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Shelby Morrill

Professor Echols

English 1201-503

11 February 2022

Analysis Essay

On the 19th of September 1994, The Cranberries released the song “Zombie”

while Ireland was in the midst of a revolution. 24 years later, their lead singer, Dolores

O’Riordan died of drowning while she had been drunk. A month after her death, the Bad

Wolves released a remix of her song “Zombie” as a tribute to her memory. Both

versions of the song share the same lyrics, but they have different overall meanings.

While the first song is a cry against the violence and repetition of the Irish revolution, the

second is a tribute to O’Riordan and the internal suffering she went through.

The lyrics “In your head, in your head, they’re still fighting” appear in both

versions of the song with different connotations. In the original, the lyrics are speaking

of Irish revolutionaries convinced that they should still be fighting for independence. The

first real revolution in Ireland started began with the Easer Rising in 1916, around the

start of World War one. This revolution ended in 1921 (History.com editors 3-4). Years

later, there was another in 1969 that lasted until about 1997 (Roos 13-27). In the song,

O’Riordan sings “It’s the same old theme since nineteen-sixteen, in your head, in your

head, they’re still fighting.” She is telling the revolutionaries that history is repeating

itself, and they keep fighting, suffering, and killing for their freedom but all it’s doing is

claiming more lives.

In contrast, the Bad Wolves’ use the lyric “It’s the same old theme in two-

thousand eighteen, in your head, in your head, they’re still fighting...” to refer to

O’riordan, who was much affected by the violence and trauma of war. The line “In your

head they’re still fighting” is talking about the vivid memories O’riordan might have dealt

with most of her life due to the war, and that she dealt with conflicting emotions due to

her bipolar disorder (Staunton 9).

There is also religious meaning in the original music video of “Zombie”. O’riordan

is shown as a golden angel standing in front of a cross and surrounded by young

cherubim. Later in the video, as the fighting between the young children playing war

escalates, the cherubim begin screaming in apparent agony. These cherubim and the

cross have great meaning; instead of being split by race or political parties, Ireland was

split into Catholics and Protestants during its revolutions (Roos 1). The use of the cross,

angel, and cherubim represents that aspect of the revolution. O’riordan is

communicating to her audience through the agonized cherubim that all of the fighting,

between Christians no less, is leaving the heavens in torment and despair.

Another lyric that has different meanings in both videos is the word “zombie”. The

original video begins with clips of young boys play-acting a war, with toy guns and

swords. This clip appears again in the chorus, as O’riordan sings the words “Zombie,

zombie, zombie...”. O’riordan seems to be referring to the childrens’ inclinations to

violence, something they likely picked up from watching the war unfold around them.

They are acting on what they see their neighbors and parents doing, and they grow up

continuing to do this. Much like zombies, they are killing and creating problems without

really knowing why they are doing it. They are fighting, but only because it’s what they
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grew up with, and it gets passed on to their children as well, which only creates a cycle

of meaningless violence and bloodshed.

O’riordan’s golden angel is also a main component in the Bad Wolves’ music

video. At many points in the video, Bad Wolves’ lead singer Tommy Vext looks directly

at the angel through a sheet of glass separating them and sings “What’s in your head, in

your head, zombie, zombie, zombie...”. Instead of responding, the golden angel begins

to cover the glass with gold paint, until it is completely covered. She is shutting out both

Vext and the rest of the world. The angel’s slow isolation represents O’riordan’s fall

deeper and deeper into alcohol abuse, something she struggled with most of her life

(Staunton 10). This was most likely her coping mechanism for all the disturbing and

horrific episodes she would have been exposed to growing up during the Irish

revolution. She is a zombie stuck in the past as her golden angel self, still lost and

terrified of the memories of war haunting her.

The rhetorical appeal used in both videos is pathos. In the original video, it is

very emotional to watch the shots of war ruins in Ireland, with their graffitied revolution

slogans, and the shots of British peacekeepers, and make-believe warfare. O’Riordan is

trying to reach both the people of Ireland and those outside, showing them the ruin,

terror, and pain. She is also appealing to rock fans, getting them to watch this video so

packed with meaning by using rock to attract and hold them there. The second video

uses the appeal pathos through nostalgia. They center the video around the golden

angel O’riordan was in the original “Zombie” music video, and they show her writing the

date of her death on the glass. This could evoke emotions of grief from O’riordan’s fans
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still trying to accept her death, and potentially from those who have lost a loved one to

substance abuse.

While both videos have the same lyrics and much of the same imagery, their

meanings are different. The original video deals much more with the pain of many

people getting killed during war, with O’riordan crying out for the damage of other

people’s souls. The remix seems to talk more about the damage that O’riordan’s own

mind suffered from. At the end of the Bad Wolves’ remix, it closes with a quote from the

lead singer Tommy Vext. “Her lyrics, confronting the collateral damage of political

unrest, capture the same sentiment we wanted to express a quarter-century later. That

is a testament to the kind of enduring artist Dolores was, and will remain forever.” (4:25)

Works Cited

"Bad Wolves - Zombie (Offical Video)" YouTube, 22 Feb. 2018,

"The Cranberries - Zombie (Official Music Video)" YouTube, Jun 16, 2009,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ejga4kJUts, accessed 2 Feb 2022

"History.com Editors - Irish free state declared" HISTORY, 9 Feb 2010,

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/irish-free-state-declared, accessed 12

Feb 2022

"Dave Roos - How The Troubles Began in Northern Ireland" HISTORY, 12 Nov 2021,

https://www.history.com/news/the-troubles-northern-ireland, accessed 12 Feb

2022
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“Staunton, Denis - Dolores O’Riordan drowned in hotel bath while intoxicated with

alcohol, inquest told” The Irish Times, 6 Sep 2018,

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/dolores-o-riordan-drowned-

in-hotel-bath-while-intoxicated-with-alcohol-inquest-told-1.3620367 , accessed 19

Feb 2022