Artist: The Cranberries
Released on: To The Faithful Departed (Track #2)
Duration: 2:24

LYRICS

To all those people doing lines
Don’t do it
Don’t do it
Inject your soul with liberty
It’s free
It’s free

To all the kids with heroin eyes
Don’t do it
Don’t do
Because it’s not not what it seems
No no it’s not not what it seems

Salvation
Salvation
Salvation is free

a-ha-ha
a-ha-ha
a-ha-ha
a-ha-ha

a-ha-ha
a-ha-ha
ha

do do do do do do do do
do do do doooo

do do do do do do do do
do do do doo

To all the parents with sleepless nights
Sleepless nights
Tie your kids on to their beds
Clean their heads

To all the kids with heroin eyes (heroin eyes)
Don’t do it
Don’t do
Because it’s not not what it seems
No no it’s not not what it seems

Salvation
Salvation
Salvation is free

a-ha-ha
a-ha-ha
a-ha-ha
a-ha-ha

a-ha-ha
a-ha-ha
ha

CREDIT INFORMATION

Music by Noel Hogan & Dolores O’Riordan
Lyrics by Dolores O’Riordan
Produced by Bruce Fairbairn and The Cranberries
Engineered and Mixed by Mike Plotnikoff
Recorded in November, December 1995 at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin, Ireland
Orchestration written and arranged by Michael Kamen
Horn section performed by Richie Buckley (Tenor Sax), Michael Buckley (Baritone Sax) and Bruce Fairbairn (Trumpet)
Additional percussion by Randy Raine-Reusche
Published by Island Music Ltd

MEANING

In 1996, in an article written by Jayne Margetts, Fergal said, “The song Salvation is a glance at drug addiction. […] If you look around you see so much of it going on day-to-day, even in Limerick, which is quite a small town. You walk around the place and go to pubs at night and you see people drinking water because they’re on ecstacy or whatever. It’s quite scary to see that. I mean no matter how much you travel, and how much you see, nothing can prepare you for that kind of thing. You see your brother’s friends who are 16-year-old and they’re totally out of it. It’s scary to see how it’s taken over the whole world. “I dunno, […] you meet so many people who have been through all that and they look back and they say ‘what’s the point’? […] People learn the hard way I suppose. It’s just unfortunate that some people don’t survive it.”
In November 2002 Fergal explained, “It was an anti-drug song when Ecstasy was taking over the world. Some people picked it up wrong as a preachy thing: Don’t do it, don’t do it, like Who is she to tell me don’t do it, and it wasn’t like that, she was kinda talking to herself really. ‘Cos we’d been on tour with lots of different bands and you see different things and hear the stories of people fucking themselves up. It’s something we’ve always been wary of and kept an eye on, and we just kind of steer away from that, ‘cos it’s the old cliché of you and up in Betty Ford at the end of it – What’s the point?” (Hot Press, 2002)
Dolores, “It’s not so much like an anti-drug song. It’s kind of anti- the idea of becoming totally controlled by anything, any substance at all, because I know what it’s like. And it wasn’t a nice experience and it didn’t get me anywhere. It just confused me more […] Oh no, I didn’t try heroin. I was just trying to find the answer in getting out of it, whether it was drinking or whatever. I’m not going to elaborate. But it just, basically, any substances don’t really help. Reality is reality, and unfortunately, no how much you go away, you come back, and it’s always here.” (MTV, 1996)

NOTES

“Salvation” is the 1st single from “To The Faithful Departed” and was released in April 1996.