Artist: The Cranberries
Released on: Wake Up And Smell The Coffee (Track #13)
Duration: 3:30
LYRICS
(Yep, OK Noel)
But I tried and I si-ighed
He didn’t listen to me, I felt that way-ay
Still I tried and I si-ighed
He wouldn’t understand me, I fe-elt that way
But you’re so young and you don’t get me now
I feel so guilty and you are chocolate brown
Chocolate brown, I can’t play
Not too long, I will make it up to you
Chocolate brown
Still I learn and I learn
There’s so much to think about you
So much to lo-ose
But it’s just fine and you don’t see it now
Don’t make me guilty
Please don’t chocolate brown
Chocolate brown, I can’t play
Not too long I will make it up to you
Chocolate brown
Chocolate brown
Chocolate brown
Chocolate brown
CREDIT INFORMATION
- Music by Noel Hogan & Dolores O’Riordan
- Lyrics by Dolores O’Riordan
- Produced by Stephen Street
- Engineered by Cenzo Townsend assisted by Emma Jane Lennon and Shay Dooher at Windmill Lane, Dublin
- Mixed at Town House Studios, Shepherds Bush (London) by Stephen Street and Cenzo Townsend assisted by Tom Stanley
- Mastered at Sterling Sound by George Marino
- Publishing administered by Universal Music Publishing, Ltd, London
MEANING
- Dolores sometimes introduced the song in concert telling it’s a song for her boy and that it’s one of her favorite.
NOTES
- In an interview to Top Music in 2001, Dolores explained how the song was recorded, “[Stephen Street] got me into the recording studio, were everybody was gather around an enormous and old microphone, that look a lot like one the Beatles would use to record their albums. Stephen wanted me to be closer to the microphone, while Mike played the bass also besides to the microphone, and the same with the drums. However the drum kit did not have a microphone connected and Mike had only his amplifier, so the microphone picked up the sound from the amplifier, with Noel the same happened. […] Well we played that song in that manner, directly, without any other element, and truly it came out very good. We sang it 5 or 6 times. I was convinced that after having spent the whole night drinking I would not be able to sing and Stephen would not stop telling me. So I closed my eyes, and I put myself to doing the best I could. In the end the song sounded refreshing and it is beautiful, different from all the songs that lately are charged with excessive and exaggerated production […] There are a lot of female singers that can’t sing. They are very attractive, have huge boobs and everything you like, but they cannot sing and try to compensate with over producing. Contrary to all of that I find to be one of those authentic songs, one you can really sing well, because it is fill with good music and real emotions. It is not like one of those prefabricated fake songs. When you listen to it, you feel like a breeze of fresh air. I like it a lot.”
- In an interview to Hot Press in 2001, Dolores also told how they recorded the song, “I love Chocolate Brown because we did it with one microphone. I went in the morning, thinking I was doing guide vocals – so we get the bass drums and guitar down – and Stephen says “actually we’re going to do a take on this”. And there was one microphone hanging in the middle of the room and we didn’t use the 48 tracks at all. Everything was picked up on that mic. You can hear it. The plucking of the guitar… the drums – which we had to keep moving back from the mic. We loved recording that way.”
- In 2002 Dolores explained that “Songs like Chocolate Brown, Pretty Eyes and Carry On are recorded with the entire band playing at the same time.”
- “Chocolate Brown” was played live for the first time in Copenhagen on 17 February 2002.
