Apr
5
Rediscovered track of the month: April ’15
April 5, 2015 | Leave a Comment
The Cranberries, Zombie
Has it really been 20 years since The Cranberries released this song? Hard to believe but ’tis so. One of my fondest memories of this song comes from northern Thailand where I did a trek. Our guide on those searing hillsides was called Kriang and his English wasn’t so good but he knew the chorus to this song…and boy did he like to sing it loud at the top of his voice in a strong Thai accent. Setting up camp one steamy day he asked me what the song was about and I took a deep breath before coming to my senses and thinking better of it…where on earth would you start? Wikipedia describes this song as “a protest” . . . which is putting it mildly. “It’s the same old team since 1916” is the best line I think, it sums up Dolores O’riordan’s contempt for the whole lot of them, a curse on all your houses she seems to be saying. One day — once the ceasefire is fully ‘baked’ — I’d like the Cranberries to do a post-peace deal response to Zombie. For a version of this song with extra doses of that lovely Limerick accent I recommend the MTV unplugged version.