I was introduced to Dolores O'Riordan's chants from the surround speakers of a fellow medical student towards the end of the last millennium. "Zombie" used to blast from the block besides mine in the hostel for a while, and I'd just pay it some heed without further engagement, till I moved to the topmost floor of another another block, where I felt it the closest from neighbour "J'bengs” room. At that point, I knew I had to get my copy, so I borrowed the CD, and dubbed it into a tape using my former roomie, Labinjo's CD/Tape player. Later, Pavan did me an MP3 with 2 albums of THE CRANBERRIES in situ. Interestingly, though Zombie was popular and it was what drew me to Dolores, it turned out that I'd fall in love more with HOLLYWOOD, where I felt her chants were even more powerful. So, while the rest of Nigeria's Rock Enthusiasts and Sympathizers stuck with Zombie, I moved on to Hollywood, and it remains my best from her ever.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8SHjxYgEFE

The fact that I loved playing Hollywood, didn't mean I didn't always end it up with Zombie, or that Zombie didn't headline much of what I listen to most times, when I decide to "uplift" myself with some (depressing) Rock Music. My late Dad was not happy with my listening to such ”satanic music" once I played it at home to his hearing, and it was Zombie on the replay when Captain Lawal came to sternly warn me about loud music emanating from my apartment early one morning, during my Housemanship at the Military Hospital. I did rock the hell out of Zombie, and still very much do now, from my phone and YouTube with earphones, to avoid judgmental people reading unsavory meaning to my choice of music.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ejga4kJUts

Dolores connected with me in many of her songs that were personal, in ways only someone who have had such experiences could. It is one thing that sets Rock Music apart from most other genre, with probably Rap Music coming closer, though not in terms of dealing with personal demons as you'd predominantly find with Rock Music and its purveyors, who many times eventually succumb to the pressure that they'd always used the platform that music provides to project, either to our listening pleasure or the healing of our souls, even if only just in the part that someone else out there feels the same way we feel about things, or going through the challenges we live with, regardless of their wealth and fame.


ANIMAL INSTINCTS was one of such from her that I could easily relate to, and though the studio version was good for me, once I stumbled on the audio of a live performance of same, where she allowed the crowd to finish up towards the end, I couldn't get over that version, such that it was one of the first things I looked for in my early days of discovering YouTube, and till now, but still couldn't lay my hands on that particular version, the dub-tape which I had since lost somewhere between leaving school after graduation to moving back home before House Job. That tape was made for me by Tony Usidamen.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky4CdN0x58A

Back in school, I enjoyed listening to SHATTERED, only for me to relive every single word of that song in an aspect of my life, that inspired ↪https://madukovich./2014/06/12/shattered-by-your-weakness/, and when I lost my immediate elder sister to Breast Cancer more than a year ago (of whom I had confirmation from a dream that she'd made peace with transiting to the other side, before I finally let go), I wept with ELECTRIC BLUE.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Uq7nBmc71A

Such was the effect The Cranberries led by Dolores had on me, that at pivotal points in my life, there's a song of theirs that I could easily relate to, and when with the advent of social media, I learnt that she'd always battled inner demons, such that at some point she attempted suicide, I felt very sad for her and wished she could consider the many lives she's touched without knowing all over the world as reason to want to stay on this side of the divide. I didn't quite patronize her when she went solo, and when she was with D.A.R.K. it seemed that the days of The Cranberries will never be replicated, but I continued watching love shows of hers on YouTube.


This last weekend met me traveling cross-country for family events that left me little or no time to browse the net beyond things personal to me like messages, updates, retweets, subs and the likes. When I stumbled upon Ijeoma Ibeanu's Facebook post, where she featured The Cranberries "Zombie" and tagged it "Remembering Dolores O'Riordan" four days ago while still in the village, I didn't make much of it until Oluoye, who knew how much of a follower of The Cranberries I was, asked if I knew Dolores had died, apparently he must've noticed that I hadn't put out anything online about her demise.


At that point, knowing that she couldn't have been older than I am by as long as a decade, I waltzed through the Internet just to get confirmation that she hadn't committed suicide, having not recovered from the grief that Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell caused me with their suicides last year. I didn't like the fact that the Rock Music genre is plagued with artistes with short life spans, and/or who approach music like it were the shrinks' office/appointment, but the reality isn't farther from the evident, and though I'm not also obsessed with long life (as many of my posts suggests), I hate to think it is such thinking or line of thought that draws me closer to the kind of Rock Music I listen to, and the situation with those who make such music. Hence, my relief when her death wasn't deemed suspicious, according to preliminary reports, but I am still saddened that it was such a short one, with every bit of all that could happen in life packed into it.


The only consolation, I like many of her fans, have now is the huge body of work she's left behind to remember her by, such that though she's gone, she will still live in our hearts. I shudder to imagine how people managed back in the day when there was no way to record music, and once a great musician died, only memory, which depreciates with time could help with how such people sounded while they lived. They'd probably await the next big thing, or go through one or more generations without great musicians and lyricists, before yet another great comes, then goes, and the whole cycle is endlessly repeated. As it is, the core of the groups whose music contributed to how some parts of my life was and is shaped is continuing to diminish, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to replace them, because of the evolution of music, in every genre that leaves older people relishing the past, over a present representation of the arts, which is considered at best "watery". I will miss you, Dolores O'Riordan. LIVE FOREVER.


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- https://www.thesun.co.uk


LIVE FOREVER, DOLORES O'RIORDAN https://madukovich./2018/01/19/live-forever-dolores-oriordan/

Seriously, none of your posts hit front page? Nairaland is truly anti-[word used to imply knowledge assimiliation].
Watch me binge-read all your posts by evening tomorrow. They are fun, knowledgable too.

okwabayi:
Seriously, none of your posts hit front page? Nairaland is truly anti-[word used to imply knowledge assimiliation].
Watch me binge-read all your posts by evening tomorrow. They are fun, knowledgable too.

Thank you for looking in.