Sinead O'Connor: C/D?

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?

"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.

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

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?

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."

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!)

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?)

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?

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.

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

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.

(xpost)

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

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🕸

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.

And sorry if that song has been posted previously, there’s been a lot of posts

V good read:

https://zacharylipez.ghost.io/never-get-old/

My favorite moment in The Butcher Boy is when Virgin Mary Sinead says, "Fer fuck's sake, Frankie!"

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==

y’all, Alfred is on this week’s NYT popcast pod.

just starting it now :)

Oh! Didn't know it went live!

i started listening earlier this morning & said HOORAY out loud when they intro’d him

Excellent work Alfred!

Here's the link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/03/arts/music/popcast-sinead-oconnor.html

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

Alfred, your crushing this ep of NYT Popcast!

*you're

I think I made too many obvious points but thank you! I appreciate it.

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

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.

lol

Great episode, superb guest. Gave Sinead the historical weight she so deserves.

Thank you!

and good morning!

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hj4370BMCE

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvMQ0hqtz6D/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

(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

I finally got a chance to listen to the podcast. Alfred, you were brilliant. The host was pretty insufferable.

thanks, jimbeaux :)

Is there a link to the podcast that doesn't require me to login/create an account?

Try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRz2XiwgHoo

Listened this morning: really good stuff, Alfred!

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

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/

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.

Yep.

"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.

The Irish singer died by natural causes

Is this going to change the narrative that everyone seems to have adopted, based on certain assumptions?

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.

So what then was the cause of death? Presumably this means she had some kind of sickness, but what was it?

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

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.

I bet the boys of the NYPD choir don't even be there (especially since there's no such thing)

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.”

so she didn't kill herself?

did you assume she had?

i am reading Rememberings right now and it is so delightful.

(xp) No she didn't but I can't imagine smoking like a chimney all her adult life helped.

i totally did assume she had yes

i hated that most coverage seemed to take that for granted. rip

! figured it was a body malfunction, potentially aggravated by her choices while alive but I did not think she ended her own life.

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

Yes

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.)

they announced a while ago that it was a health condition and not suicide and I was myself very surprised.

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

Sorry, January 2022 was the date!