Sinead O'Connor: C/D?

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.

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/

Re: Camille Paglia, that clip was in the documentary. What a garbage human being.

xp that version of "you're the one" — unbelievable

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

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

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”

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

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.

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)

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

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

damn it sucks to get only the opening of these stories bc i quit twixer, fucking elon

Now we need to hear from Billy Idol

...and Steve Lawrence (still alive at 88)!

and Henry Kissinger (still alive at 873!)

Stevie Ray Vaughan is dead, and we can't get Jon Bon Jovi on a helicopter.

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.

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.

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

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. 🙏

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

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!

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.

Her dancing!

Great song. Heard it for the first time tonight.

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.

CAN’T BEAR TO BE IN ANOTHER CITY
one where you’re not

Always liked this: Willie Nelson & Sinéad O'Connor, "Don't Give Up"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO6fAJcN89k

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

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.

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.”

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

Um…

Okay, I guess it was kind of a good and in-character put-down or something.

Think you need to have a good working knowledge of Bob for this to be funny, yes.

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".

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

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

Something quite lovely that I'd never seen before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fE8l25CG2E

That's such a good cover! Perfect.

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

Assuming that previous one is a Go-Betweens cover. Looking forward to clicking later.

Ha sorry. Somebody once referred to “Apology Accepted” as “All Apologies” and since then I have gotten them *Mixed Up*

interesting that her version is so restrained, I kept expecting her to throw in some Cobain growls

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jul/28/david-holmes-on-producing-sinead-oconnor-final-album

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

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

I didn’t realize this bootleg existed - 8 CD’s of her non-LP work:

https://www.45worlds.com/cdalbum/cd/nc640109xb

Been reading her lyrics online the past few days and this, this morning, made me laugh:

https://flic.kr/p/2oSj39U