as much as yer probably goin ape shit fer the excrutiate'n conclusion to
"THE GREAT PIPE HYPE" in yer poly blend culottes sipp'n on yer chamomile tea right about now...like MICK JAGGER once sang back in '69 (while some of you were actually participate'n in the artful act of the 69) "YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT"
so tune in next week to get yer rocks off...however...fer now...just deal with
this weeks empathetic and educational dedication to a true warrior of words!
along with MARY STEWART MASTERSON and LEA THOMPSON were give'n some of us Gen X'ers all kinds of unfamiliar feely bumps...pluck'n at our blackened heart strings thanx to the brilliance of another JOHN HUGHES teenrager romper in "SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL"
FREDDY was shredd'n our teenrager heart strings durin' our dreams in the latest slasher installment "NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3"
while i was try'n my damndest to hold onto my teenrager style and sanity have'n to play teeter totter with my emotional heart strings between home life and school life
and i finally found my own some kind of wonderful in the form of my irish
heritage who softened my teenrager heart strings like a JOHN WILLIAMS orchestra just enough when i discovered the spine tingle'n voice that had poured outta this brilliant buzz headed beauty from Dublin Ireland born Sinead Marie Bernadette O'Connor though known to all the alternative Mtv teenrage'n misfits and misfortunates in the late 80's simply as SINEAD O'CONNOR with her enormously sublime orchestrated freshman album that teeter tottered between a whisper and a scream thru-out "THE LION AND THE COBRA" (that i personally listened to on heavy rotation from beginn'n to end so many times that my casio cassette player decided to finally feast on it so i would play someone else)
SINEAD's debut record was a musically therapeutic testament to all the
physical...psychological…verbal and emotional torture SINEAD had suffered thru at the hands of her sadistic mentally ill mother at a very young age
i was instantly in love with SINEAD's lyrics and look when i stumbled
across her on Mtv's alternative music show "120 minutes" with the debut of her 1st single and video fer "TROY" which completely resonated with my own teenrager existence at the time
when she told us "I WANT YOUR HANDS (ON ME)" i was metaphorically all about it though the song was considered somewhat scandalous at the time by conservative critics and the church say'n she was promote'n promiscuity due to SINEAD's catholic upbring'n...bein preggers and unwed durin' the record'n and the AIDS crisis reek'n havoc around the globe
luckily (or unluckily) it was used as a back drop the follow'n year in the next installment of the slasher gasher "NIGHTMARE ON ELMSTREET 4" and helped SINEAD capture a whole new audience of admirers make'n her debut album earn gold status in the US and the UK
by the time 1990 had rolled around the world was in a trance by the sheer
unabashed beauty from SINEAD's sophomore album "I DO NOT WANT WHAT I HAVEN'T GOT"
furthermore by her pale skin...her painfully pure unaltered voice and a tiny unrehearsed tear drop shed from her eye in the video fer the sorrowfully heart broken power ballad of the PRINCE penned single "NOTHING COMPARES 2 U" catapult'n SINEAD into international stardom hold'n the #1 spot across 17 countries around the globe solidify'n her status as a truly outspoken incomparably honest singer and political song writer
in 1991 SINEAD would lend her vocals on the ELTON JOHN tribute cd
"TWO ROOMS" along with 15 other artists...record'n an absolute stripped down angelic-like version of "SACRIFICE" which was insane of them not to release it as a single in my only opinion
by september of 1992 SINEAD had earned numerous glow'n accolades
and had many accomplishments already under her belt by the time she was 26...without have'n to "follow the formula" and become just another pin-up tart twirl'n around in short skirts and long bouncy breck curls...refuse'n record pig execs request to get an abortion while lay'n the tracks on her 1st album...decline'n her grammy appearance and award fer best new alternative artist in 1991 compare'n her immense talent against other talents in the industry who were not recognized at all and decided to do a 360 departure from the unabashed critical success she had earned on her own merits with her 3rd album "AM I NOT YOUR GIRL?" release'n instead a collection of classic covers comprised of mostly jazzy numbers that she had grew up listen'n to and dedicated the album to the homeless people she had met in NY
a month later in october SINEAD was booked as the musical guest to be
on SNL and promote the album and sing'n the lead single "SUCCESS HAD MADE A FAILURE OF OUR HOME"
originally recorded by LORETTA LYNN in 1962 and her 2nd song was to be "SCARLET RIBBONS" originally recorded by JO STAFFORD in1949
however...when SINEAD returned to sing her 2nd number she alone had
changed it up and decided to scrap the 2nd song from the album and instead sang an absolutely powerful and passionate a capella version of BOB MARLEY's 1976 protest song "WAR" change'n up some of the lyrics to convey her razor-sharp message with uncompromise'n clarity...
