Sinead O'Connor: C/D?

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OK, maybe she's nuts, but there's always a lovely track or three on each of her recent albums, particularly that "Gospel Oak" EP. Her first two discs are classics, I think, and her voice remains as strong as ever. She may be the only person in history to record a definitive version of a Prince song. Plus, she's beautiful playing the Virgin Mary in "The Butcher Boy." I seem to recall a lot of Sinead hate here. Am I right?

Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Friday, 4 March 2005 13:51 (twenty years ago)

I don't mind a bit of sinead every now and then. No hate from me.

kate/baby loves headrub (papa november), Friday, 4 March 2005 13:53 (twenty years ago)

Oh ha ha, surely no-one actually likes Sinead O'Connor?

Some Dadaismus Implied (Dada), Friday, 4 March 2005 13:56 (twenty years ago)

x-post (Sinead loves headrub, too, but I bet she's never seen "Mr. Show.")

Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Friday, 4 March 2005 13:57 (twenty years ago)

Haha! Well done Josh. Interestingly though, the show never aired here in Australia, so i've only just got into it since my mum brought my husband and i back the DVD's 6 months ago :)

kate/baby loves headrub (papa november), Friday, 4 March 2005 14:00 (twenty years ago)

I seem to remember a thread where some people were quite obnoxious about her. I think she's ok generally, but I'm not crazy abt her.

Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 4 March 2005 14:05 (twenty years ago)

I just saw the video for Nothing Compares to You again for the first time probably ten years. What an impression that made on everyone at the time! Overplayed for years but take a break and it's still amazing. She's so incredibly beautiful and intense in it as well.

The first album and that album had their share of great tracks, I've always loved the song Black Boys on Mopeds. She really fell off after that. I have no idea what she's about now; isn't she a priest or something?

kyle (akmonday), Friday, 4 March 2005 14:06 (twenty years ago)

also, search: Heroine, with Michael Brook and the Edge from some dumb sountrack. I still have the cassette version of that soundtrack for that song alone.

kyle (akmonday), Friday, 4 March 2005 14:07 (twenty years ago)

i loved that record she did of old standards and songs from musicals. no hate here.

jed_ (jed), Friday, 4 March 2005 14:16 (twenty years ago)

I like the first two albums a lot and Universal Mother is a deeply odd but oddly enjoyable album too. No hate here.

Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 4 March 2005 14:30 (twenty years ago)

I must have played "I do not want what I haven't got" two or three times. Its good, but it didn't change my life. After that, I've sort of liked her but haven't been all that bothered.

"Nothing Compares To You" (2 U?) was great though. I seem to remember giving it some love in the #1s poll.

Odd, that she went off to be a priest after tearing up the picture of the pope, and everything she said about Catholicism. I suppose its a love/hate relationship, on both sides. I've seen people be more consistent with their political stance, but that's her prerogative.

hobart paving (hobart paving), Friday, 4 March 2005 14:34 (twenty years ago)

I absolutely adore those first two albums. "Troy" actually did change my life a little bit (as did "Jerusalem" and "I Am Stretched On Your Grave").

I would say that Chaka Khan's take on "I Feel For You" is also a definitive version.

The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 4 March 2005 14:49 (twenty years ago)

"Troy" gives me goosebumps, still, almost every time I hear it. An astounding song.

Several tracks on I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got are classics. Undeniably. (Although I can do without her Prince cover.)

Her output since then hasn't moved me much.

However, I haven't heard Sean-Nós Nua or She Who Dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High Shall Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty. Has anyone else? Opinions?

ffirehorse (firehorse), Friday, 4 March 2005 15:23 (twenty years ago)

I love love love her

dan. (dan.), Friday, 4 March 2005 15:24 (twenty years ago)

Those first two albums are still amazing, sui generis stuff. She had the same gift John Lennon had: transparency. One of the few artists who can sing and write intensely autobiographical material and make ti compelling.

So many great songs: "The Emperor's New Clothes" (one of the best fade-outs ever), "Mandinka," "The Last Day of Our Acquaintance," "Troy," "Jerusalem."

Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 4 March 2005 15:40 (twenty years ago)

Her versions of "All Apologies" and Elton John's "Sacrifice" are tops too.

Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 4 March 2005 15:41 (twenty years ago)

classic classic classic: for most of her music ("Troy", "Fire On Babylon", "I Am Stretched On Your Grave" especially) and also for the loopiness and her capacity to piss people off.

also search the track she did with Bomb The Bass and Benjamin Zephaniah, "Empire", which is terrifically dark. And "The Last Day Of Our Acquaintance" soundtracking the last chapter of Bret Easton Ellis's Glamorama.

she should have done more covers: she was a truly stunning interpretative artist, "Nothing Compares 2 U" is an obvious example but she also did gorgeous versions of "Sacrifice", "All Apologies" and "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" as well. (xpost!)

The Lex (The Lex), Friday, 4 March 2005 15:42 (twenty years ago)

Classic for "Troy", "Mandinka", "I Am Stretched On Your Grave", and "Nothing Compares 2 U". Also, there was a really good trance remix (hey, I like a bit of trance) of "Troy" a few years ago that used all of her vocals and stretched the whole thing out to a good 7-8 minutes. Anyone remember that?

Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, 4 March 2005 15:48 (twenty years ago)

Black Boys on Mopeds, Troy, Nothing Compares 2 U, all classic.

Michael White (Hereward), Friday, 4 March 2005 15:51 (twenty years ago)

Some great choices from the first two albums here...but no love for "Jackie" yet? I mean jeepers folks, could an album start off any more dramatically and commandingly?

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 4 March 2005 15:52 (twenty years ago)

Oh God, that song is OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!!!!

The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 4 March 2005 15:55 (twenty years ago)

Dan, you're OTM re: Chaka. Sinead also did good work wit The The, Peter Gabriel and other duet partners. And whatever kind of priest she is, she's definitely not totally divorced from making music.

Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Friday, 4 March 2005 16:00 (twenty years ago)

OK, I've just listened to "Jackie" again and Ned otm, I am floored.

The Lex (The Lex), Friday, 4 March 2005 16:27 (twenty years ago)

:-) (When Placebo covered it they wisely decided not to clone the arrangement and turned it into a more downbeat version -- they knew they couldn't compete.)

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 4 March 2005 16:30 (twenty years ago)

PLACEBO COVERED "JACKIE"?!?!?!

I could have lived the rest of my life happily not knowing that.

(I didn't actually know "Jackie" was an album opener, I only have the best of CD and Universal Mother; should I investigate the earlier albums?)

The Lex (The Lex), Friday, 4 March 2005 16:35 (twenty years ago)

"YOU'RE ALL WRONG" I said
As they stared at the sand
"THAT MAN KNOWS THAT SEA LIKE THE BACK OF HIS HAND!
He'll be back sometime
Laughing at YOU..."

The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 4 March 2005 16:36 (twenty years ago)

I could have lived the rest of my life happily not knowing that.

Hahaha. (Keep in mind I lurv Placebo.) It's on the covers bonus disc that came with Sleeping With Ghosts.

should I investigate the earlier albums?

Um, yes? Very much so?

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 4 March 2005 16:44 (twenty years ago)

Her album of traditional Irish tunes, Sean-Nos Nua (2002), is freakin' beautiful.

shookout (shookout), Friday, 4 March 2005 17:06 (twenty years ago)

First two albums are untouchably classic (though I think the Lion & the Cobra is in dire need of re-mastering....listen to the distoriton on "Troy" for cryin' out loud! Can that be fixed??). All went severely pear-shaped circa Am I Not Your Girl? with little or not hope of recovery (though both "Fire on Babylon" and her vocal performance on "You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart" from the In the Name of the Father soundtrack are fantastic). Hats also off for her cover of Elton John's "Sacrifice" on that shitty tribute record, which took an elegant swan-shaped dump on Reg's original.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 4 March 2005 17:48 (twenty years ago)

Oh, and "Heroine" (as done with the Edge from the soundtrack to some forgotten film) was quite nice as well.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 4 March 2005 17:50 (twenty years ago)

Dammit, I'm just echoing what others have already said. Oh rage. Oh despair.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 4 March 2005 17:51 (twenty years ago)

her "Don't cry for me Argentina" is heartbreaking.

jed_ (jed), Friday, 4 March 2005 17:56 (twenty years ago)

The soundtrack in question is Captive.

Edward Bax (EdBax), Friday, 4 March 2005 18:10 (twenty years ago)

classic, later gems: "Red Football" (universal mother) with an ending so over the top it's suitable for a horror movie.

"This is a rebel song" (Gospel Oak) so beautiful, so sad.

dewey, Friday, 4 March 2005 18:40 (twenty years ago)

Alex, I always dug the distortion on Troy...it sounds like she's singing so LOUD that the sound fizzles. Makes it sound live and immediate.

shookout (shookout), Friday, 4 March 2005 19:34 (twenty years ago)

Well, I guess. To me it just sounds like a bad, muddled recording. But, y'know, to each their own.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 4 March 2005 20:12 (twenty years ago)

Searching a jukebox of a bit too trad Irish stuff in an Irish Joint, i decided on Jackie, Just Like U Said It Would B, and Just Call Me Joe. It had been years and it was amazing to recall just how powerful, haunting, and well produced she was in '87. Sure some of it shows some age, but considering the spare production popular among indie singer-songwriters, esp in the US,it really impressive...

and Jed is OTM on the don't cry for me argentina..some how lighthearted and cutting at the same time...I think she got a bit of a raw deal for being so forceful with her politics, to the point of amost being cheap. I recall a huge scandal when she played Saratoga one summer when I was in jr. high (i think) and refusing to have the national anthem played before the show...that seemed, even then, a bit childish, but the young fresh foolish me got chills when she ripped up the pope.

b b, Friday, 4 March 2005 20:16 (twenty years ago)

I'm with Alex, Troy is one of the songs that sounds a like a bad production decision a few years later

b b, Friday, 4 March 2005 20:17 (twenty years ago)

Somehow I get the feeling that nobody's listened to her last 2 albums if nobody here's mentioned them .....

ffirehorse, Friday, 4 March 2005 20:32 (twenty years ago)

Universal Mother is indeed a very strange album. It's like a struggle between Paganism and Catholicism... as viewed through the eyes of a mother archetype. Although, half the time, she's not an archetype but a very real flesh and blood mom, complete with embarrassing (yet oddly affecting if you allow yourself to fall for the intense preciousness) lullabies to her little boy, who even gets to write and sing his own song. I just listened to it, and aside from some of the songs already mentioned ("Fire on Babylon", "All Apologies"), there is an a capella song called "In this Heart" which, if you play it loud with headphones, will squeeze your aorta until you beg for mercy. Seriously, it's gorgeous. Now that I tihnk about it, the album is strange in that it seems to be celebrating motherhood and yet is filled with this horrible sense of impending loss.

(Otherwise, I'm with everyone else who rates her first two as unassailable Classics).

David A. (Davant), Friday, 4 March 2005 21:16 (twenty years ago)

Basically, I've heard Sinead songs that I didn't get but I've never heard a Sinead song I didn't like (if that makes sense).

The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 4 March 2005 21:19 (twenty years ago)

There's a weird version of - "Dark End of the Street?" I think that's the one. It was recorded with Brian Eno and stuck on her best of/rarities set from a couple of years ago.

That "Gospel Oak" EP, short though it may be, shows that she remains an amazing songwriter. Her last two albums proper, though - "Universal Mother" and "Faith and Courage" - seem too set on the by then impossible notion that she might get played on the radio, and therefore she makes the attendant compromises. To be honest, I'm worried Kate Bush may fall prey to the same delusion.

Frankly, I wish Sinead realized (assuming she doesn't) that she could maintain her ideals on the folk/cult circuit, a la Marianne Faithful or someone like that, rather than aim for pop appeal.

Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Friday, 4 March 2005 21:30 (twenty years ago)

Yeh, makes sense.

(xpost)

David A. (Davant), Friday, 4 March 2005 21:31 (twenty years ago)

DUD!!

Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 4 March 2005 21:52 (twenty years ago)

Jump in the River is amazing. I wish she wrote more songs like that.

Sara Sherr, Friday, 4 March 2005 21:55 (twenty years ago)

If she'd found goth instead of God, I'd probably be her number 1 fan.

I loved that EP she put out in '97 or so.

ian in brooklyn, Friday, 4 March 2005 23:50 (twenty years ago)

no mention of 'three babies', doesn't it follow 'nothing compares to u' and it's so good it makes me forget how great that song was. for a short time in my life it was all sinead and the house of love's butterfly album.

keith m (keithmcl), Friday, 4 March 2005 23:57 (twenty years ago)

I can't really think of Universal Mother as a radio-friendly compromise, mainly because it's hard to see what's supposed to work on radio (the more obvious choices "Fire On Babylon" and "Thank You For Hearing Me" are both great though so it's not a case of a failed attempt I don't think). My favourite track on that album is this gorgeous ballad "A Perfect Indian", which is pretty heartbreaking I reckon. Most uncomfortable track lyrically is "Scorn Not His Simplicity" (a track about children with intellectual disabilities) which funnily enough Sinead didn't even write!

Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 5 March 2005 00:09 (twenty years ago)

I remember seeing her perform "Mandinka" (?) on the American Music Awards (?) when I was a little kid, way, way before Nevermind changed things. I remember her combat boot dance on stage. I'd never seen a bald chick besides the one in that one Star Trek movie. Crazy.

Smooth Gold, Saturday, 5 March 2005 02:20 (twenty years ago)

Grammys I think. That was the legendary Jethro-Tull-wins-for-heavy-metal ceremony.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 5 March 2005 02:22 (twenty years ago)

The post-SNL backlash in this country was pretty lame.

Her version of "The Butcher's Boy" in the film of the same name is pretty special.

"I Am Stretched On Your Grave" was teh jammm at the time. Haven't heard it in years.

Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Saturday, 5 March 2005 02:49 (twenty years ago)

I remember never once being able to turn away from the vid for "Nothing Compares 2 U" no matter how many sqaudrillion times it had been played on MTV. I remember it stopping my step-father dead in his tracks.....rendering him positively still and silent until its finish. "Hot damn!" he said softly, afterwards.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 5 March 2005 02:57 (twenty years ago)

First two albums are great, and she also was pretty amazing when I saw her live (right after I do not want... came out). She closed with "Troy" and it was gut-wrenchingly cathartic and crazy and good.

gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 5 March 2005 03:02 (twenty years ago)

Well this thread has caused me to dig out The Lion and the Cobra again for the first time in a long while. Amazing how mainstream this sounds like retrospect, and I don't mean that as casting aspersion on O'Connor at how the standards have shifted (for the better, I'd think). Something like "Mandinka" could probably be reworked into something for Avril or Ms. Clarkson, for instance -- the arrangement may be dated (to an extent) but the construction is not.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 5 March 2005 03:14 (twenty years ago)

Well, it was fairly mainstream -- "Mandinka" got prime-time MTV play, and of course I do not want... sold a zillion copies.

gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 5 March 2005 03:30 (twenty years ago)

(oops, I see you mean the first album specifically; but yeah, she was pretty pop-accessible for a mad baldie)

gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 5 March 2005 03:31 (twenty years ago)

my inner muso has to note that, on the ealier stuff, she tended to sing a mcirotine flat which drives my ears nuts

ianinbrooklyn, Saturday, 5 March 2005 04:31 (twenty years ago)

I liked the first album, sure. But I can't say I ever felt a burning need to return to her work. I did get that Heroine soundtrack thing, though, but more because I was excited about Michael Brook or the Edge or whatever it was.

Bimble... (Bimble...), Saturday, 5 March 2005 05:01 (twenty years ago)

most of the songs on the captive soundtrack are really great, including the one with sinead vocals. i wish the edge would do more albums with brian eno and michael brook. a U2 album with sinead instead of bono would probably be pretty great.

fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Saturday, 5 March 2005 07:55 (twenty years ago)

"Cos of this thread I picked up Lion & Cobra when I saw it cheap 2nd hand (although I already knew it from the early 90s when I heard it first). Jackie, Just like you said it would be, and jerusalem sound great again, while a few others (like Mandinka) haven't aged well - like Ned says, cos of the sounds and arrangement. It's also not nearly as iddicult an album as I remember it. Maybe when I was younger I found Troy a lot weirder than I do today - and I give her credit for opening up a 16 year old's ears to stuff like Troy.

paulhw (paulhw), Sunday, 6 March 2005 01:13 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...
I am seriously thinking this could be one of the year's best albums. Tracklisting:

Massive Attack -- Special Cases (Radio Edit)
Asian Dub Foundation Featuring Sinéad O'Connor -- 1000 Mirrors
Bomb The Bass Featuring Sinéad O'Connor & Benjamin Zephaniah -- Empire
Ghostland -- Guide Me God
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart Featuring Sinéad O'Connor -- Visions Of You
Afro Celt Sound System -- Release (Album Edit)
Sinéad O'Connor With The Blockheads -- Wake Up And Make Love With Me
The The -- Kingdom Of Rain (Album Version)
U2 & Sinéad O'Connor -- I’m Not Your Baby
Conjure One Featuring Sinéad O'Connor -- Tears From The Moon (Album Version)
Peter Gabriel & Sinéad O'Connor -- Blood Of Eden (Radio Edit)
Moby Featuring Sinéad O'Connor -- Harbour
Aslan -- Up In Arms
Damien Dempsey Featuring Sinéad O'Connor -- It’s All Good
The Edge & Sinéad O'Connor -- Heroine (Theme From “Captive”)
The Colourfield Featuring Sinéad O'Connor -- Monkey In Winter
Sinéad O'Connor & Terry Hall -- All Kinds Of Everything

Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 22 May 2005 13:36 (twenty years ago)

Wow! All that compilation is missing is "You Made Me The Thief of Your Heart" from "In the Name of the Father."

Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 22 May 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

Her version of "All kinds of everything" always makes me very Christmasy. Like I get an urge to run through snow while wearing sleigh-bells on top of my head.

brittle-lemon, Sunday, 22 May 2005 15:15 (twenty years ago)

four weeks pass...
"I Am Stretched On Your Grave" was teh jammm at the time. Haven't heard it in years.

i happened to catch this one today on an internet radio station i listen to at work -- it was as stunning now as it was 15 years ago (when i first heard it). and i'm enough of a softie to get still choked up when i hear "nothing compares 2 u" (much less see that video).

i guess i should root around my cds to see if i stil have i do not want what i haven't got.

Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 04:52 (twenty years ago)

Oddly enough I heard this yesterday as well. It actually sounded like a remix!

