I was getting ready to leave Brooklyn's Bay Ridge early Monday afternoon when the news broke on Facebook that
Dolores O'Riordan of
The Cranberries had died. I was taken aback; The Cranberries is one of those bands that defines my mid-1990s experience of watching music television, Canada's MuchMusic, and to have yet another star gone prematurely ... Sharing their breakthrough song
"Linger" was the only response I could think of as I walked those chill street.
Oh, I thought the world of you
I thought nothing could go wrong
But I was wrong, I was wrong
If you, if you could get by
Trying not to lie
Things wouldn't be so confused
And I wouldn't feel so used
But you always really knew
I just want to be with youThe Independent has a
nice feature explaining the genesis of the song, how the young O'Riordan took a song written by Noel Hogan and introduced her own lyrics, talking about her own teenage heartbreak at a nightclub.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
wrote at Pitchfork about this song, more evidence of O'Riordan's "flinty open heart".
It was one of the first songs the band completed after O’Riordan joined, when they were just in their late teens. It’s a tale of love, deceit and the lingering feelings of desire for an impossible relationship, an impossible situation, and an impossible partner who broke the contract of love. “It's ruining every day / For me I swore I would be true / And fellow, so did you / So why were you holding her hand? / Is that the way we stand?” asks O’Riordan. “Were you lying all the time? / Was it just a game to you?…” Yeah, you don't want to be on O’Riordan’s emotional hit list.
Then the fireworks come. The twinkling guitars and staccato strings rise with her oh-so-recognizable voice and she nails the unforgettable lyrics thousands of fans have sang back to her at festivals and concerts across the globe these past 25 years: “But I’m in so deep / You know I'm such a fool for you / You've got me wrapped around your finger / Do you have to let it linger? Do you have to, do you have to, do have to let it linger?” [Shakes head. Places palm over heart.]
(Erlewine goes on to write about how the marketing practices of the music industry in the 1990s helped make "Linger", along with "Dreams" and "Zombie", such memorable songs, appearing on soundtracks and being associated with iconic moments of pop culture. Recommended.)
It was iconic, was a song that mattered to me even before (almost a decade before) I could actually get the feelings involved. "Linger" is a profoundly honest song, and Dolores O'Riordan felt like an honest person, the sort of person I'd like to know. I wasn't alone in connecting, or buying that song's album and is successors; O'Riordan's strongly Irish voice connected globally.
William Goodman at Billboard also
wrote movingly about O'Riordan, how her voice was not just distinctive but distinctly Irish, perhaps symbolizing dynamic Ireland's moving forth in the world as modern but still itself.
As a kid, this was one of my first introductions to wistful alt-rock drama. In an era of male-dominated guitar rock, I discovered the Cranberries by sneaking into my older sisters’ rooms and listening to their CDs. The cover of the Cranberries’ debut, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?, released at the height of the grunge era in March 1993, showed the band cloaked in black, perched on a couch (as would their next release... they liked couches). It was easy to sit in awe of a vocalist commanding so much emotional power, and so in control of her dynamic, unique instrument. It's a voice that left deep and lasting marks.
“Linger,” along with the LP’s other single “Dreams,” would launch the band’s career -- and go on to sell five million copies worldwide. The group would ultimately sell over 40 million records across the globe. The grittier rocker “Zombie” would become perhaps their most recognizable song, but it’s always their dreamy side that stunned the most—the gliding choruses and lyrics that were like a swan dive off the Cliffs of Moher.
And now O'Riordan is gone. The police say it wasn't a suspicious death; the suspicion seems to be that, in the context of her openness about abuse she had suffered, that this was an accidental overdose or something intentional. I am so sorry for that: we all need more musicians like her. All I can do, from my vantage point as a distant fan, is to be thankful we had her for as long as we did, and that she gave us songs like "Linger."