This song did chart - it was charted at NUMBER 1 on US BILLBOARD Alternative songs at the time for 6 straight weeks. It was a massive hit for them, and non stop MTV rotation.
Yes, I was going to say I was in high school when the song came out, and it was so popular. Everybody, from all different groups and backgrounds, loved it and it played non-stop on the radio. This is definitely one of the most popular songs of my high school years.
Dolores wrote this following the IRA murder of 3 young boys when they left bombs in bins on a street in England. Dolores was touring England at the time and wrote this song in protest of the terrorist bombings and ongoing conflict in Northern Ireland. They're Zombies because all they know growing up is violence and vengeance and it's turned them into unthinking zombies. This song may have actually helped galvanise the peace process that was successful within a few years of its release. RIP Dolores taken too soon.
It's actually a criticism of both parties, if you look closely it says "with their tanks, and their bombs, and their guns." The IRA never had tanks, and the British government used "undemocratic" means on more than one occasion, treating Ireland like animals. And civilians on both sides (including children) died during all those years.
@@eloi1563it IS a criticism of the IRA killing innocent children in the name of her country, she was furious about it. And the tanks were used in the .early part of the 20th century in Ireland, and the only people acting undemocratically was the IRA/ Nationalists and Loyalist terrorists!
I'm with you. God bless Dolores. A kind loving ❤️. Only wanted to stop the violence in Ireland. My great grandfather was part of the I.R.B. in Dublin. IRISH REPUBLICAN BROTHERHOOD. Later it became THE IRA. my great grandfather was wanted by the English government. The I.R.B got him and his wife and child (grandfather) on a ship to New York.
Dolores O'Riordian, RIP. This song was huge back in 1994. The collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 raised hopes that the conflict in Northern Ireland -- raging since 1916 -- might end as well. But not as long as the zombie ideas animating the conflict persisted, that is, ideas which come back to life after they have been seemingly killed off -- "In your head, in your head, they're still fightin'..." Another great Irish musical commentary on the troubles there and war in general, is U2's excellent 1983 album, War, featuring the songs "New Year's Day", "Sunday Bloody Sunday", and "Seconds" among others with war themes. When you're ready for more from The Cranberries, check out "Linger" and "Dreams" to start. Fire!
Thank you for reacting to this song ! Dolores wrote this song after my home town in England was hit by 3 bombs ! The first one failed and 2 terrorists were arrested and when the UK courts system refused to release them they set 2 more bombs in our town centre ! I was 14 at the time, when they placed the bombs on a highstreet which gets packed, especially on the day before Mothers day where families went shopping to buy Mothers their cards and gifts.. When the first bomb went off it sent all those still able to run straight into the second bomb, killing 2 children and injuring countless others myself included !! This song is held in the hearts of all that remember this day.. A day which still gives me nightmares both asleep and awake.. Again thank you for your reaction to this and RIP to Dolores, the people of Warrington will always keep you in their hearts ❤
Not to get political but as someone of Irish decent I would ask you to learn a little about the struggle for Irish Independence. Highly recommend the films Michael Collins and Bloody Sunday. May Delores have found peace from the pain this world brought to her. ❤️
Is this song about Zombies? It is stunning to me how many people who are ignorant to the struggle for independence. 'No man is free until the moon rises over a free Ireland' 26 + 6 = 1
sadly its not only the irish bros the dane and the swea have bin beatting eact other for allmost a 1000 years withe cleansing ect ect it took a 1000 years for the scandies to be brothers i evn think we have the record in two countrys being at war withe eacth other but yea this band made me a true anarchist and a humanist
I'm from the North of Ireland (Ulster if you will), Belfast to be exact. I'm also Catholic. I'm 60 years old, and we moved to this country in 1974. We brought the stories of The Troubles with us, and I'm telling you, they still keep telling them. Half the time I don't think the people doing the telling even remember the specifics, but they repeat the stories anyway because we have to stay mad right? Hel, this all started in the 16th century with Crowell invading Ireland and claiming it as a Protestant English territory; we got most of it back but the North is still considered the UK. And the Troubles come and go. Sometimes they're worse than others. Dolores O'Riordon, may her soul rest in peace and love, wrote "Zombie" after hearing about the murder of 3 young boys who found bombs that the IRA left in bins on and English street. Being Catholic, am I supposed to cheer for that IRA murder as a "win" for "our side"? That's not what the IRA was intended for. It was intended as a resistance group because Catholics were being persecuted and killed by UK troops. But they've turned into a terrorist organization and that's not something I would ever support. This conflict isn't even about religion anymore, from what I can see. I'm no longer sure WHAT it's about. Some years it's quiet, and then there's an uprising and people are needlessly killed, and someone sends in a note claiming credit by the IRA or the other side. Usually, it's neither, it's just some a-hole. This isn't exclusive to Ulster, either. This kind of crap goes on all over the world, and it's because we can't learn to love each other. If it's not religion, it's skin color, or something else. But if you take a really close look, it always seems to be the poor fighting the poor. The wealthy are never in the streets doing the fighting. Why? Because they're the ones pitting us against each other. We're all the same. We need a global shift. It's ALWAYS been rich against poor, and the sooner we stop being blinded by the wealthy telling us it's about race or religion or anything else, and realize that they are the puppet masters and take our own power back, we will continue to destroy each other. We need to live in love. Sorry for the novel. I just get very heated about this subject.
