Modern Rock No. 1s: The Cranberries and "Zombie"
The Cranberries tackle the emotional consequences of prolonged conflict with "Zombie," a song borne out of tragedy with a sound that injected it directly into the musical zeitgeist
The Cranberries - “Zombie”
Weeks atop the Billboard Modern Rock chart: 6 weeks (October 29 to December 3, 1994)
Previous Modern Rock #1 hit: R.E.M. and “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?”
Next Modern Rock #1 hit: Nirvana and “About a Girl”
Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers during this time:
Boyz II Men - “I’ll Make Love To You” (8/27/94 to 11/26/94, 14 total weeks)
Boyz II Men - “On Bended Knee” (12/3/94)
I grew up with protest music. It’s inescapable, especially when one is steeped in the music from the Baby Boomer generation. Growing up with my dad’s music, I was inundated with songs from the 1960s that directly or indirectly referenced U.S. conflicts abroad, specifically the Vietnam war but tangentially including other battles and domestic protestations of those battles.
I could name dozens of songs, and I’m sure you know many of them already, so I’ll spare you a recitation of popular ditties about the U.S. military or overseas wars in the 1960s and 1970s. If you want a quick synopsis, you could turn to Billy Joel, who offered a musical summation of that period of American history back in 1989. (Fall Out Boy, to their credit, picked up where Joel left off with their 2023 follow-up.)
Of course, the United States isn’t the only country or region in the world dealing with conflict, and artists from those countries and regions also like to reflect on those levels of tragedy via artistic outlets like music. And sometimes, if you take the anger generated from those reflections and turn it into a grunge-inflected rock song right at the time when grunge-inflected rock songs are all the rage, you can propel yourself and your rock band to #1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. So it goes with The Cranberries, who scored their first chart topper in late 1994 with “Zombie.”
I’m not going to lie: I know very little about regional conflicts outside of the U.S. that do not directly involve the U.S. I would like to tell you that I’m a student of geopolitics and history, but I’m sad to admit that there are so many regional conflicts going on at any one time that it’s hard to gain a proper perspective on them when they’re not directly affecting me. I also know very little about the politics of countries outside the U.S., meaning I don’t always understand the intricacies of elections, taxation, parliaments, representative bodies, etc.
I can tell you, though, that out of all of those frustrations and tragedies, as music fans we’ve benefited greatly from the artistic flourishes that came from reflections on those moments. Indeed, dating all the way back to the Beatles and their biting sarcasm toward Harold Wilson’s Labour party in “Taxman,” songs from across the Atlantic reference people and situations that the average American knows little about, but it makes for a solid piece of rock and roll.
U.K. artists often had a lot of protestations throughout the rock era going into the 1990s and beyond. Again, I’m sure I can’t provide an exhaustive list, but bands like The Clash (think “London Calling” or “White Riot”), Sex Pistols (“God Save The Queen”), Pink Floyd (“Another Brick In The Wall”), or The Who (“Won’t Get Fooled Again”) all railed against some level of perceived injustice, governmental overreach, or political conditions they deemed incorrect.
One area of protestation that manifested in several successful pop/rock songs both in the U.K. and the U.S. was borne out of what is referred to as “The Troubles,” a period of prolonged conflict in Ireland. I could probably dedicate an entire article to the history of The Troubles — and probably butcher it badly as I’m not of Irish descent and am not a student of Ireland’s history — but I can summarize it thusly: it was a conflict that pitted two factions against each other, one dedicated to Northern Ireland leaving the U.K. and unifying with the larger Republic of Ireland, and the other dedicated to maintaining Northern Ireland’s continued connection to the U.K.
Most of the popular music in the 1970s and 1980s related to The Troubles centered on a singular event from the conflict: “Bloody Sunday.” My summary will again very likely not do much justice to the actual event, but I shall try: Bloody Sunday was a day in which a largely peaceful protest in Northern Ireland in January 1972 ended with British soldiers firing on unarmed protestors and killing 14 people. It became a galvanizing moment during the period of The Troubles, and thus became the subject of many songs.
