Continuing our recent foray into music from the 90’s, today we take a listen to a song by an Irish rock band from Limerick, Ireland. Originally called The Cranberry Saw Us, the band formed in 1989 and a year later replaced their lead singer with Dolores O’Riordan and changed their name to The Cranberries.
Our featured track is called “Zombie”, taken from the group’s 1994 album “No Need to Argue”. Not exactly sure how I have never heard it before, but other than their song “Linger”, I am not familiar with any songs from The Cranberries…until now.
What inspired the song’s lyrics?
For nearly 40 years, Northern Ireland suffered through a conflict known as The Troubles. During that time, nearly 3,500 people died, and countless others were seriously injured. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) waged a huge fight against British rule, escalated by 10,000+ bombing attacks by paramilitary groups in Ireland and England.
One of those bombings occurred in Warrington, England when an improvised explosive device detonated in garbage bins, killing 3-year-old Johnathan Ball and 12-year-old Tim Parry. The boys had gone shopping to buy Mother’s Day cards on one of the town’s busiest shopping areas.
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.
Dolores O’Riordan in 2017 on writing “Zombie” (source for this and preceding paragraphs: Wikipedia)
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The political controversy and the single’s release
Releasing and promoting the single became an uphill battle for the band as their record label had no interest in allowing the politically charged song to hit the airwaves. O’Riordan even tore up a $1 million check the label had provided to write a different song.
Upon its eventual release in mid-September, the eye-catching video was placed in heavy rotation on MTV, sending The Cranberries into the orbit of international stardom. “Zombie” became the “most played song ever on alternative radio in the history of America”, per the Los Angeles Times, while also topping the charts in more than 6 countries.
What devastating event happened in January, 2018 that changed the future of The Cranberries forever?
Check out my reaction on our YouTube channel to learn of the horrific and tragic event that disbanded the band shortly after.
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