Rolling Obituary Thread 2023

man, so sad

I'm just reading now about her son also. :(

wtf, was not ready for this

Documentary was amazing. She put up with a LOT of shit. Total hero and ahead of her time. Was hated by practically the entire world. Except Kris Kristopherson. The story of them at Bob Dylan's bday party is amazing.

nononono

fuck this completely

On Channel 4 News just now, Matt Frei is such a dick.

Shit, this is terrible news. And fuck people who should have known better (yes including you, Melody Maker) for mocking her back in the day.

I was already a fan of I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got (too young to have heard the debut), but the disgusting fallout from the SNL incident in '92--does anyone remember Joe Pesci eliciting applause on the show the following week by threatening to punch her out?--put me forever in her corner. RIP.

Having been a Catholic kid at the time I don't recall any effort in the media to contextualize it or take it seriously as a protest against child abuse in the church. To superstitious Catholics she was perceived totally as a bald, Satanic bitch and the media was more than happy to take their lead, as she had already been outspoken on numerous things before that.

rip
xp
yeah ch4 news was a disgrace, first question put to dave fanning was " do we know how she died?"

Joe Pesci, what a little poisonous reactionery gimp he turned out to be.

RIP

I didn't know, or had forgotten, about Madonna's reaction to the incident.

terribly sad news about Sinead O'Connor.

Madonna's response was true cowardice/self-serving spotlight theft imo

Madonna was ignorant and it was an appalling response & she also tone-policed like the good little soldier of patriarchy she is, but I’ll stick to hating Sinatra and Pesci more.

Joe Pesci threatened to smack her in an “S.N.L.” monologue, and later, on that same stage, Madonna mocked her in a gently condescending fashion, play-scowling and ripping up a photograph of the tabloid-star sex offender Joey Buttafuoco. O’Connor was condemned by the Anti-Defamation League and a group called the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations, which hired a steamroller to crush hundreds of her albums outside of her record company’s headquarters. The Washington Times named her “the face of pure hatred” and Frank Sinatra called her “one stupid broad.”

Greatest generation

think that Madonna's response hurt her a lot more than decline phase Sinatra or Pesci, tbh, i think the latter pair couldn't be expected to understand it at all or say anything bright when they did open their yaps. Read a couple interviews where Sinead indicated as such re: Madonna. Good for Kristofferson, of course.

Not sure why Madonna would understand it any better. None of these people did.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1_O4gHXgAQmT6O?format=jpg&name=large

Did Madonna speak of the incident elsewhere? I always took her SNL parody as a purely "Look at me!" move, borne out of irritation for Sinead having scooped her moment during the launch of Erotica and Sex, though perhaps no less ignorant or appalling for all of that. The Sinatra and Pesci responses where closer to the tone that I recall permeating at the time: basically a feeling of relief over temporarily being granted blanket approval to publicly threaten a "difficult" woman with violence.

Yep that’s a better way of summing up my own reaction to it.

for way too long into a supposedly more enlightened age she had to suffer thru even more forward-thinking music sites like pitchfork reviewing her albums by referencing her with words like trainwreck, mess, meltdowns, embarrassing, etc. she was one of the few telling people the truth back then, the early '90s were full of such political rot even in music, and she really did the right thing.

just watched the last few episodes of 30 Rock and they featured Tony Bennett singing and someone ripping up a photo of Sinead

the pope photo rip is an all time amazing moment and it came at a time in the US when that shit was much less likely to be accepted by the general public (as it is, it still would generate controversy even today, but anti-religious messages have a bit more acceptance now. this was a time where she knew she'd have just about nobody on her side afterwards and she did it anyway like a badass).

Not surprised even later SNL people (i.e., the 30 Rock crew) would be particularly stupid about it tbh; she made clear how limp that 'radical' show was

cryptosicko otm about the general tone

in my mind i conflated her controversy w/the Andrew Dice Clay appearance, in that they happened in close proximity, which was mostly wrong -- she actually cancelled her appearance on the show in protest of his appearance, and it wasn't until two years later that the photo rip occurred.