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 05:07 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...
Possibly the only ILM thread on which the various warring nations called a truce for the sake of a common cause.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 15:59 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwQlmnNyWak

Alicia Silverfuck (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:04 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn5uY9etyEo

Alicia Silverfuck (sexyDancer), Thursday, 20 July 2006 21:33 (nineteen years ago)

O'Connor vs. Güdmundsdöttir---FIGHT!

Shinehead O'Connor by miles and miles.

Bjork can mince around all she likes and be mad elfin, but Sinead is a very angry Irish woman chock full of raw intensity. [...] Shinehead is so badass that she could rock her own comic book.

-- Mike Taylor

(sadly I still haven't investigated a great deal of Sinead's music... but as a human being I respect her enormously).

fandango (fandango), Thursday, 20 July 2006 21:49 (nineteen years ago)

Her version of traditional Irish song "He Moves Through The Fair" is probably the most moving version i've ever heard.

I wonder what it would sound like if she covered Kate Bush, like Night of the Swallow, or Jig of Life.

scnnr drkly (scnnr drkly), Thursday, 20 July 2006 22:33 (nineteen years ago)

I only just learned she was the one who sang the song in Nightmare on Elm St. 4 when the girl's working out and turns into a cockroach.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 21 July 2006 05:17 (nineteen years ago)

http://img.snlarc.jt.org/arc/imp/JaHo-Sinead%20O

Ben Crazee (Ben Crazee), Friday, 21 July 2006 08:14 (nineteen years ago)

One of the few artists who inspires such an immediate response from me, that I have difficulty trusting 100 per cent in the humanity of those who don't like her music.

baboon2004 (baboon2004), Friday, 21 July 2006 15:04 (nineteen years ago)

seven months pass...
Revived: I heard "The Emperor's New Clothes" on iTunes radio quite by accident and it soundes STELLAR. I'm struck by how she transforms this sanctimonious lyric into a shit-kicking anthem.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 23:09 (eighteen years ago)

I'd like to hear some Sinead. I'd also like to see a TS: Sinead vs. kd lang thread.

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 23:18 (eighteen years ago)

You've never heard her???

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 23:21 (eighteen years ago)

I'm pretty sure the only Sinead I've heard is "Nothing Compares 2 U," "The Emperor's New Clothes," and "You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart." Haven't heard any albums.

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 23:28 (eighteen years ago)

OK, I'm listening to "Mandinka" right now, and I've definitely heard that one, too. I think I probably assumed it was Edie Brickell or something.

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 23:41 (eighteen years ago)

I'll burn you a CD and give it to you at EMP.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 23:43 (eighteen years ago)

(and you can stop this Edie Brickell nonsense)

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 23:43 (eighteen years ago)

I was never much of a fan of neither "Mandinka" nor "Nothing Compares 2 U". Thus, when I heard some of her less famous work I was pleasantly surprised. Some great moody and sophisticated pop in there for certain.

Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 00:55 (eighteen years ago)

her has-been status is so richly deserved. dud.

gershy, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 03:16 (eighteen years ago)

her has-been status is so richly deserved. dud.

No.

Lostandfound, Thursday, 1 March 2007 05:14 (eighteen years ago)

two months pass...
She was really very nice!

forksclovetofu, Saturday, 12 May 2007 00:04 (eighteen years ago)

two years pass...

good lord 'fire on babylon' is all kinds of fierce.

lex pretend, Tuesday, 25 August 2009 11:27 (sixteen years ago)

FIIYYYYRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEE

also, that bassline!

lex pretend, Tuesday, 25 August 2009 11:27 (sixteen years ago)

Great song, great entire album I reckon! The ballads kill me - esp. "John I Love You" and "A Perfect Indian".

Tim F, Tuesday, 25 August 2009 11:57 (sixteen years ago)

the most awful song on massive attack's "100th window": "a prayer for england". DESTROY!

alex in mainhattan, Tuesday, 25 August 2009 12:59 (sixteen years ago)

one month passes...

Sinead, an acoustic guitar, Dutch festival crowd, 1988 -- "Troy":

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

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 8 October 2009 05:04 (fifteen years ago)

I'm telling ya, people need to see this clip.

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 8 October 2009 13:02 (fifteen years ago)

I'm glad for her that she's found a niche recording these genre experiments, but I really do miss her as gadfly.

Roman Polanski now sleeps in prison. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 8 October 2009 13:06 (fifteen years ago)

It's stuff like "Troy" that got us interested in the later genre experiments in the first place.

Roman Polanski now sleeps in prison. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 8 October 2009 13:06 (fifteen years ago)

I KILLED A DRAGON FOR YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND

i love this song for reals

figgy pudding (La Lechera), Thursday, 8 October 2009 13:08 (fifteen years ago)

That's a ferocious performance. Her neck muscles when she sings "I'd kill a dragon for you" alone make this worth watching.

Euler, Thursday, 8 October 2009 13:16 (fifteen years ago)

WOW.

For the first time I wondered what this song is about specifically (obv it's pretty clear what it's about generally). Is Sinead playing a woman who's in a relationship with a married (or at any rate attached) guy? That seems to be the only explanation that makes all the different bits scan consistently.

Tim F, Thursday, 8 October 2009 13:26 (fifteen years ago)

Yeah, that clip is unreal. The Troy performance on the bonus disc of the Do Not Want reissue is possibly even more intense.

Mark, Thursday, 8 October 2009 13:29 (fifteen years ago)

That line, "You should have left the light on," is so brilliant. That's exactly the kind of thing someone might say when they're overcome with anger and not thinking very clearly. If the light had been on, none of this would have happened. That's how the mind works.

Mark, Thursday, 8 October 2009 13:36 (fifteen years ago)

She performed it last year for first time in almost 20 years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyqvQVeVK9A

Mark, Thursday, 8 October 2009 13:38 (fifteen years ago)

x-post Totally. Except for the first time I've thought maybe the song is kinda rational throughout. She's been having an affair with him, he said he was gonna leave his wife but now he's changed his mind, she's furious that he ever encouraged her to the point that now she's totally lost in love/hate.

Tim F, Thursday, 8 October 2009 13:39 (fifteen years ago)

love that pinkpop clip. she did it the same way as a final encore when i saw her in '91. totally riveting.

flying squid attack (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 8 October 2009 13:43 (fifteen years ago)

I've never thought of the song as being about an affair with a married man specifically. He's obviously an emotionally unavailable asshole, but there could be any number of reasons for that.

The soul-killing line for me is "but I knew you wanted me to be there" -- so, despite all her yelling and screaming and white-hot anger, she's still trying to convince herself that everything is really OK.

NoTimeBeforeTime, Thursday, 8 October 2009 13:45 (fifteen years ago)

This helps:

WHY should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great.
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple as a fire,
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Why, what could she have done, being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?

Roman Polanski now sleeps in prison. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 8 October 2009 13:52 (fifteen years ago)

five months pass...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/25/AR2010032502363.html?hpid=topnews

Tracer Hand, Friday, 26 March 2010 17:11 (fifteen years ago)

that was an excellent read; she is an incredibly evocative writer

ALLAH! *rolls on floor* (HI DERE), Friday, 26 March 2010 17:16 (fifteen years ago)

Very heavy.

Johnny Fever, Friday, 26 March 2010 17:16 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/2011/08/sinead_split_a_p.jpg

Richard Nixon's Field of Warmth (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 15:19 (fourteen years ago)

45 year old woman in not-looking-like-when-she-was-20 shocker

― 69, Tuesday, July 12, 2011 5:52 PM (4 weeks ago) Bookmark

jon/via/chia/pet 2.0 (kkvgz), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 15:21 (fourteen years ago)

tbf it's nothing to do with age, but more that she looks radically different from the image of her that many of us carry around in our minds. i know that i wouldn't have been able to identify her in the absence of clues

dell (del), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 15:38 (fourteen years ago)

tbf 45 yo Sinead looks more like she's 13

Richard Nixon's Field of Warmth (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 15:42 (fourteen years ago)

Wait... the woman in black is Sinead?!

Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 19:49 (fourteen years ago)

y

dell (del), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 19:52 (fourteen years ago)

A minute after that photo was taken she adjusted the mike down and started singing out of her bellybutton.

the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Wednesday, 10 August 2011 19:24 (fourteen years ago)

jeezo

jed_, Wednesday, 10 August 2011 22:00 (fourteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

The singer has crafted a rather thorough list of musts ("Must be blind enough to think I'm gorgeous") and must nots ("Must not be named Brian or Nigel").

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the good times don't stop at the produce section.

"Let me now take time to make VERY clear that yes I 'do anal' and in fact I would be deeply unhappy if 'doing anal' wasn't on the menu, amongst everything else$$ So if u don't like 'the difficult brown'.. Don't apply..."

Also, women "will also be very much considered."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/30/sinead_n_941808.html

Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 21:59 (fourteen years ago)

"Difficult brown?"

kkvgz, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 22:02 (fourteen years ago)

that's not how you seduce a man!

kkvgz, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 22:02 (fourteen years ago)

four months pass...

She is apparently touring soon!!! Feb 23-24 at Highline Ballroom. And I am totally hooked on "Fire on Babylon" at the moment; I cannot wait to go to this show

Sally Field hysterically shrieking "Gloria fucking SWANSON!!!" (Stevie D(eux)), Thursday, 5 January 2012 18:17 (thirteen years ago)

Maybe you'll marry her for 5 minutes!

Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 5 January 2012 20:39 (thirteen years ago)

maybe you can sell her some weed!

The Silent Extreme (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 5 January 2012 21:08 (thirteen years ago)

true, then she won't have to resort to crack

Bam! Orgasm explosion in your facehole. (DJP), Thursday, 5 January 2012 21:23 (thirteen years ago)

Oh jeez, Sinead. I hope she's OK and also that her show in NYC in a month isn't cancelled

lost ai weiwei (Stevie D(eux)), Thursday, 12 January 2012 20:40 (thirteen years ago)

Yeah, it's not really funny, I hope she gets help soon!

Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 12 January 2012 20:49 (thirteen years ago)

I am always rooting for this woman

gord downer (Ówen P.), Thursday, 12 January 2012 20:53 (thirteen years ago)

I feel for her, she seems really ill.

Nicole, Thursday, 12 January 2012 21:08 (thirteen years ago)

four weeks pass...

Great NYT profile/interview here, discussing the above and more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/arts/music/sinead-oconnors-how-about-i-be-me-and-you-be-you.html

Ned Raggett, Friday, 10 February 2012 15:23 (thirteen years ago)

this album seems alright, half of one song in

akm, Friday, 24 February 2012 05:08 (thirteen years ago)

I'm so ready to want a good Sinead album (the last one I bought was the forgettable one in 2000). "Reason With Me" gives me reason to hope.

Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 24 February 2012 13:16 (thirteen years ago)

Her most underrated record is that "Gospel Oak" EP. I think this is one of the most beautiful songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdeMkywlS54

My wife used to sing it to our kids.

Josh in Chicago, Friday, 24 February 2012 15:09 (thirteen years ago)

This is all time, my friends:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-wwxSIgZH0

Ned Raggett, Monday, 27 February 2012 18:30 (thirteen years ago)

one month passes...

:-/

With enormous regret I must announce that I have to cancel all touring for the year as am very unwell due to bi polar disorder.

As you all know I had a very serious breakdown between December and March and I had been advised by my doctor not to go on tour but didn't want to 'fail' or let anyone down as the tour was already booked to coincide with album release. So very stupidly I ignored his advice to my great detriment, attempting to be stronger than I actually am.

I apologise sincerely for any difficulties this may cause.

Ned Raggett, Monday, 23 April 2012 16:36 (thirteen years ago)

There's all sorts of weird timing at work here. She's quiet for a while, semi-retired. Then she suddenly goes public via social media. Then there's the crazy wedding and breakdown and possible suicide attempt (from an artist who has had breakdowns and suicide attempts in the past). Then the new album comes out and gets good reviews. Then she schedules a tour - she was great when I saw her a few years ago - and at least here the venues get pumped up from smaller spaces to bigger clubs. And then she cancels. I can only imagine the pressure she is under to fill coffers or whatever, because even I could have told her taking some time off would be a wise idea.

Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 April 2012 16:48 (thirteen years ago)

ten months pass...

She peaked creatively with "Troy" from the first album, y/n?

Johnny Fever, Monday, 25 February 2013 21:10 (twelve years ago)

no

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 25 February 2013 21:35 (twelve years ago)

she peaked with that sound

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 25 February 2013 21:43 (twelve years ago)

and with the use of Yeatsian rhetoric

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 25 February 2013 21:44 (twelve years ago)

nah. Troy is grebt and easily makes any POV but IDNWWIHNG is pretty freakin strong start to finish.

inste grammophon (rogermexico.), Monday, 25 February 2013 21:49 (twelve years ago)

Her first album is my favourite but she does too many different things too brilliantly on that album for me to label any one of them her "peak".

Tim F, Monday, 25 February 2013 21:50 (twelve years ago)

I would definitely agree that she peaked artistically with her first album, which I basically consider to be immaculate. Not sure I would agree with "creatively". All of her subsequent albums have at least one song on it I don't get at all.

This beat is TWEENCHRONIC (DJP), Monday, 25 February 2013 21:50 (twelve years ago)

Yeah I love her first album SO much, one of my all time favorite albums no question. But the followup has a lot of great moments in it and I kind of feel like a song like Emperor's New Clothes, for example is the culmination of the sound she explored in Mandinka. There's a lot of things she does on that first album that she explores in new ways on the second. The first works better because of the rawness, but her refinement is interesting and appealing to me also

I really am full of shit though lol

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 25 February 2013 21:54 (twelve years ago)

What I meant to say: "Troy" was the height of using her voice in an inchoate manner in deliberately constricted atmospheres. O'Connor is too restless to have peaks. I loved last spring's record.

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 25 February 2013 21:54 (twelve years ago)

xpost no I think that's spot on.

Tim F, Monday, 25 February 2013 21:55 (twelve years ago)

Universal Mother is underrated in my lonely opinion.

Tim F, Monday, 25 February 2013 21:55 (twelve years ago)

first record: "Let me try a bit of everything." Second album: "Let me try rock-inflected chamber music."

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 25 February 2013 21:55 (twelve years ago)

I really dug Faith And Courage -- No Man's Woman has stayed with me for a long time.

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 25 February 2013 21:57 (twelve years ago)

I think "Fire On Babylon" might be her best track.

ICANN Tina Turner (Stevie D(eux)), Monday, 25 February 2013 21:57 (twelve years ago)

I listened to "No Man's Woman" and "Jealous" a lot last February; I think my antipathy to Dave Stewart tainted my opinions in 2000.

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 25 February 2013 22:00 (twelve years ago)

unrelated: I love in Emperor's New Clothes the way she sings 'and how a *praaaaagnancy* can change you' :)

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 25 February 2013 22:25 (twelve years ago)

I love the lyrics to "Emperor's New Clothes" but I am not particularly into the melody or the arrangement, which is the exact opposite reaction I usually have to music

This beat is TWEENCHRONIC (DJP), Monday, 25 February 2013 22:27 (twelve years ago)

xpost Tim I'm not sold on best but Steve otm "fire on babylon" is, on certain days, absolutely crushing.

inste grammophon (rogermexico.), Monday, 25 February 2013 23:23 (twelve years ago)

ugh phone posting. Tim "agreed on underrated and I'm not sold..." etc

inste grammophon (rogermexico.), Monday, 25 February 2013 23:25 (twelve years ago)

I like how in the first verse she sings the high notes w falsetto but then after that she just fucking waaaaails

ICANN Tina Turner (Stevie D(eux)), Monday, 25 February 2013 23:58 (twelve years ago)

The song sounds so fucking huge and explosive and the dubby reggae vibe is perfect. Also, in the live versions on YouTube the harmonies during the chorus are p killer

ICANN Tina Turner (Stevie D(eux)), Monday, 25 February 2013 23:59 (twelve years ago)

Those unexpected drum fills over the "Emperor" outro -- after a steady chug-chug -- still make me swoon after all these years.

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 26 February 2013 00:00 (twelve years ago)

yeah it's killer

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 26 February 2013 00:02 (twelve years ago)

speaking of chug, her electric rhythm strums all over "Jump in the River."

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 26 February 2013 00:03 (twelve years ago)

xps Oh yeah that too, it's like a minute long!! What an awesome outro!! It reminds me of "Pervesion" by Stereolab.

Have any of y'all heard the "Main Mix" that Hank Shocklee/The Bomb Squad did? It rivals the orig.

ICANN Tina Turner (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, 26 February 2013 00:04 (twelve years ago)

xpost stevie otm x2 fire, brimstone, both barrels, etc. for righteous fury, i kinda pair it with "a prayer for england"

alfred otm x2 as well on possibly my two fave trax from that record tho in fairness it's easy to forget due to overplay just how astonishing "nothing compares 2 u" really was when you heard it for the first time.

this revive has made me happy today

inste grammophon (rogermexico.), Tuesday, 26 February 2013 00:05 (twelve years ago)

IT'S ALL BEEN A GORGEOUS MISTAKE

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 26 February 2013 00:09 (twelve years ago)

nothing compares still makes me teary - every time I hear it it's like the first time for me, her voice is just so beautiful it kills me

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 26 February 2013 00:36 (twelve years ago)

p.s. here is a link to that v hard to track down Bomb Squad remix of "Emperor's New Clothes"

ICANN Tina Turner (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, 26 February 2013 03:42 (twelve years ago)

two weeks pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09Bm9g6ceKE

ferreira rocher (Stevie D(eux)), Friday, 15 March 2013 06:49 (twelve years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88wL8oRf45U

ferreira rocher (Stevie D(eux)), Friday, 15 March 2013 07:01 (twelve years ago)

There's an old article on <a href="http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2002/10/argentina1/";>Freaky Trigger</a> where Tom reviews a bunch of covers of Don't Cry For Me Argentina and nails why hers is the best.

Andrew Farrell, Friday, 15 March 2013 13:39 (twelve years ago)

two years pass...

http://www.irishmirror.ie/showbiz/irish-showbiz/sinead-oconnor-calls-kim-kardashian-6066869

tayto fan (Michael B), Friday, 17 July 2015 10:53 (ten years ago)

Ha! She's always great when she kicks off!

You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Monday, 20 July 2015 17:57 (ten years ago)

four months pass...

anyone take a gander at her facebook meltdown? ugly stuff...yet reading back over it all in detail.... she sounds like she has some very legitimate concerns about her son. what ugly family business.

akm, Monday, 30 November 2015 23:55 (nine years ago)

yeah harrowing stuff. i hope she get help. constant dram with sinead unfortunately.

tayto fan (Michael B), Tuesday, 1 December 2015 00:18 (nine years ago)

drama

tayto fan (Michael B), Tuesday, 1 December 2015 00:18 (nine years ago)

two months pass...

