I’ve been aware of her since she was the background singer for World Party. And that ages me, I know.
Also her first album was The Lion and the Cobra, NOT the one with Nothing Compares 2 U, as the media keeps reporting. And that first album is pretty much an under-appreciated masterpiece.
She was so mistreated by the media and the world, man.
Thank you for setting her music in a contest for (slightly less old) people like me (not that I’m young).
I just listened to her debut album and you are right, this is extremely good stuff. I was a bit surprised that it came out in 87, the production reminds me more of a more spacious trip hop record - so far it seems to have aged very well.
Thanks again for recommending this, you made a person which would probably have never listened to that do it with headphones on a stormy evening - guess that’s the most you can do for a musician you adored.
And that first album is pretty much an under-appreciated masterpiece.
Indeed! Her love versions of "Troy" give me the chills. It's a good song on record but her intensity of the live performances lifted it into legend territory.
Troy is the first Sinead O'Connor song I ever heard. It's filled with so much love and pain and rage. I was too young to understand it, but I listened to it a lot. It remains one of the most powerful artistic expressions I've encountered. Here is a live performance and the music video.
I grew up in the 80s and 90s in catholic house, so all I really knew about her was she ripped up a picture of the pope on SNL. I wasn't familiar with her music at all. Then around 2001 I went to a Dropkick Murphys concert and before they came on stage they played The Foggy Dew by The Chieftains. I had never heard this song before and I remember being absolutely enamored by the ghostly vocals and having no idea it was her singing. 20+ years later I still get chills listening to it.
Dropkick Murphys used to (maybe still do?) play her Foggy Dew as the lead-in track to their set, and it never failed to get the crowd stomping, and well up tears in my eyes.
She was protesting about the physical and sexual abuse of children by the church. The criticism helped to continue the protection of pedophiles, which continued for decades and still happens.
Joe Pesci (a study in short man syndrome) said on TV he wanted to slap her for ripping up a photo and the audience applauded him for it.
hyperbole
hī-pûr′bə-lē
noun
A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in I could sleep for a year or This book weighs a ton.
When I first heard her on 'The Lion and the Cobra' in '87 her voice hit me like a truck, and it left a mark that never went away. She was 100% an artist, never a mere entertainer. Such a loss 💔