@pixiecolors I came here to say the same but you articulated the message better than I ever could! I was born and raised in the North during the height of the troubles (I'm from South Derry). I support the original cause of the IRA, not the terrorist organisation it turned into, but they would not have existed if a Foreigner didn't enter our land and try to claim it. I went to a political debate once in an English university where we had politicians invited as guests representing both sides and I remember a university student from the west country (Devon/Cornwall area) standing up and said with conviction "maybe if we stayed out Ireland and leave them be then maybe they never would've had the torturous history and there would be much less destruction, death & hatred for us (the brits)". First time I heard an englishman speak some sense and he was only about 20/21. xx
@@gemmamartin5157 I was about to respond that it would probably be the last time you heard it, but I don't know. This generation coming up sees things differently. They might not know the history, or at least not all of it, but they do seem to have a different perspective about the stupidity of what's going on in the world. Sometimes they annoy me endlessly, and then other times they give me hope for a better future, because of statements like that. All I know is that growing up until the age of 11 in Belfast in the 70s was nightmarish, and living with the stories of the history in America, especially in Brooklyn and Long Island, was pretty intolerable too, because nobody would let anything go, ever. And if you're not willing to let a thousand-year-old grudge go, we've got issues. I really don't even want my ancestral castle back. It's probably in ruins at this point anyway, and castles are damp and cold. I don't want the aggravation of having to modernize a 1,500 year old castle, although I HAVE always wanted a moat. Filled with black Moor goldfish and their orange cousins. And maybe statues of mermaids and pixies all along the drawbridge and the castle keep. Hello, I'm Insane. Nice to meet you 🤣
Never apologize for expressing your truth. Thank you for speaking your peace. I love protest songs against war, they are always so powerful. It may be a little heavy but I would recommend checking out "1984" by the band Slaughter To Prevail. They are deathcore metal, so very heavy & very aggressive, but the song is protesting the war in Ukraine by Russia which is powerful of this band because they are from Russia & their record label is from Ukraine. When Russia banned people from protesting the war, they released this song. The band had already moved out of Russia to live in Florida but their family & friends still live back home. Very brave of them to protest a tyrannical government in their art!!
@@vicegripp thank you, I will absolutely check it out. I'm a big fan of protest music, all kinds, from hundreds of years ago all the way up to current times. Not a big fan of death core and death metal but I'm open to everything. Except twangy country. And Drake. I said what I said. 🤣
The drummer is attacking the drums like bullet strikes. Song wasn't made to "tweak" it was a VERY serious number regarding the struggles of the Irish people.
Rest in peace Dolores O'Riordan. She apparently drowned in the bath, and it just seems a sad coincidence that both she and Sinead O'Connor, two of the biggest female voices in Ireland, both died so recently. Dolores in 2018 and Sinead just this year. Both well before their time.
"When the violence causes silence we must be mistaken" is such an amazingly powerful line. This song is filled with them, but this always makes me think when we see atrocities happen how most "good" people will stand in silence. But that is the most awful thing you can do, you must stand up and speak up.
R.I.P., Dolores....you had a hard life and spent your last years raising awareness and $$$$ for children caught in war zones around our troubled world........we miss your talent and your heart........her vocal technique is "keening", an Irish expression of lament, especially at funerals........
specifically (Northern Ireland& ulster) where the real wars have been especially for the last 50 years as opposed to over the border where the people in the ( south& republic) have had it relatively easy in comparison !!!
That’s all because in Northern Ireland they wanted to stay with England and then the ones in south wanted to tell the people in the north that they knows what’s best for them it’s Irish killing Irish and yes I know Ulster Irish and Irish are not the same thing but they basically cousins
House of Pain's "Jump Around" shows how Irish gangsta rappers, sons of Irish Mafia mobsters in Boston, have so much Irish pride, they'll kill each other over it. It's a favorite jam in the U.S. check out video?
Btw, Boston, Maryland, USA, is known as the Irish Capital of the World because more Irish folks live there than in all of Ireland, so the river runs green on Ain't Patrick's Day.