with SNL creator/writer LORNE MICHAELS order'n the applause sign turned off as the audience sat dead silent while SINEAD ended her stunn'n performance by ripp'n up a picture of the pope she had gotten from her mom's bedroom after her death in '85...declare'n "fight the real enemy" in regards to the institutionally accepted sexual abuse and cover-ups done at the hands of the catholic church and the vatican fer years...
goin from rebellious superstar to global pariah over nite with numerous death threats directed at SINEAD fer speak'n in truth (not tongue) that would haunt her unbelievable enormous talent like a scarlet letter fer years
unfortunately her plea fell on deaf ears and SINEAD would sadly bare
the brunt of her performance that nite...treated like an insane enigma...the media lynched SINEAD in the press...the music industry banned SINEAD on the airwaves and the mob mentality of the hypocritically hysterical religious right wingers and war love'n mongers crucified SINEAD in the streets (with very little of her own colleagues in the biz speak'n up in support of her performance in fear of retribution of their own careers until it was too late) only to be proven 20 years later that SINEAD was right all along...without a SINGLE public apology which was NEVER given to her!
this sort of controversy of course was nothing new to SINEAD when years
earlier at her concert in New Jersey...SINEAD refused to have the star spangled banner played before her show prompt'n serial marital affair artist FRANK SINATRA declare'n "i wish i could have gone to see her so i could kick her ass" then a cheap PR stunt involve'n a steam roller was brought in to pulverize her cd's outside of her record company in NY while Minne-Apple superstar PRINCE chastised her fer swear'n in interviews after she had made his song #1 around the world and university professor/feminist who spoke about women's rights on a daily basis CAMILLE PAGLIA declare'n in an interview "in the case of SINEAD O'CONNOR, child abuse was justified!"
regrettably...things would only go from bad to worse fer SINEAD 2 weeks
after the SNL performance when she was asked to perform at the 30th anniversary BOB DYLAN tribute concert and sing "I BELIEVE IN YOU" recorded by BOB DYLAN in 1979...however she was greeted by a split audience of righteous cheers and deafen'n jeers from an over zealous crowd even though KRIS KRISTOFFERSON encouraged her to continue on by whisper'n in her ear "don't let the bastards get you down" SINEAD decided to cut off her band...scrap the song and once again sang BOB MARLEY's "WAR" a capella in defiance before exit'n the stage
i was even sickened when i seen the queen of the dance floor had decided
own very personal demons from her past and present...SINEAD would go on to record 7 more absolute brilliant albums "UNIVERSAL MOTHER" (1994) "FAITH AND COURAGE" (2000) "SEAN-NOS NUA" (2002) "THROW DOWN YOUR ARMS" (2005) "THEOLOGY" (2007) "HOW ABOUT I BE ME (AND YOU BE YOU)?" (2012) before call'n it quits in 2014 with "I'M NOT BOSSY, I'M THE BOSS"
include'n her rendition of the ABBA classic "CHIQUITITA" recorded in 1999 with all proceeds to benefit the victims of Omagh bomb'n in northern ireland carried out by the REAL IRA
not only was SINEAD a very accomplished incomparable political singer
many might not have known that SINEAD also found time to expand her artistic endeavors by starr'n in 3 films...1st in 1989 was a made fer tv movie where she played herself in "HUSH-A-BYE BABY" her 2nd chance in front of the camera was in the 1992 motion picture adaptation of "WUTHERING HEIGHTS" portray'n 1847 novelist EMILY BRONTE which was also RALPH FIENNES act'n debut and last up was in the irish black comedy directed by NEIL JORDAN back in 1997 "THE BUTCHER BOY" play'n a foul mouthed virgin mary which she also sang the title track
SINEAD also sang the end'n song to the dark true life story of irish journalist "VERONICA GUERIN"
born into the irish catholic ideology by no fault of her own...SINEAD had
said she never had an issue with catholicism in and of itself…it was the blatant cover-ups by the hierarchy so she had written a letter to pope's John Paul II....Benedict XVI and ultimately Francis to excommunicate her from the catholic church and by the fall of 2018 SINEAD would eventually renounce her catholicism and was reborn a muslim...change'n her name to SHUHADA SADAQAT (though professionally she still went by SINEAD O'CONNOR)
when the world was frozen at the beginn'n of the covid pandemic in 2020
SINEAD had found herself some creative spare time to lend her vocals with another iconic singer of the 80's BOY GEORGE on his album "THIS IS WHAT I DUB" cover'n the 1973 YOKO ONO track "DEATH OF SAMANTHA"
by 2021 it seemed like SINEAD had finally started to take control of her
past and her persistence by release'n her personal memoir "REMEMBERINGS" reveal'n a very candid account of a tortured teeter tottered existence as a tenderhearted soft spoken antagonist deal'n with the many trainwrecks in her life
which sadly came crash'n down after appear'n to reach out fer help in
2022 to cope with her life's long struggles regard'n her personal and professional demons and loose'n her 3rd child SHANE at 17 to suicide…who she said was "the lamp of my soul"
that same year SINEAD would also appear in an in depth documentary as only a voice over use'n stock footage aptly titled after her biggest hit "NOTHING COMPARES"
which is a true testament to an unrelent'n outspoken raw and revolutionary artist who used the power of her persona rather than to bother herself about chart success...to speak out against the many injustices in the world without a shred of regret
SINEAD fanned the flames fer the BLM movement back in 1990 with her
song "BLACK BOYS ON MOPEDS" and laid the stepp'n stones brick by brick fer the "ME TOO" and "WOKE" movement 30 years before it would ever become a household name from the main stream media and in 2020 SINEAD would cover the 1959 MAHALIA JACKSON song "TROUBLE OF THE WORLD" in response to the murder of GEORGE FLOYD in the Minne-Apple...donate'n all the proceeds to the BLM movement!
in 2023 SINEAD would bare her powerful pipes by sing'n the 19th century
scottish theme "THE SKYE BOAT SONG" to the time travel romance series "OUTLANDER" in season 7 as well as work'n on her 11th unfinished studio album and plann'n a world tour fer 2024 before her existence would be cut all too short
i was lucky enough to finally catch the extraordinary gifted SINEAD live at
the Pantages Theater fer her last appearance in the Minne-Apple back in 2007 gett'n lost in her emotional untamed heart on stage while make'n me equally as emotional in my seat at times...
nonetheless...it was worth every penny that nite just to immerse myself back into a time as SINEAD flipped thru the diary pages of my teenrager past and feel the pain and conviction that poured from her mouth even as i listen to her timeless legacy today…
and like her song goes…SINEAD’s sudden departure “FEELS SO DIFFERENT”
SINEAD was a phenomenally gifted artist who didn't just walk the walk
she had a message and needed to be heard by carve'n out her own path want'n more focus on her message than her mammary glands no matter how difficult it may have been at times...the media and the ill informed masses tried to poison her platform and shut her up but SINEAD's persistent voice only became louder even when no one was listen'n
SINEAD O'CONNOR had never set out to become a world wide pop star
she was a political activist with a multi-octave mezzo-soprano voice who had zero desire nor cared to conform to the record execs visons of what makes a pop star a pop star when she first put pen to paper...instead spitt'n hypothetical acid and invoke'n fear in the face of the industry image...destroy'n in the ultimate defiance of what the stereotypical beauty standards were fer women at the time by shave'n off her raven locks and opt'n fer Dr Marten's and denim jeans over Dolce & Gabbana
whether she was the Joan of Arc within the music consciousness or just
an arrow of adrenaline to the disenfranchised SINEAD's legendary lamb to a lion's roar vocal range and poignantly prolific lyrics have comforted me thru some rough times even to this very day and have defined and defied the music of a generation that will carry on til we no longer exist...declare'n by the end of the documentary to all her critics "they broke my heart and they killed me, but i didn't die. they tried to bury me, they didn't realize i was a seed"
now GET OFF MY DRESS!
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