Paul McCartney wrote one of the first songs about The Troubles and the aftermath of Bloody Sunday with “Give Ireland Back To The Irish,” a song banned by the BBC but reached #1 in Ireland and #16 on the U.S. Hot 100 in 1972. John Lennon reflected on Bloody Sunday in “The Luck of the Irish,” a deep cut from the Plastic Ono Band’s 1972 album Some Time in New York City, which did not chart and was almost universally panned at the time.
Unsurprisingly, the most internationally famous song about Bloody Sunday came from U2, whose “Sunday Bloody Sunday” — a song that did not chart on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 but would later become one of the band’s most famous songs — is listed at #272 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” To this day, it’s still played in heavy rotation on album-oriented rock stations and ‘80s-themed rock and pop channels.
By the time bands like The Cranberries were forming and touring in the early 1990s, Bloody Sunday was likely too far in the past for them to be directly affected by it, but The Troubles still raged well into the ‘90s. One specific incident in 1993 played a significant role in the creative process for Cranberries frontwoman Dolores O’Riordan: The Irish Republican Army bombings in Warrington, England, the second of which killed two children and injured more than 50 others. O’Riordan described the feelings she had about that incident — and its role in her songwriting process — in a 2017 interview with Songwriting magazine:
“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.
As a 15-year-old U.S. teenager, I definitely had no concept of the gravity of O’Riordan’s lyrics as they related to the larger significance of The Troubles, but I certainly could not grasp the compounded emotional turbulence of her feeling sad and angry over the death of innocent children while grappling with her association to the nationality responsible for the killing. I’m not sure I could imagine it now, with three decades of life experience behind me, but it’s a deeply emotional sentiment conveyed convincingly in the song.
Make no mistake: This song is powerful from start to finish. And remember, The Cranberries, to this point, had been jangle-pop icons in their earliest iteration. They created fun alt-pop songs like “Dreams” and “Linger,” two songs that not only landed on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, but were also pop hits in 1992 and 1993 (“Dreams” peaked at #42 on the Hot 100; “Linger” was a bonafide hit at #8). “Zombie” flipped the script, blasting straight fury and gritty angst, all in a tight, post-grunge package that rocked the socks off of everyone, with biting lyrics that sent a clear message about the after-effects of violence:
Another head hangs lowly
Child is slowly taken
And the violence caused such silence
Who are we, mistaken?
But you see, it's not me, it's not my family
In your head, in your head, they are fightin'
With their tanks and their bombs and their bombs and their guns
In your head, in your head, they are cryin'
Musically, it’s an understatement to consider this song anything but haunting and powerful. The distortion in the rhythm guitar play is evident from the beginning and matches the theme of so many popular alternative songs from the time. That said, there’s a nice counterbalance with less distortion and more clearly defined notes from the lead guitar. I think the crunchy darkness of the rhythm guitar wins out, by far, but the interplay makes the song more listenable, in my opinion.
The bass line and drums are solid and have a predictable cadence, almost militaristic in a sense but enough to keep the song moving and maintain its unapologetic tone. But what brings it all together is O’Riordan’s compelling and emotionally charged vocals. Her cadence and inflection is unapologetically Irish, her beautiful accent both exposing her nationality (possibly at her own peril, given the political stakes at the time) while intentionally showcasing the sincere emotion she feels over the Warrington tragedy. In the Songwriting magazine interview, she talks about those emotions and how they were crucial to her writing process:
“I draw from a lot of different life experiences: births, deaths, war, pain, depression, anger, sadness. I’m also obsessed with mortality. I have bipolar disorder so I struggle with mood swings – I go from one extreme to the next. But I think that was irrelevant when writing ‘Zombie’ because the event was so massive at the time – it was all over the papers. I just remember being young and spirited, without any hang-ups, I had no chip on my shoulder and would just write what I thought.”