These guys are crazy. Zombie charted #1 on the US Billboard Alternative Chart for six straight weeks + it was #1 on the MTV Countdown + charted on six other US Billboard charts.
I listen to mostly hip hop but I feel like people with soul can appreciate great music from any genre. Some songs like this one transcend all boundaries. If you don’t get punched right in the feels listening to these lyrics you must not be human. One conflict to the next and nothing really changes but technology of the weapons used.
#RIP Delores. This song gets me emotional every time. War is always awful. The drummer absolutely beat the ish out those drums & cymbals; he never gets enough credit for his part.
It was written about an IRA car bomb in Warrington,England that killed two schoolchildren….here’s what Delores said about why she wrote the song. “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,'" O'Riordan told Songwriting Magazine. "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." She told Vox magazine in 1994 that the song was written in part as a mechanism to grapple with her identity as an Irish citizen that did not support the actions of the IRA. "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".
Yes it's not Ireland - how could people that murder children or plant bombs ever represent Ireland. I should know my grandparents are Irish they Catholic Republicans and they certainly hated the IRA terrorist Zombies. I think we should play this song at all events with a Russian contingent - maybe the Russian 'Z' Zombie army may actually listen and take in what the song is trying to teach too.
@@leogem177BTW, the USA started this conflict in Ukraine after they organised the coup in 2014 and then started shelling the people of the Donbass. Go read some history.
@@MrLeadb1 I'd rather not read your source of history - it's probably the same as Putin's. As we know it's pointless to listen to even a word that comes out of his mouth.
Having worked with PTSD for two decades, I like to point out that: Trauma isn't the event that occured. Rather, it is the internal response to the experienced event. Some of the most insidious trauma out there is from lack of attachment as a child. And it is running rampant in the U.S. and then the children themselves are blamed. It is destroying us. I don't know about modern Northern Ireland (well, through the mid 90s), but if those kids had connection, attachment and meaning in their lives, violence or not it is entirely possible that they were able to lean on that to work through the events. Not always easy to find if a child finds themselves in the emotional abyss in America. So they act out. Or shoot up schools.
Last name is pronounced Oh-Reer-dun (my last name as well, minus the “O”). Her singing style is called keening - a wailing sound of grief. Thanks for the reaction, and reading about 1916 Easter Rising, which sparked the modern independence movement would help with context, as well as “The Troubles”. Irish Catholic civil rights organizations in Northern Ireland modeled their protests after US Civil Rights in 60s. The history is deep, and the idea that the hatred is so entrenched is the theme of “Zombie”.
Forgot to mention that the Easter Rising and the execution of the Irish Republicans was the event referenced when she says “It’s the same old thing since 1916”.
This was a massive hit charting #1 for at least 6 weeks on billboard. RIP Delores . Her unique beautiful voice showcases Irish keening type of singing really well.
It wasn't released as a single in the US, which is why it wasn't in the Hot 100. Got a ton of airplay, on radio and MTV, and was alternative chart hit.
The Cranberries were a great band back in the 90s and their music is still popular with some to this day. Zombie is actually one of their more famous and well-known songs. It was cool to see you guys react to this particular song and then talk about your interpretations afterwards of its meaning. Well done guys.👏🏻
Deloros O’Riordan, another artist we lost way too soon. This song was a huge hit. That sound she makes in her throat is called keening, and it’s not easy to accomplish. The conflict in Northern Ireland is recent history. I can remember hearing about the fighting and bombings as a young person. My dad’s family is from a town not far from Limerick.
Being from Belfast and a child of the 90s, it touches you in place that people don’t understand. I was born in 88 and remember checkpoints all over Belfast, still to this day the world is cruel.
Linger was the first song I heard from them and I was in love. I have very strong Irish roots, but I would have loved them if I was German. RIP Dolores.
LOVED this reaction! Delores was much loved in Ireland. Technically the IRA was Irish, therefore this protest song was her going against what the 'Irish Freedom Fighters', and the English respected her for that. This era is over, there was a Peace Agreement made in the 90's, no doubt that this song helped shift the cultural view on the warfare. She is much missed!!!!
My grandmother and grandfather left Ireland because of the troubles. One was Catholic and the other a Protestant. Not good time and place for them to be together.
My mother a catholic and step father a protestant stayed in ireland, got a lot of shit for their relationship but they never cracked! Family on my mothers side where connected to the i.r.a
'Linger', 'Ode to My Family' which was the B-Side of the single 'Zombie', 'Dreams', 'Promises and 'Animal Instinct', though the 1st 4 were their greatest hits!