I feel like everyone's always been cruel to her, especially in the american media. Not an earth shattering revelation I know, just happened to be listening to Troy today

Treeship, Sunday, 28 February 2016 23:13 (nine years ago)

The peak of Sinead's fame and my SNL fandom both occurred at the same time, but even though I was a kid, I still got that the show (taking a cue from the larger media, of course) was especially brutal to her, both before and after the infamous pope thing. It made me all the more determined to root for her, and I still do.

pitchforkian at best (cryptosicko), Sunday, 28 February 2016 23:17 (nine years ago)

She was calling attention to child sexual abuse over a decade before anyone else cared! That's what that whole thing was about! Fuck america seriously

Treeship, Sunday, 28 February 2016 23:19 (nine years ago)

Everyone thought it was just some sort of "edgy" stunt because they're morons

Treeship, Sunday, 28 February 2016 23:22 (nine years ago)

Perfectly irrelevant time warp for today, granted

Treeship, Sunday, 28 February 2016 23:27 (nine years ago)

I honestly remember Andrew Dice Clay getting more sensitive treatment from the media at the time.

pitchforkian at best (cryptosicko), Sunday, 28 February 2016 23:34 (nine years ago)

I dont remember directly bc i was like four, but i've always known about that whole saga. Wikipedia says that madonna trashed her at the time

Treeship, Sunday, 28 February 2016 23:39 (nine years ago)

I remember thinking it was kinda cool but not thinking much of it & them finding out that american media was all flipped out about it was weird, like omg youys really

Flamenco Drop (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 28 February 2016 23:43 (nine years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhUzMGQLid4

flappy bird, Monday, 29 February 2016 02:13 (nine years ago)

Wow...that is hard to watch.

Hadrian VIII, Monday, 29 February 2016 11:49 (nine years ago)

I see she's back on FB, having erased her plaintive frightening posts about being committed last year; and she also appears to be on tour? there's a rather great version of her doing Life on Mars from the other day. She looks fucking tough now, like, I would not fuck with this lady, she might put a bottle through my face.

akm, Monday, 7 March 2016 14:46 (nine years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkI6lzreh4w

akm, Monday, 7 March 2016 14:58 (nine years ago)

oh that's a shitty version. Here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNXYFOPRuQ0

akm, Monday, 7 March 2016 14:59 (nine years ago)

^goosebumps^

Hadrian VIII, Monday, 7 March 2016 18:48 (nine years ago)

Yeah, that was from a Bowie tribute concert here.

I think she's massively been treated like shit, and then every few years she does something great and people are all, huh, maybe we shouldn't have treated her like shit. I even liked her Sly & Robbie album.

Josh in Chicago, Monday, 7 March 2016 19:21 (nine years ago)

goddamn that was so good

Flamenco Drop (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 7 March 2016 19:24 (nine years ago)

she's a total classic. i still love the incredible ballsy pope photo shred move and still hate how madonna kinda mocked it shortly thereafter.

nomar, Monday, 7 March 2016 19:33 (nine years ago)

Her reggae covers album is my go-to Christmas record.

dinnerboat, Monday, 7 March 2016 20:28 (nine years ago)

Wish it included her Asian Dub Foundation jam, because this is so good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUVErnrbVEc
Awesome vocal, could imagine it sung by Kirsty MacColl.

Josh in Chicago, Monday, 7 March 2016 20:47 (nine years ago)

one month passes...

pretty sure troy is one of my favorite songs

Treeship, Sunday, 24 April 2016 00:37 (nine years ago)

gotta be one of the most dramatic performances ever.

japanese mage (LocalGarda), Sunday, 24 April 2016 12:25 (nine years ago)

Was sinead the wellspring of the "growly vowel" phenomenon that has been a favourite affectation of a certain kind of female singer from the 90s til now?

hardcore dilettante, Sunday, 24 April 2016 14:52 (nine years ago)

more or less yeah

Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Sunday, 24 April 2016 21:06 (nine years ago)

Wait was that Reggae album all Burning Spear covers?

PiL Communication (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 24 April 2016 21:28 (nine years ago)

three weeks pass...

reported missing outside of Chicago

Police in a suburb of Chicago are searching for Irish singer Sinead O'Connor who has been reported missing for more than a day.
Wilmette Police "are seeking to check the well-being" of the 49-year-old, they said in a brief press release.
Police were called after Ms O'Connor "left the Wilmette area" for a bicycle ride at 0600 local time on Sunday, and had not returned after more than a day.
No more information is currently available, police say.

hunangarage, Monday, 16 May 2016 16:37 (nine years ago)

Arsenio got her

She posted on FB two days ago that she was heading to North Carolina to protest

akm, Monday, 16 May 2016 16:42 (nine years ago)

i see she's deleted that though

akm, Monday, 16 May 2016 17:57 (nine years ago)

That's a long way to cycle.

Larry 'Leg' Smith (Tom D.), Monday, 16 May 2016 17:59 (nine years ago)

Have it on pretty good authority she's been found safe.

BlackIronPrison, Monday, 16 May 2016 19:16 (nine years ago)

Yeah, despite the URL this is good news.

http://wgntv.com/2016/05/16/sinead-oconnor-reported-missing-in-chicagos-northern-suburbs/

Andrew Farrell, Monday, 16 May 2016 19:32 (nine years ago)

Listening to the Bowie tribute above is amazing, but watching it is a really strange effect - she's an old slightly dangerous looking granny on the mic, and then she'll turn and the profile + the lighting (+ the fact that it's generally when she's really going for the note) - she's reborn in her own skin, it's like Troy was yesterday.

Andrew Farrell, Monday, 16 May 2016 19:36 (nine years ago)

Which isn't to say that she's best when she's harking back to the flush of youth - far from it, she's one of the artist where surviving would be its own worth, but she's done so much more than survive.

Andrew Farrell, Monday, 16 May 2016 19:40 (nine years ago)

glad to hear she's safe. one of my favorite singers.

Treeship, Monday, 16 May 2016 19:56 (nine years ago)

agreed. so wish I didn't have to click with dread every time this thread gets bumped.

Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Monday, 16 May 2016 20:18 (nine years ago)

I did give Lion and the Cobra a heavy listen after hearing about her disappearance. Like, okay, this might be the last time I get to hear this all without the thoughts of memorial and sorrow. But the next thing I did was google up DJP's Paul Mooney post.

how's life, Monday, 16 May 2016 23:43 (nine years ago)

Story is so tragic that even finding her has apparently not resulted in a happy ending (see: her most recent Facebook rant).

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 17 May 2016 15:21 (nine years ago)

Top tip: don't see.

Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 17 May 2016 16:10 (nine years ago)

I hate to be all "won't someone think of the children" but any time I see Sinead news I think about how weird it must be to have her for a mother

Οὖτις, Tuesday, 17 May 2016 16:12 (nine years ago)

the current situation seems weird. like, her 28 year old son is refusing to remove her 12 year old son from foster care and take him into custody or something. (the state won't allow her to take custody, it seems.) i would probably be mad at him too.

Treeship, Tuesday, 17 May 2016 16:14 (nine years ago)

the thing with sinead is that she spoke up against child sexual abuse in the catholic church before anyone else in a similarly visible position did so. she took flak from basically everyone, who chalked it up to her being an "irrational" "crazy" woman.

i still think of her as an essentially principled, brave person who now seems to suffer from some kind of tragic mental illness which i don't know the details of.

Treeship, Tuesday, 17 May 2016 16:24 (nine years ago)

one year passes...

never heard this before

For Sinead O'Connor, Love Willie - Don't Give Up - https://t.co/xbFXnQsH3i via @YouTube

— Willie Nelson (@WillieNelson) August 16, 2017

Οὖτις, Friday, 18 August 2017 21:01 (eight years ago)

After that video she put up last week, this thread popping up made me think "oh no" - glad to be listening to that instead, her voice works perfectly.

mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 18 August 2017 22:49 (eight years ago)

^same, my heart in my mouth for a second.

Andrew Farrell, Friday, 18 August 2017 23:10 (eight years ago)

eleven months pass...

New song, streaming exclusively on The Irish Sun.

Police, Academy (cryptosicko), Friday, 3 August 2018 14:59 (seven years ago)

two years pass...

https://heavenlyrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/trouble-of-the-world-2

djh, Saturday, 3 October 2020 20:57 (four years ago)

five months pass...

There was a weird thread in my dreams last night where I kept reciting lyrics from I do not want what I haven't got, then a stretch where I listened to the album "in full" (in dream time). So I had to play it today. Definitely the album with the highest percentage of songs that make me burst into tears, though I can never predict which moments will do it.

swing out sister: live in new donk city (geoffreyess), Sunday, 7 March 2021 00:02 (four years ago)

two months pass...

amazing new interview

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/18/arts/music/sinead-oconnor-rememberings.html

intern at pelican brief consulting (Simon H.), Tuesday, 18 May 2021 17:37 (four years ago)

also, very afraid to read old posts in any sinead related threads tbh

intern at pelican brief consulting (Simon H.), Tuesday, 18 May 2021 17:37 (four years ago)

Later, when “Nothing Compares 2 U” made her a star, O’Connor said the song’s writer, Prince, terrorized her. She had pledged to reveal the details “when I’m an old lady and I write my book,” and now she has: She writes that Prince summoned her to his macabre Hollywood mansion, chastised her for swearing in interviews, harangued his butler to serve her soup though she repeatedly refused it, and sweetly suggested a pillow fight, only to thump her with something hard he’d slipped into his pillowcase. When she escaped on foot in the middle of the night, she writes, he stalked her with his car, leapt out and chased her around the highway.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 18 May 2021 17:42 (four years ago)

i love her so much <3

terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 18 May 2021 18:06 (four years ago)

harangued his butler to serve her soup though she repeatedly refused it

The mental image of this alone is incredible...

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (CBTL) stan (morrisp), Tuesday, 18 May 2021 18:14 (four years ago)

reminds me of the Stevie Nicks story about Prince visiting her while sick, fluffing pillows and stuff until she demanded cough medicine. "I'm not here to get you hooked on another drug!" he yelled and walked out.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 18 May 2021 18:16 (four years ago)

yikes

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 18 May 2021 18:34 (four years ago)

suddenly doesn't seem as strange

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIIAQME1Uhg

piscesx, Tuesday, 18 May 2021 18:45 (four years ago)

the photo of the pope being her Mother’s is a detail i never knew & it makes me love her more

also shaving her head when the exec tells her to dress more pretty is VERY much my energy and maybe my entire reason for her being my ride or die for 30+ years

terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 18 May 2021 19:22 (four years ago)

yeah the key part of the prince stuff was this imo

Prince is the type of artist who is hailed as crazy-in-a-good-way, as in, “You’ve got to be crazy to be a musician,” O’Connor said, “but there’s a difference between being crazy and being a violent abuser of women.” Still, the fact that her best-known song was written by this person does not faze her at all. “As far as I’m concerned,” she said, “it’s my song.”

John Cooper of Christian rock band Skillet (map), Tuesday, 18 May 2021 19:29 (four years ago)

Sinead otm

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 18 May 2021 19:30 (four years ago)

she's just such a beautiful person imo sometimes it's just overwhelming

John Cooper of Christian rock band Skillet (map), Tuesday, 18 May 2021 19:33 (four years ago)

a queen.

horseshoe, Tuesday, 18 May 2021 22:07 (four years ago)

I'm surprised that I haven't said so before itt, but I realised a while back that I'm going to get into A LOT of fights on the internet when she goes.

Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 19 May 2021 09:07 (four years ago)

i will have your back

Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Thursday, 20 May 2021 02:12 (four years ago)

Sinead is in the comments section of that NYTimes article, chatting away. All her comments are NYT Picks so they are easy to find.

Lily Dale, Thursday, 20 May 2021 02:17 (four years ago)

Her first two albums are among my most cherished, just bottomless in their subtleties.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 20 May 2021 02:24 (four years ago)

otm

terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 20 May 2021 03:46 (four years ago)

"IT IS NO MEASURE OF HEALTH TO BE WELL ADJUSTED TO A PROFOUNDLY SICK SOCIETY"

this is hard to argue with

Tracer Hand, Thursday, 20 May 2021 10:39 (four years ago)

frankly a far better take on mental health than just about all the "awareness" raising stuff that's everywhere these days has to offer

Left, Thursday, 20 May 2021 11:58 (four years ago)

Her first two albums are among my most cherished, just bottomless in their subtleties.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, May 19, 2021 10:24 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

otm

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, May 19, 2021 11:46 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

otm. And off the top of my head, I can't think of a better album/career opener than "Jackie."

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 20 May 2021 13:40 (four years ago)

I just recently dug up I'm Not Bossy (I'm the Boss), after ignoring or maybe not even being aware of it when it came out, and it's good! Not great, but a totally respectable aging-legend album with some legit bangers. Love her.

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 20 May 2021 13:55 (four years ago)

Agreed. How About I Be Me (and You Be You)? also offers pleasures.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 20 May 2021 13:58 (four years ago)

I noted at the time that the multi-tracking of her vocals on I'm Not Bossy was an attempt to mitigate how raspier her vice has become.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 20 May 2021 14:01 (four years ago)

lol her voice

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 20 May 2021 14:02 (four years ago)

I really like this reworking of an older tune (I like the original too):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxH16hEYuuc

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 20 May 2021 14:02 (four years ago)

this made me go back and listen to Universal Mother last night, which I'd purchased when it was released but otherwise remembered nothing about other than being disappointed at the time (though I did see her live after it came out, the only time I ever saw her). Not sure why, it's a pretty strong album. Not as good as the first two but what is?

akm, Thursday, 20 May 2021 17:10 (four years ago)

"Fire in Babylon" though

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 20 May 2021 17:25 (four years ago)

jesus christ i had forgotten how devastating most of “i do not want what i haven’t got” is.

Tracer Hand, Thursday, 20 May 2021 17:45 (four years ago)

i’ve said this before now
you said i was childish and you’ll say it now

Tracer Hand, Thursday, 20 May 2021 17:48 (four years ago)

not really a fan of those last two albums, she sounds good on them but the songs themselves are just not up to snuff. I like the recent single though.

akm, Saturday, 22 May 2021 14:53 (four years ago)

giving Faith and Courage a first listen ever today

akm, Saturday, 22 May 2021 14:53 (four years ago)

"No Man's Woman" is a jam.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 22 May 2021 15:02 (four years ago)

Too much Dave Stewart though

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 22 May 2021 15:03 (four years ago)

jesus christ i had forgotten how devastating most of “i do not want what i haven’t got” is.
I love, love, LOVE that album. I know it got a lot of attention when it was released - a multiplatinum, Grammy-winning seller that placed a strong second in Pazz & Jop - but it didn't feel like that many people were still listening to it a decade or two later. I think I was introduced to it through Greg Kot - he loved that album, comparing it in some respects to John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band. He never had a reason to write about it specifically, he'd just hold it up as a masterpiece whenever he was doing some kind of overview or look back at the '90s for the Tribune. I already knew "Nothing Compares 2 U" but that whole album is amazing - just raw, brave and exposed.

giving Faith and Courage a first listen ever today

"No Man's Woman" is a jam.

I'll have to find it again, but I wasn't happy with the first "best of" they made so I burned my own. The first two albums may be her best, but there's great stuff on pretty much everything up to and including Faith and Courage. (Like Alfred mentioned "No Man's Woman," and "Jealous" and "Daddy I'm Fine" are probably my other two favorites.)

birdistheword, Saturday, 22 May 2021 17:29 (four years ago)

To realize she's ending a major second album with TWO acoustic ballads and an a cappella wonder stroke, my god.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 22 May 2021 17:57 (four years ago)

It really shows how incredible her singing and her voice was at that time - it's very tasteful in terms of phrasing, but it never feels too little or restrained because that voice just carries so much in it.

Forgot to mention, if you can, check out her live performances from 1990. I didn't realize how good she was on-stage until I saw a re-run of her first appearance on SNL from September 1990. She doesn't do "Nothing Compares 2 U," she does two other songs from I Do Not Want.... Both are great, especially the second number ("The Last Day of Our Acquaintance") which is a cappella for a large part of it until she hits those chords on her acoustic guitar really hard for the last verse.

Capitol later reissued her first two live videos on a single 95 minute DVD in 2003, newly remastered. The first video (The Value of Ignorance) was from June 3, 1988, and the second (The Year of The Horse) was edited from two shows in late October 1990. If you have a player, it's worth tracking down, but there's both NTSC and PAL versions out there so make sure your player can handle the right one.

You can find VHS rips and probably DVD rips on YouTube if you want to go that route.

birdistheword, Saturday, 22 May 2021 18:21 (four years ago)

I saw her in '90, she was terrific. "Troy" was shattering.

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 23 May 2021 04:50 (four years ago)

man do I love her guitar on "Jump in the River."

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 23 May 2021 09:29 (four years ago)

two weeks pass...

another great interview around the book. I'm deeply disillusioned about Prince's treatment of her. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/may/29/sinead-oconnor-ill-always-be-a-bit-crazy-but-thats-ok-rememberings

assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 7 June 2021 04:52 (four years ago)

She just announced her retirement from recording & touring: https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/9583210/sinead-oconnor-retirement

like a d4mn sociopath! (morrisp), Monday, 7 June 2021 06:05 (four years ago)

We are coming up to the 20th anniversary of her first retirement.

Andrew Farrell, Monday, 7 June 2021 08:14 (four years ago)

🎵 This is the anniversary of my first retirement 🎶

Tracer Hand, Monday, 7 June 2021 08:22 (four years ago)

I'm excited to read her autobiography!

mark e. smith-moon (f. hazel), Monday, 7 June 2021 13:51 (four years ago)

me too

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 7 June 2021 13:53 (four years ago)

another great interview around the book. I'm deeply disillusioned about Prince's treatment of her

Prince's music means the world to me, but the guy could be a complete ass so I wasn't that surprised when I first heard this years ago. I don't think Prince ever responded to it, but I'm guessing he was insanely jealous that she took his song to #1 while his attempt (albeit through the Family) flopped years before when his sales were at their peak.

