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Bri Bittorf

Professor Barnes

English 1201

11 February 2021

War or Peace

“Another mother’s breaking heart is taking over.” These lyrics accurately fit both

versions of the song “Zombie” by the Cranberries and by Bad Wolves. These lyrics portray the

meaning behind both of these songs, as both of these songs are about the death of one or more

people. Each music video also portrays the death of these people, who died far too early than

they should have. The version by the Cranberries came out in 1993 and is about the hatred

towards war and how it is affecting the world. The version by Bad Wolves came out in 2018 and

is about the death of the lead singer from Cranberries, Dolores O’Riordan. Each song though has

the same overall portrayal of death and uses an immense amount of pathos in the lyrics and

music videos to get their point across.

“Zombie” by The Cranberries is telling the story of war and bombings that happened in

the UK, killing two children and injuring countless others. The main claim of this video is that

the war and the hate need to stop because all it is doing is causing harm and hurt. In the song, the

lyrics state, “Another head hangs lowly Child is slowly taken.” These lyrics refer to the two

children that were killed in the bombing. These two innocent lives were taken and the band

wanted to bring awareness to the world that people are relentlessly being killed within the

crossfire of war and hate. The lyrics also sing, “It’s the same old theme since nineteen-sixteen.”

This line refers to the seemingly never-ending fight between England and Ireland over Ireland

trying to gain their independence. The war between the two countries had been going on for a
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long time, but people were ready for a change. The beginning of the music video starts by

showing children running and hiding, along with men in the military holding weapons, ready to

fight. This portrays the idea that everybody knows what is going on and that there is so much

violence going on that the children are needing to run and hide, to keep themselves from losing

their lives in the crossfire of war. This song and music video is targeting a very specific, yet also

a broad group of people. It is directed towards all the people of England and Ireland, but

especially the governments waging war on one another. The Cranberries put so much effort into

getting the point across that war needs to end because innocent people were losing their lives and

the violence has been going on far too long.

In the remade version of the same song by Bad Wolves, they had the same idea with the

song, but put a twist to it. The Bad Wolves were supposed to sing the song “Zombie” with the

lead singer Dolores O’Riordan, but the day before she was supposed to perform with them, she

was found deceased in her hotel room. So to pay tribute to O’Riordan, the Bad Wolves still

remade the song but adjusted a few lyrics to fit their tribute. In the Bad Wolves version of the

song, the lyrics are all the same except when it says “It’s the same old theme in two thousand

eighteen.” This line is referring to the death of Dolores O’Riordan, instead of the death of the

children from the bombing. In the music video, it alternates between the band singing and clips

of O’Riordan. These clips of O’Riordan are showing the Bad Wolves tribute to her and her song,

and since they could not perform it with her, they still included her in their music video. The

claim of the video is the same as the original, except they include the tribute to O’Riordan in it as

well. This song and music video has a slightly different targeted audience, as it is slightly

directed more towards fans of the Cranberries, as well as her children since the profits from the

song were going to her three children. The remade version of “Zombie” by Bad Wolves did a
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great job at getting across the same point that hatred and war are damaging to the world, while

also honoring Dolores O’Riordan.

While there are many differences between the two versions of “Zombie,” they both get

their claims across with strong use of pathos throughout all the lyrics and the music video. In

both versions of the song, they use very emotion-filled lyrics to portray how they feel. Both

versions repeatedly sing “with their tanks, and their bombs, and their bombs, and their guns. In

your head, they are dying.” These lyrics explain the pain in the world that is present when war is

going on. They are ready for it all to end. In the original video by the Cranberries, there are many

scenes of war that are extremely heart-wrenching. At about three minutes and fourteen seconds

into the music video, it shows children being beaten by adults from the other side, and this brings

a lot of emotions to anybody that would be watching the video. They also show a sort of ancient

Egyptian theme with a woman standing in front of a cross and children surrounding that cross.

This represents the children who have died in the crossfires of war. In the remade version by Bad

Wolves, there are many scenes where it shows the same ancient Egyptian theme, but it is just

focused on the female, which is meant to be O’Riordan. These scenes of O’Riordan use an

immense amount of pathos to show their empathy and to get others to feel the same way. Both

versions of this song do a tremendous job at using pathos to get their points across.

“Another mother’s breaking heart is taking over.” These lyrics and this song by both the

Cranberries and Bad Wolves represent the same message in the same general way, with the

newer version also acknowledging the death of Dolores O’Riordan. While both songs are slightly

different in their points and the ways they get it across, they are overall very similar. They both

use pathos as their way to express their emotions and get others to understand their points.
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Works Cited

Cranberries, The. “Zombie.” Youtube, uploaded by TheCranberriesTV, 16 Jun 2009,

https://youtu.be/6Ejga4kJUts. Accessed on February 8, 2021.

Wolves, Bad. “Zombie.” Youtube, uploaded by Better Noise Music, 22 Feb 2018,

https://youtu.be/9XaS93WMRQQ. Accessed on February 8, 2021.