It's an amazing performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0VpfiMcPPA

XP She did SNL twice: the S16 premiere in the fall of '90 (presumably a make-up for the Dice Clay thing, which happened the prior spring), and then the notorious appearance in October '92.

and her hands didn't shake, damn

Here's the Madonna appearance, which was _over three months later _, in January of'93.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDtQdrb87Fs

Joe Pesci's episode was also notable when his musical guest, Chris Barron of the Spin Doctors, torn up a photo of Greil Marcus.

just go ahead now

I feel like the world owed her a lot more joy

a million times this

Seeing as we’re all sharing stories about Sinéad, I remember this one from when she tried to help Irish trans youth in 2017.

She never punched down to any one. She did so much for Ireland, a shame Ireland couldn’t do the same for her. pic.twitter.com/EoUH6a7GkV

— 🏳️‍⚧️ Dean Tāne 🏳️‍🌈 (@Maccadaynu) July 26, 2023

Really love this tweet

Respect to Sinead….. She stood for something… Unlike most people…. Rest Easy..🙏🏽 https://t.co/3nbO3w22zv

— ICE T (@FINALLEVEL) July 26, 2023

rip and im not sure when i last said it and meant it so sincerely

what a hero, fuck this world and its letdowns

She really seemed to be the first in that vocal style.. thinking of the yelping in "Mandinka", later to be heard in The Cranberries and even Shakira

^^^(though Siouxsie was clearly an antecedent)

Dolores O'Riordan, rest her soul, was a clone of Sinead.

sorry but there are zero clones
her voice was once in a lifetime

people are mentioning Sinatra and Pesci but let's not forget how Camille Paglia said that in Sinéad's case, child abuse was justified. Professor of humanities, my ass.

Last paragraph of the Telegraph eulogy vs. last paragraph of the Guardian obituary pic.twitter.com/4JK0cUF7Hw

— Tabitha McIntosh (@TabitaSurge) July 27, 2023

The last paragraph of the Guardian's "death as news" has that beat:

• This article was amended on 26 July 2023. An earlier version included a tribute to Sinéad O’Connor from a Twitter fan account dedicated to Seamus Heaney, who died in 2013.

She "lacked the determination" to stay a pop star? Fuck me, that is a disgusting take. She's said more than once the fact her Pope outrage tanked her "pop" career was basically a blessing.

One unfortunate aspect for me personally is I now know about this irredemable piece of shit journalist, John Waters, she was in a relationship with.

Geez, what was Sinatra's deal? This was even before the SNL incident:

In 1990, the Irish singer made headlines when she insisted that the National Anthem not be played prior to her performance at the Garden State Arts Center, now known as the PNC Bank Arts Center, in Holmdel.

“I sincerely harbor no disrespect for America or Americans, but I have a policy of not having any national anthems played before my concerts in any country, not even my own, because they have nothing to do with music in general,” said O’Connor at the time.

She was vilified for her stance, and leading the chorus against her was Hoboken native Frank Sinatra, who played the arts center in the days after O'Connor's performance.

“She should leave the country. Her behavior is unforgivable,” said Sinatra. “For her sake, we’d better never meet.’

oh christ, that John Waters is the guy you always see pictured with Gemma O'Doherty and Farage.

Yeah he is a real fucking piece of work.

John Waters into the “multiculturalism” bit now. Immigrants “have no affinity or allegiance to the countries they end up in” HEAR HEAR

“This is our fault because we don’t demand it”. Applause. More applause. #Irexit

— Richard Chambers (@newschambers) February 3, 2018

Sinatra and Pesci a little too "quiet part out loud" about wanting to beat up a woman they disagree with.

Well Sinatra had plenty of experience in that didn’t he.

I think what's so hateful about that Guardian Sinead obit is the way it frames her whole life in negatives - "she lacked the obsessive drive needed…never had another hit…inability to edit her pronouncements...constitutionally unable to compromise…" Talk about removing agency😡

— Tracey Thorn (@tracey_thorn) July 27, 2023