Dolores: A Small Tribute
- Feb 2, 2018
- 3 min read
I read that people brought daffodils to Dolores O'Riordan's funeral.
'And the daffodils look lovely today/and the daffodils look lovely today!'
As I've been re-listening to all of her songs that I know and love so well, like the daffodils, so many of her lyrics are portentous of her sudden and early death. And it's a sort of comforting thought--that she seemed to know that she would die young. That like many she admired, she would burn bright and leave us, 'forever young/I hope you stay'.
Amazingly, I was listening to The Cranberries' first album 'Everyone Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?' when I read the news that she had died. It sort of threw me into a tizzy because, up until that point, that album was something I always used to calm my nerves.
I first saw The Cranberries live in Cardiff in 1994, opening for R.E.M. Her signature pixie cut was bright red at that time, and I remember her crazy energy on the stage. She was tiny, but she took up the whole arena with her spirit and her voice.
I saw her again in 2002, when it was no longer cool to like The Cranberries and they seemed a bit forgotten. They played at Chastain in Atlanta--an outdoor venue that caters to 40+ year-old picnickers who like to sit down and chat and treat the music as idle background noise. Not so for teenager me and my two girlfriends. We were sat way far back, and we went crazy when the music began. The people behind us told us to sit down, and we felt momentarily dismayed.... but then Dolores (and I'm telling you, the stage was like REALLY far away and it's a big venue) called to us and told us to 'come on down' to the front. As they played, we made our way to the standing section that was crowded with mostly drunk people chattering away at each other, waiting for them to play 'Zombie'. Again, Dolores looked INTO MY EYES and said, 'Keep on comin!' We made it all the way to the front, and it was amazing. She engaged us multiple times during the performance (I mean, I was crying), and afterward we got the set-list (Meg, do you have that?) and drumsticks. I will never forget it.
Not having known her personally, I feel grateful to at least forever have access to Dolores's recorded voice. It's a voice that I sometimes feel comes out of me, so close within my heart I hold it. It's a voice that is both tender and angry, pensive and playful. So distinctive and so full of pride for where she comes from.
Listening again, her lyrics always circle back to mortality, memory, transience, her faith. I think that she possibly suffered abuse when she was a child, but this abuse seemed to have channeled itself into a particular compassion and concern for vulnerable people.
As I've been reflecting and listening these past couple of weeks, I've grown to believe that she might now feel relief that at last it is over. At least, that is my hope. I think her death was maybe not as shocking to her as it was to us; this is a comfort to me.
I've made a Cranberries playlist that a few of you might enjoy. I really could have included entire albums (and nearly did), but I tried to narrow the catalogue down a bit. Hopefully it will be an enjoyable trip down memory lane for some of you and a way to let Dolores linger. (There are also many newer tracks included that you might not know! 'Rupture' is especially heartbreakingly beautiful.)
Love and peace,
xWG
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