His ego was ridiculous. After he died, he chewed out someone who was leaving him to work for George Michael. She did it partly because working for him was stressful, but he apparently said, "Who's George Michael? He ain't shit (compared to me)!" And his perfectionism was abusive. One of his horn players in the NPG recalled the pressure he put on him to play a complex solo perfectly, to the point where he would put a prop gun to his head on-stage as intimidation (it didn't sound like it played like a joke, that's for sure). And there are probably countless more stories like that.

birdistheword, Monday, 7 June 2021 13:58 (four years ago)

After he died, he chewed out someone who was leaving him to work for George Michael.

I guess there is an afterlife.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 7 June 2021 13:59 (four years ago)

an ex colleague worked for Prince for a long time ago like.... he was not a nice person

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 7 June 2021 14:04 (four years ago)

If your life consists of studio time pockmarked with occasional TV binges, softball games, and fucking, how can you be nice, right?

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 7 June 2021 14:08 (four years ago)

The best story I heard (here?) was Prince tasking his guitar tech to waterproof an amp so that he could play underwater, at the bottom of a pool. The tech was of course doubtful, but spent a ton of time perfecting a rig that would actually work underwater. When he finally got back to Prince, Prince had forgotten all about it. But given it was Prince, I would totally believe he hadn't forgotten about it and was fucking with his tech the whole time. What's always been surprising about the Sinead story is the accusation of physical violence, which as far as I can tell is an outlier in the Prince dossier.

Josh in Chicago, Monday, 7 June 2021 14:13 (four years ago)

I mean he drove my friend into bankruptcy by not paying him for video production (he did all his video stuff for a while including the video for Seven) and then suing him to bury him in legal fees to avoid paying (after he demanded 24/7/365 servitude for a number of years)

but sure just part of being the great man

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 7 June 2021 14:14 (four years ago)

I hope that's not what you think I meant!

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 7 June 2021 14:16 (four years ago)

no sorry! sorry I just get angry remembering the whole thing

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 7 June 2021 14:17 (four years ago)

A guy with Prince's insane productivity is like a person who goes without sleep: they're not normal. Now add the bowing and scraping of minders and sycophants.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 7 June 2021 14:18 (four years ago)

Only a matter of time before someone publishes a major article on Prince's shittiness and the public attitude to the guy shifts in a big way.

Can I just say here that Melody Maker's treatment of Sinead back in the 80s/90s was shameful, exploitative and abusive to quite a large degree.

Best regards, HM Revenue & Customs (Matt #2), Monday, 7 June 2021 14:36 (four years ago)

Can I just say here that Melody Maker's the press' treatment of Sinead back in the 80s/90s was shameful, exploitative and abusive to quite a large degree.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 7 June 2021 14:41 (four years ago)

Yeah I'm just remembering MM as that's what I read, dunno if the NME poked "harmless" fun in her direction to the same degree. Did the mainstream press (UK) even acknowledge popular music at that point?

Best regards, HM Revenue & Customs (Matt #2), Monday, 7 June 2021 14:47 (four years ago)

https://princetext.tripod.com/n_1995.html

here's an article about how he would constantly fuck contractors over, my friend is the video production guy who was owed 400k (for the gett off video iirc)

https://princetext.tripod.com/n_1995.html

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 7 June 2021 14:50 (four years ago)

Did the mainstream press (UK) even acknowledge popular music at that point?

It was the 1980s/90s not the 1880s/90s.

Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? (Tom D.), Monday, 7 June 2021 14:57 (four years ago)

This whole thread and no one has mentioned her glorious take on "She Moved Through The Fair" from the Michael Collins soundtrack. That version gives me goosebumps...

Gerald McBoing-Boing, Monday, 7 June 2021 15:39 (four years ago)

I picked up some of her later albums this weekend at Half Price Books, I don't know much past Am I Not Your Girl? except the various collabs she did with other artists.

mark e. smith-moon (f. hazel), Monday, 7 June 2021 16:01 (four years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR9v3jWh-YM

This one is evergreen for me

plax (ico), Monday, 7 June 2021 16:20 (four years ago)

After he died, he chewed out someone who was leaving him to work for George Michael.

I guess there is an afterlife.

Agh, early morning, pre-coffee slip - I meant after Prince died, it came out that etc etc

birdistheword, Monday, 7 June 2021 18:45 (four years ago)

lol I know

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 7 June 2021 18:46 (four years ago)

This whole thread and no one has mentioned her glorious take on "She Moved Through The Fair" from the Michael Collins soundtrack. That version gives me goosebumps...


I’m familiar with the version released with the Chieftains the year before. Michael Collins version sounds like the same vocal with a new track (presumably to match the vibe of the score and not deal with Chieftains licensing)

and to be clear it is *amazing*

see also “the foggy dew” from that same chieftains record

Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Tuesday, 8 June 2021 02:50 (four years ago)

https://princetext.tripod.com/n_1995.html

here's an article about how he would constantly fuck contractors over, my friend is the video production guy who was owed 400k

fyi:

https://i.imgur.com/aSqAsGM.jpg

bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Tuesday, 8 June 2021 03:25 (four years ago)

We are coming up to the 20th anniversary of her first retirement.

― Andrew Farrell, Monday, June 7, 2021 6:14 PM (two days ago)

Unretired:

Good news. Fuck retiring. I retract. Am not retiring. I was temporarily allowing pigs in lipstick to fuck my head up... here's my statement..... in the form of these three photos. It's 'colourful' but that's me : ) #LetOConnorBeOConnor pic.twitter.com/wKoEKFANPk

— Sinead O'Connor (Shuhada Sadaqat) (@MagdaDavitt77) June 7, 2021

bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Wednesday, 9 June 2021 04:17 (four years ago)

God damn <3

willem, Wednesday, 9 June 2021 05:38 (four years ago)

Wow.

Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 9 June 2021 07:42 (four years ago)

By the way, non-UK ILXors won't be aware of the, er, interesting family history of Emma Barnett (presenter of Women's Hour) who Sinead singles out for particular opprobrium. Tittle tattle, for sure, but fascinating:

During Barnett's teenage years, her father ran brothels in the Greater Manchester area. The family home had been used for publicity shoots of some of the women and the recording of sex films. Previously convicted of "living off immoral earnings" and handed a suspended sentence,[7] in 2008 Barnett's father was sentenced to imprisonment for keeping brothels and controlling the prostitution of a trafficked woman; her mother received a suspended sentence for money laundering related to income from the brothels.[8][9][10] Barnett attended Manchester High School for Girls, an independent school.

Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? (Tom D.), Wednesday, 9 June 2021 07:58 (four years ago)

"the dude abides" haha. love her.

andrew m., Wednesday, 9 June 2021 13:43 (four years ago)

hazards of listening to Sinead albums in late pregnancy: came completely unglued listening to “Black Boys on Mopeds,” suddenly sobbing on the drive to work. What a great song.

horseshoe, Thursday, 10 June 2021 12:11 (four years ago)

REMEMBERRRRRR what I TOLD YOU.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 June 2021 12:14 (four years ago)

“You said I was childish, and you’ll say it now” is a sadly timeless line.

horseshoe, Thursday, 10 June 2021 12:19 (four years ago)

i love that album!

plax (ico), Thursday, 10 June 2021 17:12 (four years ago)

i'm pretty much banned from listening to sinead o connor in the flat because of some petty feud my bf has personally with her dating back to 80s dublin which i m sure nobody remembers but him

plax (ico), Thursday, 10 June 2021 17:13 (four years ago)

if she was of the world he would love her

mark e. smith-moon (f. hazel), Thursday, 10 June 2021 18:13 (four years ago)

anyway my favourite sinead is three babies and she is fn otm about that interview and emma barnett who is basically horrible

plax (ico), Thursday, 10 June 2021 18:57 (four years ago)

“Three Babies” also brought a tear to my eye on my commute this morning.

I listen to Lion and the Cobra a lot more frequently lately; I forgot how good I Do Not Want is

horseshoe, Thursday, 10 June 2021 19:18 (four years ago)

Has any American #1 album ever had a B-side that gets steadily quieter but intenser?

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 June 2021 19:19 (four years ago)

the title track is a cappella for god's sake

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 June 2021 19:19 (four years ago)

“Three Babies” also brought a tear to my eye on my commute this morning.

I listen to Lion and the Cobra a lot more frequently lately; I forgot how good I Do Not Want is

― horseshoe, Thursday, 10 June 2021 19:18 (thirty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglin

i do not want is pretty much a recent discovery, i've always loved the lion and the cobra. Mandinka! Troy!

plax (ico), Thursday, 10 June 2021 19:59 (four years ago)

I think all the time about the bit in jackie where she sings 'you're all wrong i said and they stared at the sand' like i fucking bet they did!

plax (ico), Thursday, 10 June 2021 20:01 (four years ago)

her statement about coming out of retirement made me think of the Tina Turner documentary on HBO and how she couldn’t escape relentless questioning about Ike after she told the story of his abuse. (Obvs Turner has a v different way of engaging with the world.)

Sinead is always being portrayed as a madwoman but I feel like time has vindicated her on most scores. A Cassandra.

horseshoe, Thursday, 10 June 2021 20:06 (four years ago)

She is on some real terrifying oracular shit throughout Lion and the Cobra

horseshoe, Thursday, 10 June 2021 20:07 (four years ago)

oh yeah, definitely its sortof infuriating how vindicated she is but how little that seems to affect the way she continues to be treated

plax (ico), Thursday, 10 June 2021 20:11 (four years ago)

what's the perception/treatment of her in Ireland these days?

mark e. smith-moon (f. hazel), Thursday, 10 June 2021 20:22 (four years ago)

i think the same as elsewhere, somewhat affectionate but dismissive. she is funny, articulate, but ultimately tragic, fallen and not to be taken too seriously. the video i posted above is a few years old but i think a great example of how she's dismissed even as/especially because she punctures the fatuous platforms that infuriatingly she continues to engage with

plax (ico), Thursday, 10 June 2021 20:28 (four years ago)

I think there's definitely if not a generation then a sub-generational grouping, overwhelmingly women, to who she's incredibly important and emblematic both for what she's done and what's been done to her.

Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 10 June 2021 21:38 (four years ago)

listened to universal mother for the first time today. that's a fuckin great record

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, 16 June 2021 16:16 (four years ago)

"Fire on Babylon"!

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 16 June 2021 16:24 (four years ago)

really nightmarish michel gondry video for that song too

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, 16 June 2021 18:13 (four years ago)

absolute banger

Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Thursday, 17 June 2021 12:56 (four years ago)

She took my breath away w/this performance when I saw it at the time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ilPU7Pw9os

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 17 June 2021 13:05 (four years ago)

I wish I was able to see her with Sly & Robbie. I love that not only did she record with them but she shelled out to take them on tour, too.

Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 17 June 2021 13:24 (four years ago)

six months pass...

awful news, poor Sinead

terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 8 January 2022 20:27 (three years ago)

incredibly sad

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 8 January 2022 20:51 (three years ago)

I’m going to take private time now to grieve my son. When I am ready I will be telling exactly how the Irish State in the ignorant, evil, self-serving, lying forms of Tusla and the HSE enabled and facilitated his death. Magdalene Ireland never went away. Ask the youth.

calzino, Saturday, 8 January 2022 21:04 (three years ago)

yeah this is horrible.

Ste, Saturday, 8 January 2022 22:10 (three years ago)

she's been through so much

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 8 January 2022 23:34 (three years ago)

Oh that's so sad

Andrew Farrell, Sunday, 9 January 2022 00:52 (three years ago)

.

The Door into Summerisle (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 9 January 2022 01:14 (three years ago)

Sounds like she's really not in a great place right now, hoping she is getting some help and comes through.

a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 14 January 2022 20:05 (three years ago)

I wish I was able to see her with Sly & Robbie.

She was backed by Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce on her first North American tour. My jaw dropped when I recognized them on stage.

I cannot imagine anything worse, on a personal level, than losing a child.

jimbeaux, Friday, 14 January 2022 20:09 (three years ago)

Absolutely, it's unimaginable.

a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 14 January 2022 20:27 (three years ago)

I have just read about her having a hard time dealing with her sons death. I hope she gets the help she needs.

Bee OK, Friday, 14 January 2022 23:46 (three years ago)

two months pass...

In the YouTube comments for “Black Boys on Mopeds”:

I bought this cassette when I was in the Navy, during The Gulf War. After boot camp and A school. I was in Saudi Arabia and then Spain. In Spain I would listen to it in my shop. It ended up being confiscated due to the song, Black Boys on Mopeds. They sat me down and made me listen to it. "They" are the Commanding Officer on down". I was enlisted and 19. I was in a big office alone with them. I was faced so that I was looking at a huge portrait of President Bush 1.

It was so strange how mad they were about Margaret Thatcher 's name being mentioned in the song. It was also strange that they were stealing my property, especially music. They wanted me to destroy it in front of them, I couldn't bring myself to follow their orders. We were in that office for so long and I wasn't allowed to go to the head or given any water or chow the entire time and threatened with insubordination. I gave in because I knew they would get their way and it would hurt the other military females. There were not many of us at that time. I asked that this be kept quite and not to go on my service record as being disciplined. They agreed and I destroyed it. I was so mad and confused and hurt. I had a perfect record and was excellent at my job. Having this music would have ended all that? Obviously I have not forgotten or gotten over what I learned that day.

deep luminous trombone (Eazy), Sunday, 10 April 2022 00:00 (three years ago)

Fucking hate the military culture.

birdistheword, Sunday, 10 April 2022 00:27 (three years ago)

one month passes...

I love her contributions to a bunch of loosely similar dubby UK electronica. Like:

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEr0Bxl6yhw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLR2ZPFz8CE

Josh in Chicago, Friday, 3 June 2022 00:57 (three years ago)

these are all so good, I love her in the "Visions of You" video just like, grooving

music for A★TEENS’ musicians (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, 14 June 2022 13:34 (three years ago)

One of my favorite things of her is this groovy collab she did with U2 “I’m not your baby” (discovered it on Wenders’ End of Violence OST but it might have been recorded before that)

licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Tuesday, 14 June 2022 20:02 (three years ago)

She sang Visions Of You with the Invaders Of The Heart when I saw them at The Marquee around the time of the single. I was impressed!

Noel Emits, Wednesday, 15 June 2022 09:48 (three years ago)

She is currently receiving treatment for mental health problems in a Dublin institution following the tragic death of her son. I hope she gets better help than he did.

droid, Thursday, 16 June 2022 16:26 (three years ago)

Absolutely. Speaking as someone who has had relatives struggling with mental health, it's really sad to hear about her struggles on a regular basis, much more than any other news. It's really daunting and unfortunate to see how it can be a lifelong struggle, and how much unending work it can take to deal with it. Not just for her but for anyone.

birdistheword, Thursday, 16 June 2022 16:56 (three years ago)

I'm seeing the new documentary tonight!! I am SO excited.

music for A★TEENS’ musicians (Stevie D(eux)), Friday, 17 June 2022 16:14 (three years ago)

Just got a message that Sinead has pulled out of her gig for the arts festival next month.

Had her hug me once in Dublin in the mid 90s.

Stevolende, Friday, 17 June 2022 16:46 (three years ago)

Looks like she cancelled a current tour due to having to deal with coping with the death of her son. Tour would have included date in GIAF.

Stevolende, Saturday, 18 June 2022 08:53 (three years ago)

yeah, the announcement (advised to take the rest of the year off and reschedule in 2023 when she's feeling better) is on the opening page of her site https://www.sineadoconnor.com/

StanM, Saturday, 18 June 2022 10:21 (three years ago)

two weeks pass...

Those are all great Josh, thanks for reminding me of them - I always slot this with them as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ31yNp6Nao

Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 7 July 2022 18:30 (three years ago)

I'm seeing the new documentary tonight!! I am SO excited.

― music for A★TEENS’ musicians (Stevie D(eux)), Friday, June 17, 2022 11:14 AM (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

how was it? might see it on Wednesday

sloop johnnin' skater (geoffreyess), Tuesday, 12 July 2022 03:22 (three years ago)

two months pass...

Mikal Gilmore has a long and great Facebook post more or less reviewing the documentary (starting with a few comments on the new Marilyn Monroe and Elvis movies to create some context), but you need to have an account and follow him to see it.

Also I watched Year of the Horse again - great performance, it's worth tracking down the DVD that pairs it with an earlier, lesser concert video (also an excellent performance, but ruined by intrusive video effects). Otherwise, it's visible here:

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

birdistheword, Monday, 10 October 2022 04:01 (two years ago)

A helluva post.

Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 10 October 2022 10:04 (two years ago)

that was a great post.

This is infuriating, fuck Prince's estate: "The urge to insult her some more even crept into the making of this film, when Prince’s estate refused the use of the song “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Prince’s sibling, Sharon Nelson, said, “I didn’t feel [Sinéad] deserved to use the song my brother wrote in her documentary, so we declined. His version is the best.” It was an ungenerous refusal on the estate’s part, and an unworthy statement. Prince’s version was not the best. He didn’t even originally stake out the song for himself, but instead assigned it to a side project of his, the Family, and it sat merely as filler on the band’s sole album from 1985. Though Prince had recorded his own version in 1984, he never released it. That version didn’t appear until 2018 as a posthumous single, though Prince had taken to performing the song live years after O’Connor had her hit with it. Sinéad apotheosized “Nothing Compares 2 U,” and in doing so won her place on the international popular music stage with her mesmeric rendition. She is the whole—and sole—reason people know the song, the sole reason why, thirty-two years later, it still speaks to a hurt memory that can still speak to our hurt hearts. Sinéad O’Connor is why “Nothing Compares 2 U” is indelible. It stands as one the greatest singles of all time."

akm, Monday, 10 October 2022 14:45 (two years ago)

Seems like a perfectly normal reasonable person, this sister:

https://twitter.com/Sharon_L_Nelson

StanM, Monday, 10 October 2022 14:49 (two years ago)

oh jesus, fuck that family

akm, Monday, 10 October 2022 15:01 (two years ago)

i'm sure she really dislikes all the money Sinead's version of that song has made for the estate

akm, Monday, 10 October 2022 15:02 (two years ago)

Yeah, it's fascinating to realize Prince never ONCE got "Nothing Compares 2 U" right.

Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 10 October 2022 16:32 (two years ago)

I love Prince, but he's always been a real dick to O'Connor over that song. It's like O'Connor did something to it that he didn't/couldn't and that hurt his ego.

birdistheword, Monday, 10 October 2022 21:07 (two years ago)

I'd drop the "it's like."

Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 10 October 2022 21:16 (two years ago)

nine months pass...

*shakes head* Fuck, man.

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 17:52 (two years ago)

Oof, terrible. Way too young. I'll be honest, I just never really clicked fully with her music, but I always respected the hell out of her and understood why people did fall so hard for her. RIP, hope she's found some degree of peace.

Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 17:53 (two years ago)

RIP little bird. You'll be missed.

droid, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 17:54 (two years ago)

I kept hoping she'd have her late-career renaissance moment.

Random Restaurateur (Jordan), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 17:56 (two years ago)

This is a terrible loss. RIP.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 17:59 (two years ago)

horrible, horrible news

donna rouge, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 17:59 (two years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z_GXwF6GE4

hardcore technician gimmicks are also another popular choice f (President Keyes), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:00 (two years ago)

damn. she was a real one. that's all I can say about it.

frogbs, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:00 (two years ago)

This is terrible news and makes me sad

Empty Tushy Fills (morrisp), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:02 (two years ago)

the documentary on showtime was very affecting...some amazing footage of her as a young performer.

i thought a lot about it, like i feel like most musicians, or a least i feel this way, have a certain knack for something, or at least a clever way of going about it...but not to sound uh rockist or anything, but there's something about people like her

it's beyond regular musical talent, like a pure thing, that pure voice she had, whoever gave it to her, i guess sinead would say god did...just a pure pure pure thing, that sound that came out of her, like something so profound you are born with it, that ability...not to say you don't learn how to sing better or have craft but it's got to be there, inside you when you were born. it's just a really deep thing to think about, how it must be to have that.

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:02 (two years ago)

I know I posted it well upthread somewhere but this performance has lived with me for years, and years.

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

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:02 (two years ago)

The Lion and the Cobra was one of the first two CDs I bought, back in...1987? Early 1988, probably, 'cause I bought it after seeing the "Mandinka" video.

but also fuck you (unperson), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:06 (two years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNXYFOPRuQ0

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:09 (two years ago)

awful yet unsurprising news; given her life in some ways I can't even say I blame her, but I wish this had been different

I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:09 (two years ago)

man, i remember seeing that grammy performance of "mandinka" when I was 10 years old or so and just being amazed — nothing else like that.

i've always loved this one, not sure if I could actually listen to it today, though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRgnU4C1S-g

tylerw, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:11 (two years ago)

that moment when she almost whispers the words..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km64pT6bDXs

scanner darkly, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:16 (two years ago)

Sinead deserved so much better than she got. And we all know it. And I think we're all grieving for that too.

— Gino Fellino 🤌🤌 🔪🦀🤌🤌 (@Bubblenoma) July 26, 2023



I would read interviews with her and always has a sense of someone only interested in her fame in as much as it gave her the opportunity to use her platform, someone whose transcendent talent came second to what she wanted to say.

I think about her in The Butcher Boy. I think of the simple sneering cruelty of that Father Ted episode.

I hope she is at rest.

a love song for connor wong (gyac), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:17 (two years ago)

Damn RIP. Truly wish she is at peac.e

Unjustifiably canceled for shining light on the dark evils of the Catholic Church, sacrificing her career/mental health/financial security in the process.

The cassingle for "Mandinka" was in my cassette player for months (b/w "Drink Before The War") back in the good old days.

citation needed (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:19 (two years ago)

Wow, RIP

Bee OK, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:24 (two years ago)

I saw her perform on the Universal Mother tour; she was a warm & powerful presence. And I still pull out Throw Down Your Arms every Christmas. Such a sad & terrible way to end. RIP

dinnerboat, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:24 (two years ago)

There are few artists I admired more in this world, RIP

flamboyant goon tie included, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:25 (two years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGSaWR-DCQ8

the new drip king (DJP), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:25 (two years ago)

This is one of the prettiest songs of all time. My wife used to sing it to each of our kids when they were babies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chv1JkArc4g

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:28 (two years ago)

nooooooooooooo
i have nothing to say, she was the best, i hope she is at peace <3 xoxo

Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:28 (two years ago)

I was lucky enough to see her on her first North American tour. I'll never forget it. She was so intense as to be almost frightening. Taken too soon after too much hardship.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:29 (two years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiEcut07GrM

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:32 (two years ago)

that 89 grammys performance was one of the first things i remember seeing of her, just unforgettable.

shaved head, torn jeans & boots with that amazing voice. she hooked me for life. never got to see her live & so wish that i had

werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:42 (two years ago)

A story I read once from her producer/engineer that in a way really summed her up.

The only difficulty we had took place during what should have been a relatively easy mix on the SSL at Eden Studios, because there wasn't much instrumentation. For some reason, Sinéad hated compression, and when I'd come in each morning there would be a piece of white A4 paper on the console saying 'NO FUCKING COMPRESSORS!' The problem was, she had a reverse mic technique. When most people sing loud, they back off the mic, but she used to do the opposite — she would stand away from the mic when singing quietly and then scream right into it.

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:46 (two years ago)

I’m at a loss for words. Her records were tremendously important to me. I was lucky to see her live in 1990, and it was a movingly contradictory combination of slightly-uneasy-on-a-large-stage (Chicago Theatre) and absolutely commanding the full attention of everyone in the building. I’ll never forget it.

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:48 (two years ago)

i'm crushed

ivy., Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:52 (two years ago)

I just watched the Showtime doc this month. The making of the video for Nothing Compares was really moving. I hope she is in a better place.

Bee OK, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:53 (two years ago)

There are few artists I admired more in this world, RIP

― flamboyant goon tie included, Wednesday, July 26, 2023

really this. I'm reeling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yuQLPkdRsI

poster of sparks (rogermexico.), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:58 (two years ago)

RIP and to hell with the catholic church.

Van Horn Street, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 18:59 (two years ago)

i saw her at camp bestival in 2014.
to hear that voice in a gorgeous live setting was rather special.
this song was built up and up, and made me totally get something in my eyes.
i always hoped she would find peace and a good and happy life.

rest in peace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXyGEw8lHG8

mark e, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 19:15 (two years ago)

haven't explored much beyond the first two albums, but both had such excellent songwriting to accompany the incredible vocals. she was so young then, really a shame what she had to go through.

rest in peace

ludicrously capacious bag (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 19:27 (two years ago)

she was only 20 when lion and the cobra came out, and she'd already lived so much

ludicrously capacious bag (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 19:28 (two years ago)

Search: The Gospel Oak EP (1997). A gorgeous little collection (Josh linked its best song above).

niall horanburger (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 19:29 (two years ago)

ALL her stuff is worth hearing, there are good songs everywhere. So sad to hear this, really hits hard not least because to follow her for the past 36 years has been to necessarily immerse yourself in her emotional landscape and — often — to sense how much pain underlay it. Has there ever been a Sinead fan who didn't understand how hard happiness was for her to find, and who didn't wish it for her?

I really worried about her after her son died last year. I was afraid it would be too much for her. R.I.P.

So glad I did get to see her in 1990, she was mesmerizing, one of my top 10 shows.

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 19:46 (two years ago)

guys, I’m so sad. she deserved a lot better. what a fucking genius.

horseshoe, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:01 (two years ago)

guys, I’m so sad. she deserved a lot better. what a fucking genius.

horseshoe, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:01 (two years ago)

She was right. About everything.

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:03 (two years ago)

Damn right she was.

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:04 (two years ago)

this is one of the old posts that is nice to read now:

I remember never once being able to turn away from the vid for "Nothing Compares 2 U" no matter how many sqaudrillion times it had been played on MTV. I remember it stopping my step-father dead in his tracks.....rendering him positively still and silent until its finish. "Hot damn!" he said softly, afterwards.
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, March 4, 2005 8:57 PM (eighteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:10 (two years ago)

wow....

https://heavenlyrecordings.bandcamp.com/track/trouble-of-the-world-a-cappella

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:12 (two years ago)

"The Emperor's New Clothes" has one of my favorite fadeouts.

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:12 (two years ago)

What a great spiritual for her style

the new drip king (DJP), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:13 (two years ago)

A more or less apolitical Canadian child during the 80s and on into the very early 90s, Sinead taught me that Thatcher sucked even before I learned that Reagan sucked.

niall horanburger (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:14 (two years ago)

("As a...")

niall horanburger (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:15 (two years ago)

And it's worth emphasizing: she produced her fucking debut album on her own.

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:15 (two years ago)

godddamn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wMZvznTTGg

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:20 (two years ago)

Some tributes being collected here, from the prime minister of Ireland to Ice-T

https://deadline.com/2023/07/sinead-oconnor-tributes-reactions-billy-corgan-outlander-susanna-hoffs-1235448768/

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:33 (two years ago)

Alfred, yes, I was just playing the first two albums again and marveling at the last couple minutes of that song...

glenn mcdonald, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:38 (two years ago)

I always loved Jump in the River, which is the lead track on the Married to the Mob soundtrack. Something about it really sounds ahead of its time.

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:43 (two years ago)

I love her electric guitar on "Jump in the River."

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:47 (two years ago)

Fiercely honest and sweet and funny, she was talented in ways I’m not sure she completely understood.

oh fuck you Billy Corgan

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:48 (two years ago)

yeah I noticed that

here is what someone who isn't a loser would say

Respect to Sinead….. She stood for something… Unlike most people…. Rest Easy..🙏🏽 https://t.co/3nbO3w22zv

— ICE T (@FINALLEVEL) July 26, 2023

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 21:03 (two years ago)

A heroic figure. rip.

treeship., Wednesday, 26 July 2023 21:04 (two years ago)

I play the lion and the cobra all the time. Very few albums go as hard as that one.

treeship., Wednesday, 26 July 2023 21:12 (two years ago)

“And you should’ve let the light onnnnn” fuck I’m so depressed

treeship., Wednesday, 26 July 2023 21:13 (two years ago)

Fiercely honest and sweet and funny, she was talented in ways I’m not sure she completely understood.

oh fuck you Billy Corgan

― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, July 26, 2023 9:48 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

He was not talented in ways i'm sure he never understood at all.

ꙮ (map), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 21:20 (two years ago)

lol

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 21:21 (two years ago)

don't know what to write at all, just chiming in to say how saddened i am by this just like all of you. the lion and the cobra was such an important record for me in the first year that i started caring about music. a friend of mine and i would write various lyrics from it on notes that we would pass to each other in school. just straight out writing the lyrics down. why? it felt powerful somehow to write the words she sang. her songs were like incantations. spells. and they worked! they summoned these feelings from deep down inside me. they still do. i'm scared of her records. i don't put them on much. i can't handle the rawness, how i know i'm going to feel when i listen to them.

Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 21:29 (two years ago)

oh man no. I'd been thinking about her this week.

kinder, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 21:40 (two years ago)

mum saw her at the Port Fairy Folk Festival in Australia a few/many years back - i remember mum just complained that she “talked too much” between songs and “why can’t she just sing”

hmm yes but also counterpoint why can’t YOU stay home & listen to the album if you’d prefer not to engage w a human performer its such a dilemma roll my damn eyes all the way back forever to my own grave lol

werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 21:45 (two years ago)

She deserved better from the world. RIP

✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 21:50 (two years ago)

this is just heartbreaking. rest in peace, Sinead.

Indexed, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 22:09 (two years ago)

I've been playing a lot of her 'featured artist' singles this evening - no slur on her own work, once you've written Troy you have nothing to prove, but a) they are her own work too and b) I loved how generous she was with her amazing voice, and how she would lend it to often nakedly political stuff. I won't bombard you with YouTubes, but consider visiting or revisiting 1000 Mirrors (with Asian Dub Foundation), A Prayer for England (with Massive Attack), Empire (with Bomb The Bass and Benjamin Zephaniah) and from 1991 Visions of You with Jah Wobble:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuG1JN_pIUU
(also Haunted with Shane McGowan, just because I love a soppy love song)

Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 22:21 (two years ago)

"A Prayer for England" is an imprecation whispered in the ear of every prime minister.

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 22:25 (two years ago)

I also really really love this version of "Haunted," with Trevor Horn production and a video all optimistically designed to make it a hit. It should've been!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q7307IWwr4

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 22:33 (two years ago)

Her final live performance was February 12, 2020 in Santa Cruz, CA at a small theater.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwluxHHP1vU

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/sinead-oconnor/2020/rio-theatre-santa-cruz-ca-6b98362a.html

citation needed (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 22:37 (two years ago)

I'm also upset. Just chiming in to say that when I heard the Lion and the Cobra at 13 years old, I was astounded. I'll admit that it informed my vision of a future girlfriend. The shaved head and passion. And I guess she was really pretty. It sounds dumb, but I'm just channeling 13-year-old me.

paulhw, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 22:42 (two years ago)

she absolutely deserved so much better

the lion and the cobra is such a fantastic album, one of a kind

ufo, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 22:43 (two years ago)

RIP. She was a force to be reckoned with. One of a kind.

SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 23:01 (two years ago)

I'm also upset. Just chiming in to say that when I heard the Lion and the Cobra at 13 years old, I was astounded. I'll admit that it informed my vision of a future girlfriend. The shaved head and passion. And I guess she was really pretty. It sounds dumb, but I'm just channeling 13-year-old me.

paulhw, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 23:25 (two years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n14lwdpYkAA

paulhw, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 23:26 (two years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=318ZDSy3zn4

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 23:33 (two years ago)

Black Boys on Mopeds certainly made me lose it today.

butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 23:39 (two years ago)

this is it for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcO0fEabWHI

werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 23:40 (two years ago)

Listening to I Do Not Want right now — which I don't actually listen to that much, Lion & Cobra is kind of my Sinead go-to — and it is so good. The songs are great, the arrangements are great, and she is such an amazingly present singer. So vibrant and intimate. And I've heard this album hundreds of times, I know all that, but it doesn't fade with familiarity.

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 27 July 2023 01:13 (two years ago)

Heartbreaking. I haven't even looked at the news yet, but given her struggles over many years, I imagine it's what's been feared for a very long time. Absolutely love her music, and it was wonderful to see something like a resurgence over the past decade as people re-discovered her work or re-evaluated what they overlooked. (There was a stretch in the '00s where I felt like no one I knew ever talked about her, much less put on her records, which was remarkable for someone who had been a household name not too long ago.)

She was probably my favorite singer of the past 40 years, for that amazing voice and for the way she could get inside a song and make it sound like her own thoughts and words, but she's so much more than her records. She never let popularity re-define what she should be or what she should say through her work, and she spoke up LOUDLY for a lot of children who needed it when the world refused to listen. I wish that brought her enough solace, but it meant a hell of a lot to so many people.

birdistheword, Thursday, 27 July 2023 01:21 (two years ago)

Re: Gospel Oak, I especially like this one (though it was released elsewhere too):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GDT-3pARec

birdistheword, Thursday, 27 July 2023 01:26 (two years ago)

Faith and Courage is probably worth revisiting too. "Jealous," "No Man's Woman" and "Daddy I'm Fine" are favorites.

birdistheword, Thursday, 27 July 2023 01:29 (two years ago)

Beth Orton’s Instagram post will burn you.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CvLU4kxNd9Q/

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 27 July 2023 01:34 (two years ago)

Was looking for video from those that went with all the tracks on Red Hot & Blue, but this keeps turning up, from I Do Not Want..., hopefully the same take:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK9dtZSIj-U

dow, Thursday, 27 July 2023 01:38 (two years ago)

Terrific tribute by Dave Holmes: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a44655422/sinead-oconnor-death-tribute/

Empty Tushy Fills (morrisp), Thursday, 27 July 2023 01:45 (two years ago)

no words yet. I can’t.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LhIkAKJzs8

Don't argue amongst yourselves
Because of the loss of me
I haven't gone anywhere
But out of my body
Reach out and you'll touch me
Make effort to speak to me
Call out and you'll hear me
Be happy for me
Reach out and you'll touch me
Make effort to speak to me
Call out and you'll hear me
Be happy for me

poster of sparks (rogermexico.), Thursday, 27 July 2023 02:09 (two years ago)

Listening to “I Feel Different” this evening broke me

like being swamped by an emotional wave

werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 27 July 2023 02:16 (two years ago)

great anecdote..."oh, it's you, Russell"

Last year, working in Ireland, having a pint in the cold outside a Dalkey pub with some new friends, a woman with purpose strode past us. Puffy parker zipped to the nape and her bowed head covered in a scarf. One of my new friends muttered an exclamation, jumped up

— Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) July 26, 2023

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 27 July 2023 02:38 (two years ago)

Beth Orton’s post echoes my heart. I was rooting so hard for Sinead, especially the last ten years with her “”embarrassing”” admissions of personal crises, which others saw as fodder for clicks and titters, I felt deeply moved by the bravery of her admissions. I wanted old age and Joni Jam for Sinead, a moment when she could just rest and bask and no longer needed to be in a state of artistic and personal struggle. I am so sad that this never came for her when she was alive but I feel grateful for her incredible works nonetheless

flamboyant goon tie included, Thursday, 27 July 2023 02:47 (two years ago)

Missed it but KEXP apparently did a great tribute today - FWIW, here's a link to the playlist:

https://www.kexp.org/playlist/?month=July&day=26&year=2023&hour=2%3A00&m=PM&offset=0

birdistheword, Thursday, 27 July 2023 03:37 (two years ago)

That KEXP link mentioned some recent tweets - turns out she opened a new account this month, and it's heartbreaking to read. It's like she was trying to restart her life - she mentions moving back to London for the first time in decades, posts a video of herself and announces a new album close to completion - but also still in mourning over her son.

https://twitter.com/786OmShahid

birdistheword, Thursday, 27 July 2023 03:47 (two years ago)

I didn't realize there was a video to that song she did with Terry Hall. Love how she smiles in the background when he takes his first verse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqk4qzmRpS0

birdistheword, Thursday, 27 July 2023 04:00 (two years ago)

Speaking of playlists, one of those tweets links to a playlist by her: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4tJNA0rDI3sdlO5fF2f4jW?si=b5e44c459e7b4847

Looks excellent. Tons of reggae, assorted other things. I'm going to put it on.

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 27 July 2023 04:06 (two years ago)

Thanks for pointing that out! FWIW here's her playlists in general, including one called "Songs I Wanna Cover 2023":

https://open.spotify.com/user/jahismykeeper

birdistheword, Thursday, 27 July 2023 04:12 (two years ago)

wow at that Terry Hall duet, lovely vid that <3

werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 27 July 2023 04:25 (two years ago)

Thanks for pointing that out! FWIW here's her playlists in general, including one called "Songs I Wanna Cover 2023":

https://open.spotify.com/user/jahismykeeper🕸


Seeing Nina Simone’s pic in her profile there is interesting- didn’t occur to me until this afternoon what parallel paths they walked.

Terrycoth Baphomet (bendy), Thursday, 27 July 2023 04:32 (two years ago)

“Here But I’m Gone” by Curtis Mayfield as the final song in her covers wishlist is particularly heartbreaking.

✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 27 July 2023 04:37 (two years ago)

...and to think what she could have done with "Sign Your Name"!

an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 27 July 2023 04:44 (two years ago)

Heartbreaking loss. The ilx community does provide some solace for which I’m thankful.

that's not my post, Thursday, 27 July 2023 04:47 (two years ago)

Adding a live solo version of Danny Boy from 1993. Just Sinead and her haunting voice.

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

that's not my post, Thursday, 27 July 2023 04:48 (two years ago)

Letterman's official account has uploaded all of her appearances today in tribute.

I haven't seen this put up here, so here's her U.S. television debut from Late Night with David Letterman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnUI4a7BKpE

birdistheword, Thursday, 27 July 2023 04:57 (two years ago)

I mentioned this for her on the Schaffer/Letterman thread, but that a snippet of that "Mandinka" performance was included in a "Musical Guests" clip package during his 10th(?) Anniversary Primetime special (filmed in the same of the notorious SNL appearance in '92) , and the fucking audience booed and the goddamn network left it in.

an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 27 July 2023 05:30 (two years ago)

'for her'="over" & 'in the same of'="in the wake of" damn phone.

an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 27 July 2023 05:35 (two years ago)

Seemingly against many odds this works

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJy77VV4okk

The Chieftains, Van Morrison & Sinead

an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 27 July 2023 05:48 (two years ago)

I’d forgotten she’d done this, though I wish her voice was more prominent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KX05v4dpss

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 27 July 2023 06:39 (two years ago)

Angry. I feel like all of us let her down

Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 27 July 2023 06:52 (two years ago)

She sings on a couple tracks on Richard Wright's solo album from 1996 - this one is better. It's an interesting pairing and I wish she could have contributed more - otherwise it's just 1990s era Floyd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-Zg_znrZtk

Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 27 July 2023 07:00 (two years ago)

Morrissey made a blistering post arguing the same, even more furious than Beth Orton's, though it doesn't help that he draws parallels between himself and O'Connor.

xxp the performance of "Mother" at the Berlin Wall is surreal - herself, Roger Waters, and 3/5 of The Band (Danko, Helm, Hudson).

Found this, where she appears on Jon Stewart's old show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPOM20kgWlc

birdistheword, Thursday, 27 July 2023 07:03 (two years ago)

Forgot to mention, I didn't realize this song was inspired by her brief relationship with Peter Gabriel.

birdistheword, Thursday, 27 July 2023 07:04 (two years ago)

Yeah Morrissey can stfu, he’s a racist piece of shit and O’Connor actually cared about racism, refugees and helping people.

a love song for connor wong (gyac), Thursday, 27 July 2023 08:10 (two years ago)

Don't know about her recorded work but some of the footage of her singing on TV shows has been breathtaking to watch.

Sinéad O'Connor and Shane MacGowan performing Haunted on the White Room in 1995. Magical pic.twitter.com/MRIqzJFMGN

— Birmingham 81 (@Birmingham_81) July 26, 2023

xyzzzz__, Thursday, 27 July 2023 08:44 (two years ago)

This is something

1993 pic.twitter.com/xMY7XuO93R

— KillianM2 TV Archive (@KillianM2) July 26, 2023

xyzzzz__, Thursday, 27 July 2023 08:45 (two years ago)

Sinead O’Conner shaving the Public Enemy logo onto her head to protest the rap category not being televised at the Grammys was an incredible move pic.twitter.com/N9GEIxw3XC

— Moody Waters (@aniconic_) March 25, 2022

xyzzzz__, Thursday, 27 July 2023 09:58 (two years ago)

in tears reading orton

corrs unplugged, Thursday, 27 July 2023 10:31 (two years ago)

Almost too obvious to say but "Nothing Compares 2 U" really is one of THE great cover versions isn't it?

bain4z, Thursday, 27 July 2023 11:16 (two years ago)

xpost - Morrissey's post was completely self serving as always

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 27 July 2023 11:42 (two years ago)

Almost too obvious to say but "Nothing Compares 2 U" really is one of THE great cover versions isn't it?

― bain4z,

I mean, even goddamn Prince couldn't figure out how to perform his own song (and he was a hateful bastard, according to O'Connor herself).

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 27 July 2023 11:54 (two years ago)

(xp) I seriously wish I'd never read it.

John Donne In Concert (Tom D.), Thursday, 27 July 2023 12:11 (two years ago)

I saw her last in ... 2007? She was incredible, of course. I went back to look how I summed it up at the time: "At its most forceful that soprano of hers could bring armies to their knees, and O’Connor often sang like she believed that was possible."

That night she also dedicated a cover of "Rivers of Babylon" to Britney Spears. Iirc a few people perhaps laughed or something (there was a lot of Britney in the news at the time, most/much of it not sympathetic). She was right about so much.

Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 27 July 2023 12:17 (two years ago)

Died in London it seems, she'd only recently moved there

John Donne In Concert (Tom D.), Thursday, 27 July 2023 12:22 (two years ago)

She was living in Notting Hill at some point in the 1990s. I know because I was working in the Exchange bookshop when she came in one day and sold off her book collection - a life decluttering, I think. The most amazing item was a copy of Dylan's Collected Lyrics, signed by Bob to Sinead, probably for the 30th-anniversary concert. My colleague tried to persuade her not to part with this, but she didn't want to know.

Ward Fowler, Thursday, 27 July 2023 12:45 (two years ago)

I was always struck by her interaction with Kristofferson at the Dylan tribute, not just by the way he gives her such generous support and comfort but the way she reacts like someone who rarely received such things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4fVxcT00Sc

Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 27 July 2023 14:13 (two years ago)

I swear, someone posted her performing "Fire On Babylon" on one of the late night shows. I thought it was in this thread, but I can't find it. Nor can I now find it on YouTube. A real shame, as that performance was absolute fire.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 27 July 2023 14:17 (two years ago)

wow this is great, i know rourke and joyce were her rhythm section on an early tour, but for obvious reasons this means even more coming from her

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

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 27 July 2023 14:18 (two years ago)

Yeah, that realization hit me when the lights came on. I had no idea until they were standing there right in front of me.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 27 July 2023 14:19 (two years ago)

I'm shaking with anger watching these savages at a Bob Dylan show boo her.

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 27 July 2023 14:20 (two years ago)

I swear, someone posted her performing "Fire On Babylon" on one of the late night shows. I thought it was in this thread, but I can't find it. Nor can I now find it on YouTube. A real shame, as that performance was absolute fire.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux),

Letterman! I watched it at the time.

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 27 July 2023 14:20 (two years ago)

Sinead singing on ‘visions of you’ , was a huge act of generosity. Typical of her . Refused to take a penny for the session . That track had a massive positive influence on my life . From writing the track with her voice in mind, through to recording it was transcendental

— Jah Wobble (@realjahwobble) July 27, 2023

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 27 July 2023 14:22 (two years ago)

This is one of those deaths that hit me especially hard. I feel old today. I don't think I've felt like this over the death of a musician since Prince, or maybe even Joe Strummer.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 27 July 2023 14:22 (two years ago)

The Dylan clip is surreal - like, how many of those people even knew why they were booing her?

jmm, Thursday, 27 July 2023 14:23 (two years ago)

Letterman! I watched it at the time.

When her voice just takes off . . . my god. The only other artist I can think of who (occasionally) has that effect is Bjork.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 27 July 2023 14:28 (two years ago)

Something often overlooked, or rarely mentioned, in that Dylan clip is that twice the band tries to start playing, and twice she silences them. Had they started playing and drowned out the crowd, I bet the crowd would have come around. I've seen it happen many times. But she doesn't let them off that easy. She chooses the more difficult, the more confrontational, the more righteous route.

Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 27 July 2023 14:32 (two years ago)

Beth Orton’s Instagram post will burn you.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CvLU4kxNd9Q/

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, July 26, 2023 8:34 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Ugh. Worth posting her in full for anyone not on the platform:

I am not lost for words, I’m furious. All this bullshit about mental health and supposedly supporting artists yet nothing gets done to protect the vulnerable. Some go to school to learn their craft and some sing for their life because it depends on it. Sinead should have been better taken care of. The cruelty and mockery she experienced over way too many years for being exactly who we needed her to be so we could feel the feelings we would have been unable to know otherwise is appalling. She was an artist in the highest and most righteous form. There is no chart to steer through the songs that come from the soul. The hardest graft is not to learn the lines but to live them. Sinead O’Conner was a seer and she was paper thin, see through, she should have been held with the upmost love and care and respect. She found success and made people money from what tormented her, it was clearly extreme and shocking to find success from doing what came naturally to her. How brutally lonely for someone as in need of love as she was, someone who gave pure love, pure anger and endless forgiveness with all the wisdom and best will in the world. Sinead sang me through losing my mother, she gave me my tears and allowed me to feel a grief I wouldn’t have understood without her honesty and truth. She deserved medals of bravery for her service. I’m glad she got to see some love in the last couple of years, but too little too late to save her health. I hope she finds the peace she was searching for all the way through. Words will now fail me. Thank you dearest hearted brilliant brave women.

“IT IS NO MEASURE OF HEALTH TO BE WELL ADJUSTED TO A PROFOUNDLY SICK SOCIETY”

#sineadoconner

Indexed, Thursday, 27 July 2023 14:36 (two years ago)

They laugh 'cause they know they're untouchable
Not because what I said was wrong

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 27 July 2023 14:38 (two years ago)

Tori Amos played in town last night and there were guesses she'd do a tribute. They were correct.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgnJNLH24CY

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 27 July 2023 14:43 (two years ago)

The line that keeps coming back to me is "I have refused to take part." She did that so many times, for so many good reasons, and now it feels like an epitaph.

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 27 July 2023 14:45 (two years ago)

Her first SNL appearance (September 29, 1990), at 27:10 and 50:14

https://archive.org/details/saturday-night-live-s-16-e-01-kyle-maclachlan-sinead-o-connor

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 27 July 2023 15:11 (two years ago)

re Morrissey, JPEGMAFIA has a few remarks:

What JPEGMAFIA told me about Morrissey pic.twitter.com/WnCV2ntPHh

— Thomas Hobbs (@thobbsjourno) July 24, 2023

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 27 July 2023 15:22 (two years ago)

hahaha amazing 10/10

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 27 July 2023 15:24 (two years ago)

Nice bit from Jamie Lee Curtis

https://www.instagram.com/p/CvLFNcByOvv/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 27 July 2023 15:24 (two years ago)

Those SNL songs shared by Tarfumes are excellent

Muad'Doob (Moodles), Thursday, 27 July 2023 15:29 (two years ago)

I was kind of bummed to discover that she recently made vague but unflattering remarks about Kristofferson (I guess bummed because it complicates that positive impression of his support for her).

Nonhuman biologics enthusiast (morrisp), Thursday, 27 July 2023 15:56 (two years ago)

My god...

Camille Paglia's Profiles in Cocaine continues with saying Sinéad O'Connor deserved to be abused as a child pic.twitter.com/vLlqVsrOe0

— cris (@ilchinealach) June 29, 2023

niall horanburger (cryptosicko), Thursday, 27 July 2023 16:46 (two years ago)

Great tribute on CBC today, featuring none other than Maura.

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

It's been a tough 24 hours. Man.

A. Begrand, Thursday, 27 July 2023 17:14 (two years ago)

That first SNL performance was really amazing, especially "Last Day of Our Acquaintance" - I think that was the first time I ever saw one of her live performances (caught it as a late, late night re-run on NBC back in the '00s) and I went looking for her great live DVD, The Year of the Horse, soon afterwards.

Steve Nieve posted this in tribute, a performance of McGowan's song for Circle of Friends at his 60th birthday celebration - just wonderful:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CvMmuERgMWQ/

birdistheword, Thursday, 27 July 2023 17:58 (two years ago)

Re: Camille Paglia, that clip was in the documentary. What a garbage human being.

birdistheword, Thursday, 27 July 2023 18:05 (two years ago)

xp that version of "you're the one" — unbelievable

tylerw, Thursday, 27 July 2023 18:17 (two years ago)

here's where i wish i actually knew anything about actual music or theory, but been listening to her and she has a very interesting melodic approach, something about the way she uses certain internals that feels very unique to her...

um...again i wish i could explain better but the notes she chooses in relation to each other (sund4r come back bail me out buddy!), the way she hops up and down whatever scale she's using...like two examples i can think of off top are mandika's prechorus:

I don't ^KNOW no shame
I ^FEEL no pain
I ^CAAAAAN'T feel the ^FLAAAAME

or on "Jerusalem"

oh ^OH oh
je ^RUUUUUU sa lem

like the way those notes relate is really distinctive and seems like maybe she's drawing from certain scale or something, i don't know i lack the vocab

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 27 July 2023 18:30 (two years ago)

via Chaki

In 2011 Sinéad O’Connor was very publicly looking for a boyfriend whilst tweeting the most hilarious, filthy tweets. I collected those tweets & made a montage of them set to her cover of “Someday My Prince Will Come” from Disney’s Snow White. She e-mailed me to say she’d… (1/2)

— Liam Geraghty 🏳️‍⚧️ (@Liam_Geraghty) July 26, 2023

official representative of Roku's Basketshit in at least one alternate u (lukas), Thursday, 27 July 2023 18:35 (two years ago)

Hahahahaha ums I literally noted that yesterday

I was listening to Jackie (a minor key song) and Sinead hits the raised third (implying a major key) over a bVII chord and I thought “oh yeah, the Sinead note”

flamboyant goon tie included, Thursday, 27 July 2023 18:36 (two years ago)

But there’s more to it than that— she generally had a “wild card” approach when she switched to her head voice on any yodelling passage— the pitches she hit were often sharpened (think the end of “Mandinka”) giving the phrase that much more emotional intensity. After watching many live versions of many songs you realize she’s basically just feeling out how wild she wants to be with any given performance

flamboyant goon tie included, Thursday, 27 July 2023 18:39 (two years ago)

In Bill Flanagan's U2 book he notes how during the recording of "You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart" Sinead would yell harrowing shit into the mike, step away and whisper, do it again, then happily overdub her own harmonies. Bono, Gavin Friday, and Eno were amazed at her vocal control.

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 27 July 2023 18:47 (two years ago)

ums and fgti i concur: i think she had a terrifically precise ear for (for want of a better way to say it) the delivery -- with superb confidence and exact force -- of microtonal grace notes and ornaments in a manner she p much seems to have herself invented

(by which i mean i can't quickly think of anyone she reminds me of in this)

mark s, Thursday, 27 July 2023 18:56 (two years ago)

xpost thanks the knowledge fgti! must have missed your post in the flood yesterday but that's cool like the raised/sharp stuff over certain chords, that's what I was trying to say in a dummy way

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 27 July 2023 19:00 (two years ago)

May Sinead O’Connor rest in peace. Let me share my moment meeting this Great Women. I performed at the @MTV music awards crying singing band in the USA. When I got backstage, the first person to greet me was her, knowing the weight of the world was on me, fighting this fight for…

— Luther Luke Campbell (@unclelukereal1) July 27, 2023

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 27 July 2023 19:40 (two years ago)

damn it sucks to get only the opening of these stories bc i quit twixer, fucking elon

omar little, Thursday, 27 July 2023 21:02 (two years ago)

Now we need to hear from Billy Idol

hardcore technician gimmicks are also another popular choice f (President Keyes), Thursday, 27 July 2023 21:04 (two years ago)

...and Steve Lawrence (still alive at 88)!

an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 27 July 2023 21:21 (two years ago)

and Henry Kissinger (still alive at 873!)

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 27 July 2023 21:25 (two years ago)

Stevie Ray Vaughan is dead, and we can't get Jon Bon Jovi on a helicopter.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 27 July 2023 21:41 (two years ago)

This chatter about her vocal control and technique is why I think she was such an incredible performer. She didn't just have technical skill and ability but she knew exactly how to service a song best by using her talent. She could have the most measured, considered performances, hitting every note and flourish with grace and precision, but it never felt studied or forced. Whether it was her own songs or covers - she knew how to draw the full emotional range out with her voice, and made it seem so instinctive and obvious.

boxedjoy, Thursday, 27 July 2023 22:04 (two years ago)

I found myself getting really teary today listening to The Emperors New Clothes. It's one of her most straightforward "pop" songs, and yet it's just such a vulnerable, unflinching, honest portrayal of pregnancy - an experience that as a man I will never fully comprehend but she made feel so understandable. I'm sad for the strife she endured in her life and the tragedy of her premature death. But I'm also sad because what she represented - fearlessness, defiance, sincerity and charming vulnerability - they're all personality traits and features I would aspire to, and as both an artist and a public figure she really was a role model for the type of person I wish I could be. I'm sad that her presence isn't in the world to keep making it better, and I'm sad that it took the world so long to realise what a difference someone like her could make.

boxedjoy, Thursday, 27 July 2023 22:12 (two years ago)

I never saw the Letterman version of Fire on Babylon, but the Top of the Pops version is pretty amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUdhwJZE7AE

Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 27 July 2023 23:07 (two years ago)

for omar et al

May Sinead O’Connor rest in peace. Let me share my moment meeting this Great Women. I performed at the MTV music awards crying singing band in the USA. When I got backstage, the first person to greet me was her, knowing the weight of the world was on me, fighting this fight for free speech and hip-hop. She hug me we talked. She told me I was fighting a good fight. She knew the industry was not supporting me. She wanted me to know she was. I always love that woman for that. May God bless her soul my condolences go out to her family. 🙏

assert (matttkkkk), Thursday, 27 July 2023 23:07 (two years ago)

https://play.acast.com/s/blindboy/sineadoconnor

she talks a bit about her approach vocally in this interview (interview starts around 25 min mark or so, vocal part I forget when), use of bel canto singing style etc

xheugy eddy (D-40), Thursday, 27 July 2023 23:30 (two years ago)

I found myself getting really teary today listening to The Emperors New Clothes. It's one of her most straightforward "pop" songs, and yet it's just such a vulnerable, unflinching, honest portrayal of pregnancy - an experience that as a man I will never fully comprehend but she made feel so understandable. I'm sad for the strife she endured in her life and the tragedy of her premature death. But I'm also sad because what she represented - fearlessness, defiance, sincerity and charming vulnerability - they're all personality traits and features I would aspire to, and as both an artist and a public figure she really was a role model for the type of person I wish I could be. I'm sad that her presence isn't in the world to keep making it better, and I'm sad that it took the world so long to realise what a difference someone like her could make.

― boxedjoy,

Co-sign. And that outro!