“Zombie” landed at a time when the post-grunge wave was hitting its high-water mark, and while I believe the song would have done well on its own without that, there’s no doubt that its prolonged success was due in large part to the musical style’s momentum at the time. The song peaked at #1 on the Modern Rock charts and stayed their for six weeks, and served as an artistic counterpoint to Boyz II Men, who were riding an unprecedented wave on the pop charts. It also returned a lead female vocalist to the top of the Modern Rock chart, an increasing rarity in a time of musical transition in the alternative landscape.
In 2018, alt-rock band Bad Wolves released a cover of “Zombie” that charted on both the Mainstream Rock and Hot 100 charts. They intended to record the song with O’Riordan reprising her vocals on the track. Sadly, O’Riordan passed away on Jan. 15, 2018, the result of accidental drowning in a bath following sedation by alcohol intoxication. The song was released and, while achieving modest success, has not surpassed the original in popularity.
“Zombie” lives on not only as one of the strongest anthemic works decrying political violence, but as a time capsule of post-grunge rock at its most raw and emotional, evoking a dark and brooding aesthetic while also defining a generation of artists who took the trials and tribulations of the world around them and amplified them in the hope of stopping them. It’s not my favorite song from the era, but it stands the test of time. When we see The Cranberries in this space again, it’ll be for a song that does not quite achieve the same level of cultural significance, even if it’s still a decent banger of a track.
Rating: 9/10
Chart Check
Other notable MRT chart songs from this time period
Lots of ladies heading up the modern rock leaderboard during The Cranberries’ run at the top of the chart. Liz Phair, Cowboy Junkies and The Go-Go’s all make prominent appearances in the top 30, along with the third top-10 hit from Green Day’s Dookie album. Smashing Pumpkins also crack the top 5 with a cover song made famous by one of the best female vocalists of the ‘70s and ‘80s.
“Landslide” by Smashing Pumpkins (#3):
Hot off the promotional tour for their multiplatinum album Siamese Dream, Smashing Pumpkins released an album of B-sides and rarities called Pisces Iscariot in late 1994. On that album, the band covered Fleetwood Mac’s iconic “Landslide,” and it found a home near the top of the Modern Rock charts. Billy Corgan’s unique vocal stylings propelled the 1994 cover to #3 on the MRT chart behind “Zombie,” and the track remains one of the band’s most popular.
“Supernova” by Liz Phair (#6):
Before Liz Phair became a pop-rock superstar wondering why she couldn’t breathe in the early 2000s, she was an indie/college rock star, charting a couple of songs in the alternative realm. The most popular of those alternative songs, “Supernova,” peaked at #6 behind The Cranberries. It’s a solid song, well within the scope of the post-grunge era in which it was released, and often appeared in recurrent rotation on college radio stations throughout the rest of the decade and beyond.
“Welcome To Paradise” by Green Day (#7):
Green Day notched the third consecutive top-10 single off their Dookie album with “Welcome To Paradise,” following up #1 hits “Longview” and “Basket Case.” I’m not sure why this one didn’t chart higher than its #7 finish, as it’s admittedly on par or better than some of their #1 hits, but it still retains a lot of its popularity 30 years after the fact. We’ll be discussing Green Day in the top spot again very soon with the next Dookie single.
“Sweet Jane” by Cowboy Junkies (#9):
I already talked about “Sweet Jane” a LONG time ago, when it peaked at #5 on the Modern Rock charts behind Lou Reed’s “Dirty Blvd.” And were it not for the motion picture soundtrack to Natural Born Killers, the song likely would have stayed there. But the movie brought the song back to prominence — and heavy rotation — on alternative rock stations, and it peaked at #9 in its second life on the charts.
“The Whole World Lost Its Head” by The Go-Go’s (#21):
It was quite a surprise to see The Go-Go’s charting on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1994! The band had long-since broken up when they released Return to the Valley of the Go-Go’s, a compilation album featuring previously unreleased demos and live recordings, B-sides, and a couple of new releases. One of those new tracks, “The Whole World Lost Its Head,” found its way to alternative rock radio and managed a solid #21 peak. It’d be the last time The Go-Go’s would appear on the MRT chart, but they went out with a solid track capturing that punk-rock aesthetic that made them an enduring favorite in the early ‘80s.