The Cranberries – History of Sorts

Epic Rock Episode 28: Salvation—The Cranberries.

“Salvation” is the lead single from Irish rock band the Cranberries’ third studio album, To the Faithful Departed (1996). Released on 8 April 1996 by Island Records, the single reached number one on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart for four weeks and was a chart hit in Europe and Australia, peaking at number four in Iceland, number six in Italy, number seven in New Zealand, and number eight in Australia and Ireland. The music video for the song was directed by Olivier Dahan and filmed in France.

In 1996, in an article written by Jayne Margetts, Fergal said, “The song Salvation is a glance at drug addiction. […] If you look around you see so much of it going on day-to-day, even in Limerick, which is quite a small town. You walk around the place and go to pubs at night and you see people drinking water because they’re on ecstasy or whatever. It’s quite scary to see that. I mean no matter how much you travel, and how much you see, nothing can prepare you for that kind of thing. You see your brother’s friends who are 16 years old and they’re totally out of it. It’s scary to see how it’s taken over the whole world. “I dunno, […] you meet so many people who have been through all that and they look back, and they said ‘what’s the point’? […] People learn the hard way I suppose. It’s just unfortunate that some people don’t survive it.”

In November 2002 Fergal explained, “It was an anti-drug song when Ecstasy was taking over the world. Some people picked it up wrong as a preachy thing: Don’t do it, don’t do it, like Who is she to tell me don’t do it, and it wasn’t like that, she was kinda talking to herself really. ‘Cos we’d been on tour with lots of different bands and you see different things and hear the stories of people fucking themselves up. It’s something we’ve always been wary of and kept an eye on, and we just kind of steer away from that, ‘cos it’s the old cliché of you and up in Betty Ford at the end of it – What’s the point?” (Hot Press, 2002)

Dolores, “It’s not so much like an anti-drug song. It’s kind of anti- the idea of becoming totally controlled by anything, any substance at all, because I know what it’s like. And it wasn’t a nice experience and it didn’t get me anywhere. It just confused me more […] Oh no, I didn’t try heroin. I was just trying to find the answer in getting out of it, whether it was drinking or whatever. I’m not going to elaborate. But it just, basically, any substances don’t really help. Reality is reality, and unfortunately, no how much you go away, you come back, and it’s always here.” (MTV, 1996)

To all those people doing lines
Don’t do it
Don’t do it
Inject your soul with liberty
It’s free
It’s free

To all the kids with heroin eyes
Don’t do it
Don’t do
Because it’s not not what it seems
No no it’s not not what it seems

Salvation
Salvation
Salvation is free

a-ha-ha
a-ha-ha
a-ha-ha
a-ha-ha

a-ha-ha
a-ha-ha
ha

do do do do do do do do
do do do doooo

do do do do do do do do
do do do doo

To all the parents with sleepless nights
Sleepless nights
Tie your kids on to their beds
Clean their heads

To all the kids with heroin eyes (heroin eyes)
Don’t do it
Don’t do
Because it’s not not what it seems
No no it’s not not what it seems

Salvation
Salvation
Salvation is free

a-ha-ha
a-ha-ha
a-ha-ha
a-ha-ha

a-ha-ha
a-ha-ha
ha

Music by Noel Hogan & Dolores O’Riordan
Lyrics by Dolores O’Riordan

Source

Salvation

ROCKTOBER-Zombie

When the Cranberry Saw Us were formed in 1989, they did not know that the changing of the name and lead singer would have such an impact on the band.

When the lead singer Niall Quinn was replaced by Dolores O’Riordan, and the name was changed to The Cranberries, the path was open to global success for this Limerick band.

Their 1st album “Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?” with the hit singles ‘Dreams’ and ‘Linger’ did get the attention of many music fans.

But it was with the song “Zombie” taken from their second album “No need to argue” that the band established themselves as a genuine, bonafide rock band.

It is a protest song written by Dolores O’Riordan in memory of the two young victims who were killed in the 1993 Warrington bombings, Johnathan Ball and Tim Parry. Three-year-old Johnathan Ball was killed when two bombs hidden in litter bins detonated on a busy shopping street in March 1993. Tim Parry, aged 12, died five days later.

O’Riordan, who was on tour at the time, found herself deeply affected by the tragedy.

“I remember seeing one of the mothers on television, just devastated,” she told Vox magazine in 1994.

“I felt so sad for her, that she’d carried him for nine months, been through all the morning sickness, the whole thing and some… prick, some airhead who thought he was making a point, did that.” The singer was particularly offended that terrorists claimed to have carried out these acts in the name of Ireland.

“The IRA are not me. I’m not the IRA,” she said. “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, it’s some idiots living in the past.”

Unfortunately Dolores died on January 15.2018. But she left behind a legacy for generations to come.

The American heavy metal band Bad Wolves recorded a cover of “Zombie” in 2017 while they were working on their debut album Disobey. The band’s singer Tommy Vext slightly altered the lyrics, inserting a reference to drones and replacing

The band also added two extra stanzas to the end of the song which were not present in the original. However, Vext said that “we weren’t sure it if was going to make it onto the record. The song is a masterpiece and a massive hit. Some art is sacred — you become afraid to do a rendition of it”.

On Christmas Eve 2017, Waite, the manager of Bad Wolves sent a text message to Vext that said O’Riordan had offered to “sing on it”. Vext described the situation: “it was a dream come true”,[166] while the others musicians “almost didn’t believe it

Bad Wolves released the cover on 18 January 2018, 3 days after Dolores’s death, without Dolores’s voice as a tribute to her.