So here we are. I am so very sad about the lost of the great and powerful Sinead O’Connor. There has been much said about her life, but mostly her sadness and her death. I wanted to repost this couple pieces I wrote a while back in celebration of her
All of this, Neko. I watched her documentary again yesterday to see if that would ease some of the ache (it kinda did). And what you said about the fuck-yous...YES! The biggest to Madonna. What a Pick Me. She could never stand another woman having the spotlight. Especially if that person has actual talent. Yes, I said it. You can't pose as a feminist icon when you have so much disdain for other female artists. (Also, WTF to Prince's Estate on not letting them use Nothing Compares 2U in the film?) Sinead was unique. She said over and over again that she never wanted to be a pop star, but people didn't hear that and still wanted to blame her for "ending" her own career, which actually kept going. (Universal Mother is a favorite of mine.) She always stood in her integrity. She always used her voice purposefully. And she was always right. May she have her deserved peace now. xo
I don’t think any of the deaths of musicians of our generation have hit me as hard. Thank you, Neko, for capturing what she meant to you so well. My own relationship with her music is similar. Her second album is the soundtrack to that period when I started to understand that I had power over my own life. I was 18. It was glorious and terrifying. She helped me see it.
As an aside: you also made me remember Sunday afternoons with my grandmother and Lawrence Welk. Oh how the Ukrainian babas loved him!
Another person of Lawrence-Welk-with-Grandma experience here. And then there was Sinead, who taught me to howl. She was true in an untrue world, always.
Thanks again for the passionate and brilliant write Neko. If we all knew the genius and courage it took to be her own self as the usual hacks took shots at her , and FWIW she was right and always was. I loved her as a diluted Irish Australian and as a deeply lapsed Catholic she helped me in my decision to step away in disgust at the abuse and misogony. When she sang traditional as well it was so wonderful, in her take on the Foggy Dew, she sings "It was there turn to die neath Irish skies" I wept. A deep loss felt deeply around the world. Vale Sinead
It was wonderful to hear Sinead reading her memoir Rememberings in her own voice, and now I want to read it all over again and listen to every song she wrote, sang, and collaborated on. I was in college when I heard “Mandinka,” and it stopped me in my tracks. So many small minded people just couldn’t get past her baldness and had no idea of the courage it took to call out the pope for his enabling abuse for all the world to see. Neko, I’ve seen quite a few tributes from artists since Sinead’s death, but yours is the best for capturing the essence of her music and its power to reach into the chest and grab the heart.
Thank you for the beautiful, gut wrenching, fierce writing. I wonder if you are aware of how much you share with Sinead in the way you inspire people with both your music and what you stand for. So for me it’s no coincidence when you describe her voice as Grand Canyon-y, as years ago I used to tell friends who were not familiar with you that you had a voice that could fill the Grand Canyon.
Sorry if I turned this post into being more about you. Like so many others I wore those early records out, and saw her as a heroic figure. I don’t think anyone who heard those records will ever forget them. At the same time I want to express my appreciation for the living, the bright shining light that is Neko Case.
I rewatched the Sinead documentary “Nothing Compares” and was moved so much. I’ve been going back and listening to her music, too. “This is to Mother You” is beautiful, and I finally realized she’s singing it to and about herself. As she got older, her voice was still powerful and her delivery nuanced. I will miss her.
Thank you Neko. Her death has hit me hard. I so wanted her to hang on but I honestly don’t know how she did for so long. I watched her rip that photo. I had the same feelings as her so I was so proud of her then people destroyed her! It was unbelievable how shitty she was treated the backlash was bizarre and unfair. But she was a woman and things were different back then. Her death has forced me to look again and it was so much worse than I remember or understood.
She was amazing and I hope she found peace because this life treated her terribly. She still brought me much joy and I’m forever grateful for her and her beautiful music and for sticking up for what she believed in.
After the song. The "I'm not" bit, right before shutting down the band and launching into quite possibly, the fiercest performanance ever recorded. Sinead was the most punk rock, punk! Hard-core courageous!
I still remember the summer of 1988, age 12, standing transfixed in front of the tv as this striking, bald woman howled and played this amazing riff that shook awake something in me. It felt rebellious in the most profound way to me. The summer I started my period and felt like screaming at how I was already being told what I could no longer do. I could feel the chains of my future tightening around me. And here she was, openly defying how women were supposed to look, act, and sound. A flame of defiance lit up, and there was no putting it out. We will carry it forward.
Thank you. I’ve been a crying mess for three days as I go as deep into the grief as I can. What Sinéad meant to me (and to so many of us) is difficult to express—but you say it well. She, as a self possessed person, modeled different possibilities of existing—ones full of aching tenderness and fierce, raw power in ways I’d never seen or felt. She, through her music and herself that she gave us, was formative for me as a sense of potential self. I’m sad thinking that I maybe took too much from her without a proper way to give back. Grief is complicated—especially since I really didn’t know her—but loved what she gave and what she meant / means to me.
Neko! (first thing I’m writing on Substack!) I could write for 200 hours straight about this whole experience. The moment I first saw Sinéad onscreen jamming Mandinka. Something inside me snapped. From then, I’ve been trying to figure out, explain to myself and others, what the feeling is that came from “experiencing” her…. Her otherworldly beauty- her eyes, her voice, her rage, her kindness, her humor, her confidence, her humility, selflessness, her story, her ability to communicate. Music was her art medium of choice, but she expressed her art in everything she did. Soooo…. What did this all become for me? I pretty much suck at processing emotions. I need music. Like, - lights out, late at night, headphones cranked to a volume that would make any audiologist cringe, dancing like a buffoon- I need music. And I would be cranking any of her music, all of her music. Then the tears would flow like dams let loose. Otherwise I would sit there lost in important conversations like a stoic prick. I physically needed it, or I didn’t know wtf I would do. How about Madonna, Debbie Gibson, Janet Jackson? (Robin Williams fake Scottish accent) “Fuuughh Noooohh”! You know that part in “last day of our acquaintance“ before the final chorus? I don’t even have to say it, because if you’re reading this here, you know.
I can’t believe she’s gone.
I honestly hadn’t listened to her music, that much in the last 10, years - but when I did, it was for a reason. Queue it up and say, come on girl, I got some business to take care of.
I’ve spent an unhealthy amount of time on Twitter and the socials over this. Not like me. I think the reason is I want to see who is going to send her off in the glorious praise she deserves, and who’s not.
I was trying to tell my daughter (16) how Sinéad taught me how to angry dance. She said What do you mean? I made her a playlist. Now she gets it. Lucky for me, she don’t have the pent up anger and hurt, so it doesn’t take her there.
God bless you all, thanks for reading, thanks for writing. Neko, (if you’re reading this! 😄) adore you, my life’s better because of what you’ve shared with us, for the past many many years!
God I loved reading this. Thanks Neko. She was my first love when I was 7 and I had no idea why at the time. Now I know.
All of this, Neko. I watched her documentary again yesterday to see if that would ease some of the ache (it kinda did). And what you said about the fuck-yous...YES! The biggest to Madonna. What a Pick Me. She could never stand another woman having the spotlight. Especially if that person has actual talent. Yes, I said it. You can't pose as a feminist icon when you have so much disdain for other female artists. (Also, WTF to Prince's Estate on not letting them use Nothing Compares 2U in the film?) Sinead was unique. She said over and over again that she never wanted to be a pop star, but people didn't hear that and still wanted to blame her for "ending" her own career, which actually kept going. (Universal Mother is a favorite of mine.) She always stood in her integrity. She always used her voice purposefully. And she was always right. May she have her deserved peace now. xo
I don’t think any of the deaths of musicians of our generation have hit me as hard. Thank you, Neko, for capturing what she meant to you so well. My own relationship with her music is similar. Her second album is the soundtrack to that period when I started to understand that I had power over my own life. I was 18. It was glorious and terrifying. She helped me see it.
As an aside: you also made me remember Sunday afternoons with my grandmother and Lawrence Welk. Oh how the Ukrainian babas loved him!
Another person of Lawrence-Welk-with-Grandma experience here. And then there was Sinead, who taught me to howl. She was true in an untrue world, always.
Thanks again for the passionate and brilliant write Neko. If we all knew the genius and courage it took to be her own self as the usual hacks took shots at her , and FWIW she was right and always was. I loved her as a diluted Irish Australian and as a deeply lapsed Catholic she helped me in my decision to step away in disgust at the abuse and misogony. When she sang traditional as well it was so wonderful, in her take on the Foggy Dew, she sings "It was there turn to die neath Irish skies" I wept. A deep loss felt deeply around the world. Vale Sinead
It was wonderful to hear Sinead reading her memoir Rememberings in her own voice, and now I want to read it all over again and listen to every song she wrote, sang, and collaborated on. I was in college when I heard “Mandinka,” and it stopped me in my tracks. So many small minded people just couldn’t get past her baldness and had no idea of the courage it took to call out the pope for his enabling abuse for all the world to see. Neko, I’ve seen quite a few tributes from artists since Sinead’s death, but yours is the best for capturing the essence of her music and its power to reach into the chest and grab the heart.
Thank you for the beautiful, gut wrenching, fierce writing. I wonder if you are aware of how much you share with Sinead in the way you inspire people with both your music and what you stand for. So for me it’s no coincidence when you describe her voice as Grand Canyon-y, as years ago I used to tell friends who were not familiar with you that you had a voice that could fill the Grand Canyon.
Sorry if I turned this post into being more about you. Like so many others I wore those early records out, and saw her as a heroic figure. I don’t think anyone who heard those records will ever forget them. At the same time I want to express my appreciation for the living, the bright shining light that is Neko Case.
I
now I'M crying...
when sinead ripped up the pope on snl i cheered. and then was stunned by the backlash she got.
i am so sad she died. i truly thought she was on the precipice of a comeback and apology from the public.
❤️ this one hit hard.
She sang power
I rewatched the Sinead documentary “Nothing Compares” and was moved so much. I’ve been going back and listening to her music, too. “This is to Mother You” is beautiful, and I finally realized she’s singing it to and about herself. As she got older, her voice was still powerful and her delivery nuanced. I will miss her.
Thank you Neko. Her death has hit me hard. I so wanted her to hang on but I honestly don’t know how she did for so long. I watched her rip that photo. I had the same feelings as her so I was so proud of her then people destroyed her! It was unbelievable how shitty she was treated the backlash was bizarre and unfair. But she was a woman and things were different back then. Her death has forced me to look again and it was so much worse than I remember or understood.
She was amazing and I hope she found peace because this life treated her terribly. She still brought me much joy and I’m forever grateful for her and her beautiful music and for sticking up for what she believed in.
KRIS: Don't let the bastards get you down.
SINEAD: I'm not down...
<BOOM>🔥💚✌️
And then ripping out her earpieces.
After the song. The "I'm not" bit, right before shutting down the band and launching into quite possibly, the fiercest performanance ever recorded. Sinead was the most punk rock, punk! Hard-core courageous!
I still remember the summer of 1988, age 12, standing transfixed in front of the tv as this striking, bald woman howled and played this amazing riff that shook awake something in me. It felt rebellious in the most profound way to me. The summer I started my period and felt like screaming at how I was already being told what I could no longer do. I could feel the chains of my future tightening around me. And here she was, openly defying how women were supposed to look, act, and sound. A flame of defiance lit up, and there was no putting it out. We will carry it forward.
Thank you. I’ve been a crying mess for three days as I go as deep into the grief as I can. What Sinéad meant to me (and to so many of us) is difficult to express—but you say it well. She, as a self possessed person, modeled different possibilities of existing—ones full of aching tenderness and fierce, raw power in ways I’d never seen or felt. She, through her music and herself that she gave us, was formative for me as a sense of potential self. I’m sad thinking that I maybe took too much from her without a proper way to give back. Grief is complicated—especially since I really didn’t know her—but loved what she gave and what she meant / means to me.
Yes. Yes, yes, yes.
Neko! (first thing I’m writing on Substack!) I could write for 200 hours straight about this whole experience. The moment I first saw Sinéad onscreen jamming Mandinka. Something inside me snapped. From then, I’ve been trying to figure out, explain to myself and others, what the feeling is that came from “experiencing” her…. Her otherworldly beauty- her eyes, her voice, her rage, her kindness, her humor, her confidence, her humility, selflessness, her story, her ability to communicate. Music was her art medium of choice, but she expressed her art in everything she did. Soooo…. What did this all become for me? I pretty much suck at processing emotions. I need music. Like, - lights out, late at night, headphones cranked to a volume that would make any audiologist cringe, dancing like a buffoon- I need music. And I would be cranking any of her music, all of her music. Then the tears would flow like dams let loose. Otherwise I would sit there lost in important conversations like a stoic prick. I physically needed it, or I didn’t know wtf I would do. How about Madonna, Debbie Gibson, Janet Jackson? (Robin Williams fake Scottish accent) “Fuuughh Noooohh”! You know that part in “last day of our acquaintance“ before the final chorus? I don’t even have to say it, because if you’re reading this here, you know.
I can’t believe she’s gone.
I honestly hadn’t listened to her music, that much in the last 10, years - but when I did, it was for a reason. Queue it up and say, come on girl, I got some business to take care of.
I’ve spent an unhealthy amount of time on Twitter and the socials over this. Not like me. I think the reason is I want to see who is going to send her off in the glorious praise she deserves, and who’s not.
I was trying to tell my daughter (16) how Sinéad taught me how to angry dance. She said What do you mean? I made her a playlist. Now she gets it. Lucky for me, she don’t have the pent up anger and hurt, so it doesn’t take her there.
God bless you all, thanks for reading, thanks for writing. Neko, (if you’re reading this! 😄) adore you, my life’s better because of what you’ve shared with us, for the past many many years!