Sinead O'Connor: C/D?

RIP. She was a force to be reckoned with. One of a kind.

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n14lwdpYkAA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=318ZDSy3zn4

Black Boys on Mopeds certainly made me lose it today.

this is it for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcO0fEabWHI

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.

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.

Re: Gospel Oak, I especially like this one (though it was released elsewhere too):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GDT-3pARec

Faith and Courage is probably worth revisiting too. "Jealous," "No Man's Woman" and "Daddy I'm Fine" are favorites.

Beth Orton’s Instagram post will burn you.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CvLU4kxNd9Q/

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

Terrific tribute by Dave Holmes: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a44655422/sinead-oconnor-death-tribute/

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

Listening to “I Feel Different” this evening broke me

like being swamped by an emotional wave

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

wow at that Terry Hall duet, lovely vid that <3

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🕸

“Here But I’m Gone” by Curtis Mayfield as the final song in her covers wishlist is particularly heartbreaking.

...and to think what she could have done with "Sign Your Name"!

Heartbreaking loss. The ilx community does provide some solace for which I’m thankful.

Adding a live solo version of Danny Boy from 1993. Just Sinead and her haunting voice.

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

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

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.

'for her'="over" & 'in the same of'="in the wake of" damn phone.

Seemingly against many odds this works

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJy77VV4okk

The Chieftains, Van Morrison & Sinead

I’d forgotten she’d done this, though I wish her voice was more prominent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KX05v4dpss

Angry. I feel like all of us let her down

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

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

Forgot to mention, I didn't realize this song was inspired by her brief relationship with Peter Gabriel.

Yeah Morrissey can stfu, he’s a racist piece of shit and O’Connor actually cared about racism, refugees and helping people.

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

This is something

1993 pic.twitter.com/xMY7XuO93R

— KillianM2 TV Archive (@KillianM2) July 26, 2023

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

in tears reading orton

Almost too obvious to say but "Nothing Compares 2 U" really is one of THE great cover versions isn't it?

xpost - Morrissey's post was completely self serving as always

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).

(xp) I seriously wish I'd never read it.

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.

Died in London it seems, she'd only recently moved there

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.

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