I LOVE this song and The Cranberries entire albums. R.I.P Dolores. You and your music will always be a huge part in so many people’s lives and will live on forever. I recommend for a reaction to a band named Bad Wolves who did a cover of Zombie as a tribute to Dolores. They did an excellent job with the song. Will you please listen to and react to it? 🙏
"Zombie" is a protest song by the band's lead singer Dolores O'Riordan about The War in Northern Ireland. The Cranberries were on tour when the Warrnington bomb attack was carried out and Dolores O'Riordan said her heart broke for the mothers of the two little boys who lost their lives. "I remember seeing one of the mothers on television, just devastated," she told Vox magazine in 1994. Dolores O'riordan died in 2018 from drowing due to alcohol intoxication & was found submerged in the bath in her room at London's Park Lane Hilton hotel, she battled with mental health issues due to sexual abuse as a young girl. RIP
The day after Delores passed, she was supposed to appear on the Bad Wolves cover of Zombie. I highly recommend watching the video of their cover, it was a well done tribute.
I think the reason it charted overseas is that they are more educated and closer to the problems and politics of Ireland, and they knew that this song was actually about the War between the IRA and the Establishment Governments in Ireland. It doesn't really take sides per se, but the "Zombies" are those people that know that people are being killed, and they push it out of their minds, because as the song says "It's not me, it's not my family". The singer was trying to bring attention to the atrocities of war that she grew up hearing rememberences of and the after effects of. A virtual police state and a lot of riots and violence, and occasional terrorism. I think if the folks in the United States really listened to the words and knew the history and meaning, it would have charted better, because to me, being Irish, and knowing the history, it makes the song all that more powerful. Databyter
RIP dolores😢may not have charted, but certainly loved. And like you said; they pick. Just like the old radio days of payola😮 many big album cuts to listen to🤘❤️
No body knows irelands true struggle in history. When you learn your perspective changes in a lot of things & people in America. I think she made the ending like that because everything ends abruptly. Just like guns bombs drugs lies. yaaa knoooww. Nice reaction. You can feel the love. 🇮🇪 ❤
You guys are always great, but this one is Great+ ...Awesome react!! I know this was ten months ago, so people have surely said it all, but their first album ("Everybody Else Is..." - 1993) is almost all great. You've probably done some of these by now, but I like: Linger - I Still Do - Ode to My Family - Dreams - Waltzing Back - Pretty ----- That's about half the album and the rest is really good, too.
Her vocals were her own and are not only remarkable but incapable of duplication. My son produces music and I begged him to try to find a vocalist with her nuance. Hasn't happened yet.
You should check out the song “Linger” and the song “Dreams”. You will have heard at least the hook. These were everywhere in the 90’s by The Cranberries ❤
I love Dolores O'Riordan's voice. She brought Irish traditional Old Style, sean-nós, singing into rock. I'm from Chicago but I've been living in Ireland since 2016 and live only about an hour from where she was from in Limerick. When she died in 2018 it was so tragic. Her Limerick funeral was huge deal. RIP Dolores.
English occupation of Northern Ireland. "The troubles" song of protest over decades of fighting and death. Specifically, of two youn boys in Iraq bombing in early 1990s. Great song. Check out the softer stuff. Linger, ode to my family....are two songs to hear. 😂
Sure, great hooks great sound, great vocals. But that isn’t why this song has such high standing. Did a great deal to help the peace process in Northern Ireland.
Dolores’ voice and talent nearly unmatched. And the band ABSOLUTELY rocks! Check out some milder tunes really featuring her keening, like “Ode to my Family”
Thanks for your reaction, yet, it grieves me how little you open up to what you see in the vid combined with what Dolores sings about...the mourning she vocalises...
I met Dolores in the weirdest place... She was in a car with her band mates going through an automotive detail shop in Mississauga Ontario Canada about 25 years ago. She was even more beautiful in person than I could have imagined.
Singer Delores died alone in a very ordinary US Motel room. Possibility from a drug OD. One of the saddest ends ever for an Irish National Heroine, and millions of music lovers the World over!😢
Great voice. Great song . Great reaction fellers. If you want something for Halloween, try number of the beast from iron maiden. Video is verry Halloween 🎃 👍❤🏴
Good reaction, thank you all. It is a protest song, the war between Ireland and the UK, the struggle to reunite Northern Ireland with the republic of Ireland from the hands of the British empire, not from the good English people themselves. Many innocent souls were lost, on both sides. After hearing about 2 more innocent boys getting killed by a bomb, Dolores RIP wrote this song in protest against all the violence and begged for a truce and peace. Please pray for the people in Gaza, Palestine etc. tonight. Peace
You’re all on point here. This song is fire. And her yodel added to it. I wish she came back in too. Video was great. Nice research on the backstory. Shame Dolores died.