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 27 July 2023 23:35 (two years ago)

I used to try desperately to pause the Emperor’s New Clothes video on the one frame where she smiles just so I could see her smile for more than a fraction of a second. That video is burned into my brain!! Also boxedjoy otm bc like many odd girls my age I longed to be as free as she was.

Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Thursday, 27 July 2023 23:50 (two years ago)

Her dancing!

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 27 July 2023 23:56 (two years ago)

Great song. Heard it for the first time tonight.

The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 27 July 2023 23:57 (two years ago)

I called my sister today to talk about various family matters and out of nowhere she said, "I'm really sad about Sinead." "Me too," I said. She talked about how I Do Not Want was her and her college bff's favorite album the year it came out and they played it to death. She put it on yesterday after not hearing it for a while and she said she'd never really absorbed what a great writer she was, the words didn't sink in when she was younger. Anyway, a generational touchstone for a lot of us.

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 28 July 2023 00:13 (two years ago)

CAN’T BEAR TO BE IN ANOTHER CITY
one where you’re not

werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 28 July 2023 00:28 (two years ago)

Always liked this: Willie Nelson & Sinéad O'Connor, "Don't Give Up"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO6fAJcN89k

dow, Friday, 28 July 2023 02:08 (two years ago)

heard “daddy i’m fine” just now for the first time in forever and whooosh total time machine

i fucking LOVED this song at the time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA2gIyXRXwU

werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 28 July 2023 02:39 (two years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gTppAHVy28

"In This Heart" always makes me cry. Tonight it's wrecking me.

Looking at her discography on Wikipedia, I'm amazed at the number of collaborations and guest spots she did for other musicians. Such a generous soul.

Hideous Lump, Friday, 28 July 2023 05:46 (two years ago)

My particular brand of sad is gravitating to the common ground between her and Terry Hall and then with Chris Cornell, who also did a version of “Nothing Compares 2 U.”

Live and Left Eye (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 28 July 2023 06:57 (two years ago)

When Bob Mortimer met Sinead O’Connor. I’m roaring laughing at this story from his autobiography ‘And Away…’ pic.twitter.com/oFfYlnQPdB

— Paul Howard (@AkaPaulHoward) July 1, 2023

Number None, Friday, 28 July 2023 07:12 (two years ago)

Um…

Live and Left Eye (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 28 July 2023 07:44 (two years ago)

Okay, I guess it was kind of a good and in-character put-down or something.

Live and Left Eye (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 28 July 2023 07:45 (two years ago)

Think you need to have a good working knowledge of Bob for this to be funny, yes.

the world is your octopus (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 28 July 2023 07:58 (two years ago)

not meant as a put down at all I think! but yeah 200% in character as "first thing that would pop into Mortimer's mind when talking to anyone at all".

Daniel_Rf, Friday, 28 July 2023 10:33 (two years ago)

Pink just paid tribute to Sinead O’Connor and it was so beautiful, it made me cry pic.twitter.com/CXQO1TGBid

— karen (@KarenBoston) July 27, 2023

Live and Left Eye (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 28 July 2023 11:33 (two years ago)

Here is a defence of that obit in The Guardian by the writer.

She sounds tone deaf.

I'm sorry you feel that way. I interviewed her and reviewed her numerous times. This is the most recent pic.twitter.com/7hcEV8MEIP

— Caroline Sullivan (@TheCSullivan) July 27, 2023

xyzzzz__, Friday, 28 July 2023 11:34 (two years ago)

Something quite lovely that I'd never seen before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fE8l25CG2E

droid, Friday, 28 July 2023 12:40 (two years ago)

That's such a good cover! Perfect.

xyzzzz__, Friday, 28 July 2023 12:56 (two years ago)

Apropos of nothing, I am struck by how much this Eno-assisted track from 2000’s Faith and Courage sounds like Sinead’s nod to Judee Sill (a sister spirit for sure):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yuQLPkdRsI

Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 28 July 2023 13:01 (two years ago)

Assuming that previous one is a Go-Betweens cover. Looking forward to clicking later.

Live and Left Eye (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 28 July 2023 13:19 (two years ago)

Ha sorry. Somebody once referred to “Apology Accepted” as “All Apologies” and since then I have gotten them *Mixed Up*

Live and Left Eye (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 28 July 2023 13:42 (two years ago)

interesting that her version is so restrained, I kept expecting her to throw in some Cobain growls

Muad'Doob (Moodles), Friday, 28 July 2023 13:46 (two years ago)

emma's song is secretly everything for me.

I play it for people and they're like "idk" idgi" "it's weird" "it's fine?" ... and I'm like she has always been a priestess in communication with something deep and strange and real and utterly truthful and I am undone

poster of sparks (rogermexico.), Friday, 28 July 2023 15:46 (two years ago)

not much of a crier, but jesus, listening to and watching various performances have me weeping this week ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbre5Fs9m8I

tylerw, Friday, 28 July 2023 15:57 (two years ago)

I didn’t realize this bootleg existed - 8 CD’s of her non-LP work:

https://www.45worlds.com/cdalbum/cd/nc640109xb

birdistheword, Friday, 28 July 2023 17:05 (two years ago)

Been reading her lyrics online the past few days and this, this morning, made me laugh:

https://flic.kr/p/2oSj39U

flamboyant goon tie included, Friday, 28 July 2023 17:50 (two years ago)

Chrissie Hynde posted a nice tribute on Facebook:

Like everyone else, I’ve read many tributes to Sinéad O’Connor in the last couple days. Personally, I felt sadness for her during her life, but my immediate response upon hearing the news was a kind of relief. Every step of the way for her seemed to be a mixture of joy and torture. A true artist.

I was talking to my mate, the singer Helen Terry, about what a laugh she was at our Linda McCartney tribute, arriving every day to rehearsals to hang out with George Michael, smoke pot and just be in the atmosphere of something going on. Helen reminded me of how she kept throwing her knickers at George. I recall she also liked to hold a microphone to her arse and fart in it, possessed as she was of a schoolboy humour.

On the day of the show I was wearing a pair of gold stiletto heeled shoes and Sinead told me how she’d stolen some similar ones when she was a teenager to wear to a Pretenders show. I immediately took them off, gave them to her, and she wore them the rest of the night. Every time I looked over at her she reminded me of a little kid looking down at her new shoes, moving her feet at different angles to admire them. Then during the concert, she made a funny remark about Neil Finn which made headlines the next day. She didn’t set out to steal the headlines but did because she made everyone laugh.

I was also at the Bob Dylan tribute. I listened to her sing Dylan’s I Believe In You at rehearsals. It was absolutely breathtaking and I couldn’t wait to hear her sing it on the night. But when she heard a few people booing in the audience (many were cheering but I guess she only heard the detractors) she apparently just couldn’t start the song. Booker-T’s hands hovered over the keyboards while everyone waited for her to start singing. Instead she pulled out her in-ear monitors, and went into an unaccompanied version of a Bob Marley song. The next day the headlines were about Sinéad not Dylan. She didn’t intend that, but again, it just seemed to happen wherever she went.

Apart from all her other well documented torments, I think starting out in the business at an early age, getting famous and the notoriety she attracted, must have been hard.

People seem to think that anyone who gets on stage is a natural born show-off but I don’t think that’s the case most of the time. I think It’s more often destiny.

I read she reckoned the price of fame is ‘you pay with your life’.

Now she can sing with the other angels.

XCH

birdistheword, Friday, 28 July 2023 18:06 (two years ago)

both of her records from the 2010s are super fucking good and i regret not listening to them until now

ivy., Friday, 28 July 2023 20:21 (two years ago)

x-post: feel a bit weird about "the news was a kind of relief" part.

djh, Friday, 28 July 2023 20:48 (two years ago)

Yeah me too - I don't feel the same way, but I think I understand where she's coming from and why some people have that reaction. (Maybe oversimplifying it, but some people don't want to see someone they hold dearly living in constant turmoil.) I thought the anecdotes were great though.

birdistheword, Friday, 28 July 2023 21:03 (two years ago)

lol @ farting into the microphone
RIP to a real one <3

werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 28 July 2023 21:16 (two years ago)

also Sinead admiring her new gold stilettos from diff angles - deeeply relatable

werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 28 July 2023 22:35 (two years ago)

i want one million stories about her smoking weed with george michael. my people

ivy., Friday, 28 July 2023 22:44 (two years ago)

dream blunt rotation too

ivy., Friday, 28 July 2023 22:49 (two years ago)

The last series of posts from VG and Ivy are extremely otm

Every image conjures a scene I could only dream to witness and feel blessed to have lived through & appreciate

Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Saturday, 29 July 2023 01:51 (two years ago)

This story has gone viral:

Newstalk host Sean Moncrieff told how the Nothing Compares 2 U hitmaker paid for an anguished mum's counselling after she shared her story live on air.

He told listeners: "I never met Sinead O'Connor but I do have this one kind of story that's kind of related to the show.

"We'd had the parenting slot as usual and one question came in from a woman who was absolutely distraught.

"And then this woman went on to describe her situation, which was absolutely horrendous, she was a single parent, her partner had just disappeared off the face of the map.

"She had two kids as I recall, and I think at least one of them had behavioural difficulties so she was having to cope with that.

"Plus, also, she was broke. She had no money. She had virtually no means of support. She was not really managing to put food on the table and she was feeling the wheels coming off, she was in an awful state."

He continued: "And this woman had said, 'I'd love to go to counselling, I know I need counselling, but I just can't afford it.'

"And within two or three minutes, we got a text in following that, saying 'I'll pay for her counselling'.

"And it was from Sinead O'Connor. And apparently she did this kind of thing, I've heard from people who knew her, she used to do these kinds of things all the time, below the radar.

"They were the kind of things you wouldn't really hear about. And there was a lot we knew about Sinead O'Connor and in the public domain, but perhaps an awful lot we didn't know at the same time.

"And that almost stuck with me as an example of somebody, literally and figuratively, putting their money where their mouth was.

"And I just thought that I might share that with you."

Reminds me of George Michael and George Harrison and Prince and Frank Sinatra (even though the latter two were real assholes to her) and how after they died, you had a flood of stories on all the not-publicized or anonymous donations they’d give to other people in need of help.

birdistheword, Saturday, 29 July 2023 07:10 (two years ago)

Hung out with not one but two friends last night who had no idea "Nothing Compares 2 U" was written by Prince.

Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 29 July 2023 13:32 (two years ago)

Hope you unfriended them

Poor Little Fool Killer (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 29 July 2023 13:35 (two years ago)

lol

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 29 July 2023 13:42 (two years ago)

Ha! What's amazing is they each considered themselves fans, and had really strong memories from the late '80s and early '90s of hearing her stuff on college radio. I sometimes appreciate the perspective of regular people, who love music but don't necessarily focus on the details.

Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 29 July 2023 14:12 (two years ago)

Knew that was coming. Espied it way out there on the zing horizon.

Poor Little Fool Killer (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 29 July 2023 14:14 (two years ago)

from Lou Reed's FB page:

[i]Lou Reed had a copy of Sinéad O’Connor's debut album, The Lion and the Cobra, in his personal album collection. Lou performed at shows with Sinéad O’Connor on a few occasions, beginning with the Bob Dylan tribute shortly after her appearance on SNL.
_________
O’Connor and Reed didn’t really connect that night. But at a similar event held two years later in Carnegie Hall, this time a birthday tribute for Roger Daltrey of The Who, the two once again shared the stage. She writes, “The only other time I remember being starstruck was when I met Lou Reed, a person I didn’t realize I loved so much until I met him. I had fallen in love with his album ‘New York,’ especially the track called ‘Busload of Faith,’ and I had listened to it a lot.” O’Connor put out feelers about singing backup for Reed, whose family name was originally Rabinowitz until his father changed it to Reed.

O’Connor recalls, “… [T]he next thing I knew, Lou Reed came into my dressing room and started talking to me; I could tell that he thought I was cheeky for asking if I could sing backup vocals. But when he said that yes, I could, all I could see was his mouth moving. I couldn’t hear what he was saying anymore; it all came out like a whirl, whirl, whirl sound, as if I were on an acid trip. … It was like having a panic attack…. I did do the backing vocals for Lou, though I can’t remember even what songs because I was not on planet Earth, I was in heaven somewhere. And then I had a beautiful experience with the same beautiful man not long after.”

O’Connor goes on to tell the story about a TV show she and Reed appeared on in London, a kind of round-robin live music show. No one would look at O’Connor, because “the fashion was to treat me like a crazy person, a pariah, because of what I did on ‘SNL.’” Reed, when he came to the dress rehearsal, made a huge point of ignoring absolutely everybody in the room except O’Connor. “He makes it his business to find me, hangs on to me. He hugs me demonstratively warmly as if we know each other really well. It was a really sweet thing to do because he didn’t have to do that, and it changed the way everybody in there reacted to me… I’ve had a very soft spot in my heart for Mr. Lou Reed ever since and I think about him quite a lot.”/i]

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 29 July 2023 14:34 (two years ago)

.<3

she sold homes & donated proceeds to charity at least twice

1992 donated West Hollywood home sale to Somalians
https://www.deseret.com/1992/12/2/19019219/sinead-donates-house-to-aid-starving-somalis

2003 donated Atlanta home sale to Irish drug & alcohol treatment center
https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2003/10/06/newscolumn4.html

werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 29 July 2023 14:49 (two years ago)

There was a good Washington Post reminiscence.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2023/07/28/sinead-oconnor-appreciation-road-trip/

Based on this and other accounts, she seemed like someone who sometimes just sold everything and started over.

Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 29 July 2023 14:53 (two years ago)

Always a surprise to hear a story in which Lou Reed is not an asshole.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Saturday, 29 July 2023 15:18 (two years ago)

Long, personal piece from my pal Mo:

https://burner-account.ghost.io/sinead-oconnor/

Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 29 July 2023 15:36 (two years ago)

Always a surprise to hear a story in which Lou Reed is not an asshole.

Yeah, same.

Poor Little Fool Killer (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 29 July 2023 15:42 (two years ago)

Next thing you know a post will surface from her about how nice Alex Chilton was to her#onethread

Poor Little Fool Killer (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 29 July 2023 15:43 (two years ago)

Or Jonathan Richman even.

Poor Little Fool Killer (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 29 July 2023 15:43 (two years ago)

Glenn Frey

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Saturday, 29 July 2023 15:43 (two years ago)

Well, yeah.

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 29 July 2023 15:46 (two years ago)

Was really disappointed that her reggae album is not on Spotify.

Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 29 July 2023 16:08 (two years ago)

"Based on this and other accounts, she seemed like someone who sometimes just sold everything and started over."

I just read about her going in to sell a signed dylan album at a record store; the owner pleaded with her not to do it but apparently she was insistent. she doesn't strike me as someone who had strong attachments to 'things'.

Finally started her memoir last night, it's very well written.

I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Saturday, 29 July 2023 16:44 (two years ago)

I heard "emperor's new clothes" a few years ago, and I noticed then what I did not in 1990: there is no effort to make the words rhyme…I'm sure we can come up with some other examples of very very big pop songs (this song is absolutely part of the pop gestalt of 1990) in which rhyming does not occur…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c0jxooNClM

1. I noticed at the time that Marco Pirroni was her touring guitarist, and he is present in the above, and I think that's Mike Joyce, but I can't make out whether that's Andy rourke on the bass…also, she's not using a plectrum, and when you go hard playing chords like that, you have to have some serious fucking callouses, or else that shit's gonna hurt…

veronica moser, Saturday, 29 July 2023 17:00 (two years ago)

It's Rourke on bass.

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 29 July 2023 17:01 (two years ago)

Oh this has really gotten me.🥺😭 I’ve taken #SineadOConner leaving us quite hard. Aside from loving her as a musician, I am hard wired to feel love and kinship for unconventional women. She was fierce and vulnerable and complicated and beautiful and I’m so sorry she’s left us. pic.twitter.com/rRIgmKKq7G

— Laura Nadia Hunt (@LauraNadiaHunt) July 29, 2023

mark e, Saturday, 29 July 2023 17:12 (two years ago)

It's a true shame that it's taken this for the collective world to start to seriously assess her as an artist, I think over time she's going to be regarded as one of the actual greats. I hope she heard plenty of this when she was still alive.

omar little, Saturday, 29 July 2023 19:42 (two years ago)

Yeah just lots of small acts like this scattered throughout her life, all given to people who needed it the most. xp

xyzzzz__, Saturday, 29 July 2023 19:45 (two years ago)

Imagine if everyone within shouting distance of her level of fame, most of whom have more fortune, did such things just as often.

omar little, Saturday, 29 July 2023 19:51 (two years ago)

It's Rourke on bass.

Indeed.

That video brought tears to my eyes. She was such an electrifying performer. Whatever "it" is, she had it in abundance.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Saturday, 29 July 2023 19:58 (two years ago)

Sinead O'Connor's death is really hitting me and not just for the sadness of her tumultuous life on display for all to see.

My best friend Jennifer Miller introduced 'The Lion & The Cobra' to me when we were teenagers.

They are both gone now and I grieve for them both now.

Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Saturday, 29 July 2023 20:00 (two years ago)

I hear you. So many echoes with that time. I am feeling my age.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Saturday, 29 July 2023 20:00 (two years ago)

I think over time she's going to be regarded as one of the actual greats

100%.

mark e, Saturday, 29 July 2023 20:01 (two years ago)

had a vivid flash of recollection the other day when I saw this photo again

not sure of photographer (Mark Seliger i think?) but it was def circa 1992/1993 for the rolling stone

i did this really elaborate pen & ink project for year 12 art class, and made these 4ft tall handdrawn feathered angel wings with calligraphy over top (i think some Oscar Wilde poem idk) that i framed in like big wooden churchy-type frames

but i only just remembered that my entire inspiration for the texture & style of wings came from this photo of Sinead <3

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/21/a8/d6/21a8d6ba740a14f12bf36f991b3912ec.jpg

werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 29 July 2023 20:21 (two years ago)

I think over time she's going to be regarded as one of the actual greats

100%.

At her best, she was untouchable.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Saturday, 29 July 2023 20:37 (two years ago)

Yeah, I also wasn't a fan of the Chrissie Hynde tribute, particularly "a mixture of joy and torture. A true artist" - the torture was a result of her doing something right and brave, and most of the rest of the world shitting on her, it wasn't an essential quality of her or anything.

Andrew Farrell, Saturday, 29 July 2023 21:51 (two years ago)

what, are we tone policing Christie Hynde now? I thought she was full of love, who cares if a few of her views are dated.

assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 29 July 2023 22:04 (two years ago)

otm please calm down

werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 29 July 2023 22:06 (two years ago)

Sinead talks about the shoes she stole for her friend for the pretenders gig in her memoir, just read that bit this morning. I think Hynde's tribute was nice, certainly not as objectionable as Morrissey's (which was too self serving).

