Halloween is just around the corner! Autumn is in the air. Jack-o-lanterns are displayed on neighborhood porches. Spiders are weaving webs. It’s the time to celebrate all thinks creepy, crawly and spooky, and what induces more fear than zombies? These mindless hordes of the living dead are captivating indeed. They also make great subject matter for 80s and 90s rock. Here are five of those songs from the 80s and 90s with “zombie” in their titles.

“All You Zombies”, The Hooters (1982)

Written by band founders Rob Hyman and Eric Brazilian in just one night, “All You Zombies” was controversial upon its release due to its lyrics about Moses, Noah and other biblical imagery. However, according to them, there wasn’t any particular meaning behind it. All of the lyrics just came to them that night and they put them against a reggae rhythm, popular among New Wave bands at the time.

The chorus originally had the lyric, "all you people hide your faces, all you people in the street.” Later, they changed “people” to “zombies” randomly and impromptu. However, it subsequently reminded Hyman of a short story he read as a child called, “All You Zombies” by Robert A. Heinlein. Published in the March issue of “Fantasy and Science Fiction” in 1959, the bizarre story follows a man who goes back in time and impregnates a younger, female version of himself who had sexual reassignment. Thus, he becomes his own mother and father.

Yeah, weird right? And this was written in the 50s! According to Hyman, the lyric was derived completely independently of, and had no association with, Heinlein’s writing.

There’s a 2014 Australian film called “Predestination” starring Ethan Hawke based on the story. I’ve never heard of this movie but it’s definitely on my watch list now.

“Zombie Eaters”, Faith No More (1989)

Written by band member Mike Patton, “Zombie Eaters” is the 5th track on Faith No More’s album, “The Real Thing”. The lyrics are reminiscent of a strange, toxic, codependent relationship. What makes this tune even stranger is that it’s presented from the perspective of a baby in relation to her mother. The neonate is dominating, cruel and importunate. Thus, the mother is a zombie, who must give constant attention and nurturing to the needs of the little “zombie eater”.

An excerpt from the lyrics:

So hug me and kiss me
Then wipe my butt and piss me
I hope you never leave
Cause who would hear me scream?

Pretty weird right? One can scarcely imagine what was going through Mike Patton’s head.

Now knowing the premise of the song, it reminds me of Baby Herman, the demanding, cigar smoking infant from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”. If babies could talk and cogitate with the sophistication of adults, I think they might be quite a bit like Baby Herman.

“Zombie Zoo”, Tom Petty (1989)

While its fun to think of the song title as a conservation park for hordes of the living dead, the Zombie Zoo was actually an underground “death rock” club in the 1980s. Death rock (not to be confused with “death metal”) is a subgenre of punk rock integrating elements of goth and retro horror. Think of it as punk rock meets “Monster Mash”.

The 12th track on the album “Full Moon Fever”, the song is about a freaky young girl with questionable upbringing dancing at the Zombie Zoo club until sunrise. The tune is descriptive of the girl, who has white lipstick and a shaved head. Listen closely to the lyrics and you can form an image of the girl in your mind: Kind of a poor, punk rock Wednesday Adams with negligent parents.

The story goes that Tom Petty and Roy Orbison had a late dinner after recording. Their restaurant was near the Zombie Zoo where they observed the interesting characters coming in and out and wrote a song about one of them.

“Zombie Stomp”, Ozzie Ozbourne 1991

The “Zombie Stomp” can be traced back as a surf garage rock song by The Del-Aires in the early 60s where it asks listeners to dance. However, the modern phrase is often referred to in colloquial slang as the act of using high doses of various drugs to get into a catatonic, zombie like state. Given that “Zombie Stomp” is an Ozzy Osbourne track on his “No More Tears” album which also includes songs titled, “Desire”, “S.I.N.”, “Hellraiser” and “Party with the Animals”, you can probably easily surmise what this tune is all about.

But wait! We aren’t done with slang analysis yet. It turns out that there are a few more idiosyncratic meanings for this phrase. “Zombie stomp” could also mean roughing someone up severely. It’s also said to be a phrase for military people stomping their feces down the drain while taking a shower to save time. Although, I was in the military and never heard of this so it could be unfounded. Zombie Stomp is also the name of a marijuana strain.

With this, one could fabricate quite a story: Once upon a time, Ozzy and some soldiers went on a zombie stomp, which included smoking some zombie stomp, where they zombie stomped some fools at the tavern and had to zombie stomp the next day to make muster on time.

Remember, this blog post is under copyright so don’t even think about stealing that tale…

…Okay, let’s stick with The Del-Aires wholesome interpretation of the term.

“Zombie”, The Cranberries (1994)

"Zombie" as written by The Cranberries lead singer Dolores O'Riordan as a protest song memorializing the 1993 Warrington bombings and the subsequent deaths of young boys Johnathan Ball and Tim Parry, who were victims of the attack. The boys were shopping for Mother's Day cards. The IRA bombing in England was one of over 10,000 attacks over a 30-year period of violence known in Ireland and Britain as “The Troubles”.

O'Riordan said that she wrote the song to cope with her identity as an Irish woman who didn’t support the violence of the IRA. In 1994, she told Vox magazine:

"The IRA are not me. I'm not the IRA. The Cranberries are not the IRA. My family are not. ... When it says in the song, 'It's not me, it's not my family,' that's what I'm saying. It's not Ireland".

While I really like all of the songs on this list, I believe this one is truly a masterpiece of 90s alt rock. Now that you have the context, give it another listen, read the lyrics below and tell me what you think. When I hear it, I reminisce on my travels to Ireland and feel grateful the Troubles are over.

As I finish this list, it occurs to me that none of the tunes are about actual zombies. Rather, they highlight how important zombies have become in our culture for use in symbolism and metaphor. Are there any zombie songs from the 80s and 90s that I missed? Let me know in the comments below. With that, I leave you with this quote: