of it SpaceX and SolarCity. Thinking that was a lot of money, and allocated this for three flights, it took more time and more resources than he imagined.
He had to make a choice, put the rest of the money in, or the companies would die.
Anything innovative comes with a risk of failure. Big changes come with big potential outcomes.
If the outcome is inspiring enough to you, the risk is worth the while.
So he put all of the remaining money in and borrowed money from friends for rent.
Times have been challenging, discouraging and there has been a lot at stake.
But, what he is working on, he believes is important to the future of humanity.
What if what you were working on was that you believed in it so much that you were willing to have people go against you, to say no to you, to challenge you but you were unwavering?
Maybe it is sharing universal truths like me, maybe it is changing parenting styles, the health industry, the way people write their copy and connect with their clients.
And maybe you had a deeper message to share with the world.
What I know is you won’t find it being in your head. This little gem of wisdom is found in your heart.
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