I'm just now listening to the reggae album which I had no idea even existed, wtf this is her third best release after the first two, so amazing.

I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Saturday, 29 July 2023 22:13 (two years ago)

wow thanks autocorrect for coining “Christie Hynde”.

assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 30 July 2023 06:04 (two years ago)

I saw Buddy Guy last month (his farewell tour) and he talked about the time the governor of Louisiana promised him they’d honor him in some way. Guy’s response: “My mother told me, ‘if you’ve got flowers to give me, give them to me now while I can smell them, because I'm not going to smell them when they're on the casket.’” (They acted accordingly and Guy was able to see them rename La. 418 after him.) That came to mind when video of people literally putting flowers on a makeshift memorial for Sinead came up on my feed.

birdistheword, Sunday, 30 July 2023 06:23 (two years ago)

Bless her for dropping in Yellowman's "Nobody move, nobody get hurt" at the end of Emperor's New Clothes.

Freeze Instr., Sunday, 30 July 2023 06:32 (two years ago)

Finished the memoir, a few thoughts. The first two thirds are definitely more organized than the last third which she states, near the end of the book, is due to it being written after her hysterectomy which sounds like it may have been an unnecessary surgery with a botched care routine following. What that means for the book is that the first 2/3s are an essentially chronological examination of events and their impact in her art and life; and the last third is basically a series of vignettes plus some chapter length dissections of her last few records. Her writing is conversational through and never seems false or overthought; she is blunt, but her insights are certainly poetic in a sense. She appears entirely gracious , sometimes too hard on herself, and over all, honest. She definitely looks forward at the possible ramifications of her death (given that the ending followed an attempt). But she also sounded hopeful about the world as the pandemic was lifting. She clearly loved her children so much.

I learned a lot about her from reading it, I hope eveyone with a passing interest in her reads it too.

I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Monday, 31 July 2023 03:24 (two years ago)

Agree with all of the above.

mike t-diva, Monday, 31 July 2023 09:38 (two years ago)

Two tributes I saw over the weekend that I really liked--

Walter Chaw: https://decider.com/2023/07/28/sinead-o-connor-butcher-boy/

(our own) glenn mcdonald: https://furia.com/newparticles/current.html

niall horanburger (cryptosicko), Monday, 31 July 2023 14:56 (two years ago)

SINEAD O'CONNOR AND NEGATIVLAND: A U2 STORY
Back in the early 90s the story of the lawsuit against Negativland over our U2 EP, and the issues that lawsuit raised, only grew into a big and impactful news story when it broke nationally in the Washington Post and internationally in the London Times and Irish Times (and that's what led to it eventually becoming a big enough pain in the ass for the band U2, their manager, and record label, for them to actually start responding to us).

But to get that kind of coverage in those pre-internet days, how in heck could we ever manage to get the word out to mainstream media in the hope that they'd write about what was happening to us? Well, we'd need to have a really great mainstream media mailing list - the names and addresses of actual writers who might write about it so we could sent them our press releases. Being as underground as we were, a list like that was definitely something that Negativland did not have.

Enter Sinead O'Connor. Sometime in late 1991 we got a phone call (how did she get our number? We forgot to ask!) from Sinead O'Connor's assistant who told us that Sinead was following our saga, was appalled at what was happening to us, and wanted to help. Would we like a copy of her press list for the entire planet Earth? Hell, yes we would!! With all we had learned from our HELTER STUPID saga, we knew that a list like that was the missing piece to further our fight for the right to make art out of other people's intellectual property. Sinead's press list was sent to us and boy did we use it.
Of course this all came to mind for obvious and very sad reasons. Thank you, Sinead! Wherever you are now, if you are anywhere at all, we are grateful for your help and hope you are doing okay...

out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Monday, 31 July 2023 15:20 (two years ago)

The obit I slapped together.

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 31 July 2023 17:37 (two years ago)

That was very moving, Alfred.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 31 July 2023 18:27 (two years ago)

Yes--don't know if I commented at the time, but I loved your obit too, Alfred.

Re: the Best Sinead Covers post you followed the obit up with, the Cover Me blog posted a similar round-up that mentions a few you don't, including an ABBA cover I had no idea existed until now: https://www.covermesongs.com/2023/07/in-memoriam-sinead-oconnor.html

niall horanburger (cryptosicko), Monday, 31 July 2023 19:44 (two years ago)

This is a nice little chat about music she had with the BBC in 2012.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b01kv7c7

droid, Monday, 31 July 2023 20:40 (two years ago)

Here's a clip that hasn't made the rounds much: Sinead singing a couple of songs at a local Bowie tribute a month after he died. She seems pretty happy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzhiwB1uC08

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 1 August 2023 02:36 (two years ago)

today i just wanted to say that "the emperor's new clothes" is the greatest song of all time

ivy., Tuesday, 1 August 2023 15:06 (two years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVV5FRER2lI

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 1 August 2023 15:11 (two years ago)

i wish stephan jenkins had not forgotten almost every lyric of the song (a song where every! lyric! is perfect!!!!) before performing it but that still made me happy this morning

ivy., Tuesday, 1 August 2023 15:14 (two years ago)

Singing backup on one of Dusty Springfield's last TV performances:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htKms09CVJw

peisistratos, Tuesday, 1 August 2023 21:30 (two years ago)

oh wow

Poor Little Fool Killer (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 1 August 2023 22:21 (two years ago)

today i just wanted to say that "the emperor's new clothes" is the greatest song of all time

― ivy., Tuesday, August 1, 2023

otm

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 2 August 2023 00:26 (two years ago)

still can't really bear to think about this

soup of magpies (geoffreyess), Wednesday, 2 August 2023 04:22 (two years ago)

Yeah I'm just remembering MM as that's what I read, dunno if the NME poked "harmless" fun in her direction to the same degree. Did the mainstream press (UK) even acknowledge popular music at that point?

― Best regards, HM Revenue & Customs (Matt #2), Monday, June 7, 2021 3:47 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

NME was just as mean to her IIRC, there was so one particularly vile aside that was so appallingly hateful and unnecessary it made me mad for years thinking about it. O'Connor wasn't even the focus of the piece which was just some dumb filler article but this attack on her was just thrown in as a "hilarious" aside. Can't even remember what it was about now, the pointless mean-spiritedness of it just got to me.

I do however remember the writer responsible, Johnny "Cigarettes" Sharp. I sincerely hope he lies awake at night cringing at some of things he wrote when he was younger, it would only be fair.

"Spaghetti" Thompson (Pheeel), Wednesday, 2 August 2023 08:18 (two years ago)

The only weekly UK music paper that got behind The Lion And The Cobra was Record Mirror, who very much championed her. I remember this quite clearly, and having just checked the end-of-year albums lists for 1987, the album was indeed only listed by Record Mirror, and ignored by NM£/MM/Sounds.

mike t-diva, Wednesday, 2 August 2023 10:26 (two years ago)

That’s … wow.

assert (matttkkkk), Wednesday, 2 August 2023 10:33 (two years ago)

A similar cold-shoulder happened when Kate Bush first emerged, and I think it had a lot to do with the perceived stylistic uncoolness of both artists, when set against what was considered as "relevant" at the time. Both initially drew on influences that were way outside of the prevailing rockcrit canon.

mike t-diva, Wednesday, 2 August 2023 10:49 (two years ago)

I was a bit of a NME fanboy and didn’t really click with Sinead until I Do Not Want, but even at the time it was clear that the debut was an important record. She really was a lightning rod for the misogyny that industry types thought they had managed to conceal.

assert (matttkkkk), Wednesday, 2 August 2023 11:42 (two years ago)

Listening to Jackie off her debut for the first time this week. Wouldn't be surprised if Brett Anderson had been a fan at the time, faint hints of Daddy's Speeding in there.

PaulTMA, Wednesday, 2 August 2023 11:56 (two years ago)

ooh! Good catch.

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 2 August 2023 12:01 (two years ago)

This is decent piece from SR in an '88 MM

http://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2023/07/rip-sinead-oconnor-that-voice-paragon.html

droid, Wednesday, 2 August 2023 13:52 (two years ago)

Two tributes I saw over the weekend that I really liked--

Walter Chaw: https://decider.com/2023/07/28/sinead-o-connor-butcher-boy🕸/

(our own) glenn mcdonald: https://furia.com/newparticles/current.html🕸


The first one of these focuses on her role in The Butcher Boy, I was just trying to find clips of her role just now but ofc YouTube has gone to shit. Anyway, excerpting my favourite part as it relates to this small but unforgettable role, but the whole piece is worth your time:

While collecting peat in the bog one day, Francie is visited by a holy vision of the Virgin Mary — of course, Jordan cast Sinéad O’Connor to play the role. “Hello, Francie. How are things? Worried, Francie? What were you worried about?” Her tone is so kind and countenance so gentle it’s possible to forget for a moment what she represents as the single most visible and uncompromising critic of the Catholic Church in the world playing one of its most profound objects of worship.

Reunited on the outside with his friend, Joe (Alan Boyle), Francie hallucinates an atomic attack, in the aftermath of which he sees the burnt corpses of the town as blackened pigs and the Virgin Mary in a destroyed television set, cooing an Irish song (“Beautiful Bonduran by the silvery sea/your golden strand charms so grand”) from the wreckage of the world. When he talks with her again, now as a grown man doing his best to act the right way after a lifetime of persecution and injury, failed psychiatric treatments and occasional forced institutionalizations, she says “the world goes one way, we go another, do you get my meaning?” I’m not sure Francie does get her meaning. But I do.


It’s very hard to explain without having seen the film, but it was such a perfect piece of casting and performance in a tiny but key role and she delivered it with humour and grace.

Anyway I can’t find her version of the song she sings in the film, so here’s her cover of She Moves Through The Fair which is the best thing about Neil Jordan’s messy Michael Collins film.

https://spotify.link/sbhJuZccWBb

a love song for connor wong (gyac), Wednesday, 2 August 2023 14:13 (two years ago)

And sorry if that song has been posted previously, there’s been a lot of posts

a love song for connor wong (gyac), Wednesday, 2 August 2023 14:13 (two years ago)

V good read:

https://zacharylipez.ghost.io/never-get-old/

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 2 August 2023 15:20 (two years ago)

My favorite moment in The Butcher Boy is when Virgin Mary Sinead says, "Fer fuck's sake, Frankie!"

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 2 August 2023 15:23 (two years ago)

Dave Stewart posted what looks like live footage of Sinead singing the vocal track for “Jealous” (one of my favorites):

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvLUDdQNKHD/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

birdistheword, Thursday, 3 August 2023 05:11 (two years ago)

y’all, Alfred is on this week’s NYT popcast pod.

just starting it now :)

sknybrg, Thursday, 3 August 2023 17:47 (two years ago)

Oh! Didn't know it went live!

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 3 August 2023 17:51 (two years ago)

i started listening earlier this morning & said HOORAY out loud when they intro’d him

werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 3 August 2023 18:28 (two years ago)

Excellent work Alfred!

Here's the link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/03/arts/music/popcast-sinead-oconnor.html

birdistheword, Thursday, 3 August 2023 19:22 (two years ago)

So sad to hear about Sinead O' Connor; thee definition of fearless. I once got punched by someone when DJ'ing in the early 90s after going from some mad UK hardcore track into her version of "I am Stretched on your Grave" (so much for PLUR!). Will try that again this weekend!

— Optimo (Espacio) (@JDTwitch) July 26, 2023

PaulTMA, Friday, 4 August 2023 00:20 (two years ago)

Alfred, your crushing this ep of NYT Popcast!

ripersnifle, Friday, 4 August 2023 00:58 (two years ago)

*you're

ripersnifle, Friday, 4 August 2023 01:57 (two years ago)

I think I made too many obvious points but thank you! I appreciate it.

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 4 August 2023 03:36 (two years ago)

Great conversation. Really enjoyed the discussion on cover versions and Sinead’s approach to them. I lost the thread fairly early in her career, so the points made here, and on today’s pod, are making me eager to dig back into her catalog

sknybrg, Friday, 4 August 2023 04:42 (two years ago)

I think I made too many obvious points but thank you! I appreciate it.

One can never be too obvious for New York Times readers/podcast listeners.

but also fuck you (unperson), Friday, 4 August 2023 15:16 (two years ago)

lol

Poor Little Fool Killer (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 4 August 2023 15:17 (two years ago)

Great episode, superb guest. Gave Sinead the historical weight she so deserves.

Indexed, Friday, 4 August 2023 18:18 (two years ago)

Thank you!

and good morning!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNAqVfCvr-I

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 5 August 2023 12:06 (two years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hj4370BMCE

droid, Tuesday, 8 August 2023 10:24 (two years ago)

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvMQ0hqtz6D/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 8 August 2023 11:26 (two years ago)

(Sinead doing "Princess of the Posse" with Latifah on her talk show#

Love that so much because it's 100% being done because Sinead loves that song, it's not like that is a song most people even remember

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 8 August 2023 11:28 (two years ago)

I finally got a chance to listen to the podcast. Alfred, you were brilliant. The host was pretty insufferable.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Tuesday, 8 August 2023 12:32 (two years ago)

thanks, jimbeaux :)

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 8 August 2023 12:35 (two years ago)

Is there a link to the podcast that doesn't require me to login/create an account?

niall horanburger (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 8 August 2023 13:05 (two years ago)

Try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRz2XiwgHoo

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 8 August 2023 13:16 (two years ago)

Listened this morning: really good stuff, Alfred!

mike t-diva, Tuesday, 8 August 2023 13:29 (two years ago)

enjoyed listening alfred! especially nice that you helped steer the convo past the usual pope/nothing compares stuff, the b52s cover was a really great surprise

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 8 August 2023 14:40 (two years ago)

A very touching poem from her brother that was read at the funeral yesterday.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2023/08/09/blackbird-in-dun-laoghaire-a-poem-by-joseph-oconnor/

droid, Wednesday, 9 August 2023 13:42 (two years ago)

five months pass...

The London Inner South Coroner's Court has issued a statement that says O'Connor died from natural causes. The court added that they have now ceased their involvement in O'Connor's death.

birdistheword, Tuesday, 9 January 2024 15:12 (one year ago)

Yep.

droid, Tuesday, 9 January 2024 16:32 (one year ago)

"Mere hours before her cause of death was shared on Tuesday, it had been announced that a special tribute concert to O’Connor and the late Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan will be taking place at Carnegie Hall in New York in March. Irish singers Glen Hansard, David Gray, Dropkick Murphys, Cat Power and Amanda Palmer are among the musicians taking part, with more to be announced."

Apologies to Cat Power but I may have to bomb this.

Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 9 January 2024 17:02 (one year ago)

The Irish singer died by natural causes

Is this going to change the narrative that everyone seems to have adopted, based on certain assumptions?

Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 9 January 2024 17:44 (one year ago)

Because that linked yahoo article (and the term "natural causes") are still pretty ambiguous, here's a more unambiguous statement from WaPo:

Most deaths from natural causes are not reported to any coroner but if a coroner found natural causes it would never be a suicide.” If someone dies of “natural causes,” this means that they did not die by suicide, or in an accident, or by a drug overdose, he said.

enochroot, Tuesday, 9 January 2024 17:58 (one year ago)

So what then was the cause of death? Presumably this means she had some kind of sickness, but what was it?

lord of the rongs (anagram), Tuesday, 9 January 2024 18:01 (one year ago)

xxxp that carnegie hall tribute show includes a $20,000 "nothing compares 2u" package where you get to weigh in on the order of the songs being played? https://citywinery.com/new-york-city/events/nothing-compares-2-u-wjs0ta

BrianB, Tuesday, 9 January 2024 18:12 (one year ago)

aren’t coroners different in every state? I think there was a Frontline about that. Natural causes may be more or less ambiguous depending on the locality.

Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Tuesday, 9 January 2024 18:14 (one year ago)

I bet the boys of the NYPD choir don't even be there (especially since there's no such thing)

StanM, Tuesday, 9 January 2024 18:59 (one year ago)

six months pass...

https://consequence.net/2024/07/sinead-oconnors-cause-of-death-disclosed-by-her-family/

O’Connor’s death was initially ruled as the result of “natural causes,” but the death certificate provided specific details on the reasons behind her passing. It specifically cites an “exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma together with a low-grade lower respiratory tract infection.”

an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 29 July 2024 13:28 (one year ago)

so she didn't kill herself?

Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Monday, 29 July 2024 13:35 (one year ago)

did you assume she had?

i am reading Rememberings right now and it is so delightful.

Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Monday, 29 July 2024 13:43 (one year ago)

(xp) No she didn't but I can't imagine smoking like a chimney all her adult life helped.

Defund Phil Collins (Tom D.), Monday, 29 July 2024 14:08 (one year ago)

i totally did assume she had yes

Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Monday, 29 July 2024 14:58 (one year ago)

i hated that most coverage seemed to take that for granted. rip

maf you one two (maffew12), Monday, 29 July 2024 15:03 (one year ago)

! figured it was a body malfunction, potentially aggravated by her choices while alive but I did not think she ended her own life.

Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Monday, 29 July 2024 15:25 (one year ago)

I think when someone famous has experienced a lot of public trauma and their death is reported without a clear cause, a lot of people will assume it was suicide whether it's reported that way or not

the absence of bikes (f. hazel), Monday, 29 July 2024 15:33 (one year ago)

Yes

Thrapple from the Apple (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 29 July 2024 17:01 (one year ago)

I remember Jon Jost (interesting filmmaker, but a problematic asshole to put it mildly) blasting the media for not reporting it as a suicide even though most reports did mention her personal struggles, basically suggesting it as a strong possibility. The responses against his rant listed all the reasons why that would've been irresponsible and why there were good reasons not to if the family wanted to keep it private, but he just spewed a bunch of arrogant and even paranoid nonsense. (He tried to draw parallels to how the news media in the 1960s covered the Vietnam War of all things.)

birdistheword, Tuesday, 30 July 2024 03:55 (one year ago)

they announced a while ago that it was a health condition and not suicide and I was myself very surprised.

I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Tuesday, 30 July 2024 03:58 (one year ago)

Her son killed himself in January 2023 and she was hospitalised a little later after threatening to "follow him" - which will have affected a lot of people's reading of her death.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/14/entertainment/sinead-oconnor-hospital-intl-scli/index.html

Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 30 July 2024 07:01 (one year ago)

Sorry, January 2022 was the date!

Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 30 July 2024 07:02 (one year ago)


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