Sinead O’Connor Is More Important Than You Think.

good day to you one and all this is I Justin Hawkins and this is Justin Hawkins Rides Again um it's going to be a sad one today because I'm finally ready to talk about uh Sinead O'Connor who passed away last week um yeah I'm just gonna get on with it because this is a tribute and an obituary and a discussion about some of the things that her life and career or the topics that her life and career have raised nice one guys just in Wilkins writes again [Music] hiring version of the chord doesn't work now we know all right so Irish singer Sinead O'Connor died last week at the age of 56 years old and she was an incredible artist with a fraught past and a difficult life when we spoke about the Trope um of the tortured artist on my podcast one could say that Sinead falls into that category she used her pain and her passion to fight for justice and create music that moved the world and today I want to talk about her life and some issues her career in the music industry raises and confronts um she's primarily known for her cover of princes nothing compares to you with the number two the cover was one of the biggest selling singles of the 90s and the video became just as iconic in it we see Sinead startlingly beautiful haircuts within an inch of her head crying actual tears that's got to be one of the best examples of a cover version becoming the definitive version of a song I think when Prince did it was it one of his side projects that he released it under but I'm not sure but whenever you think about that song it's the Sinead O'Connor version I think that's front and center in our minds she really smashed it and made it her own um it's parent album I do not want what I haven't got sold seven million copies and was nominated for four Grammys um she's quite well known for having a shaved head as it was the antithesis of a normal pop stars look um I don't know I think in the olden days I think there was an obligation for particularly female artists to look a certain way and actually I think it helped you know rock people were obliged to look like rock people and you know depending on what genre you operated in it just it made it made your music more accessible if you also looked like the person you know a person that made that kind of music um she said um they wanted me to grow my hair really long and wear mini skirts and all that kind of stuff because the record Executives reckoned I'd look much prettier so I went straight around to the barber and shaved the rest of my hair off it was an act of defiance and a refusal that her appearance and femininity be commodified by the music industry I mean now it's kind of like we use our appearance to help commodify our art we use our life to commodify our Arts you know like when you sort of invest emotionally in a in a music artist you're not just talking about because the music moves you it's because of the way they look the way they live the stuff that they post on social media matters to you you know it's like that the whole existence is is becomes a commodity um now you know we just want to be commodified so badly it's all about how to monetize every aspect of the self and you know I think that's part of the reason why when we're talking about switching off after a show and going back to normal life that's just not really an option for a lot of people you know you just have to be you have to be on all the time and I think this is uh I think she was fighting that even even what 30 years ago that was more than 30 years ago though unsought her Fame gave her a platform for expressing herself um and to authentically support the causes that she cared about and she said our job as artists is to be ourselves and in doing so to inspire other people to be themselves um nothing compares to you made her one of the highest profile singers of the early 90s but she was constitutionally unable to compromise her her values um nonetheless it was her unswerving commitment to activism and truth-telling as she saw it um that kept her in the headlines she said I didn't want to be a pop star I wanted to be a protest singer she said she was outraged by the Catholic Church corruption and she campaigned for the arrest of Church officials and also used the platform of her Fame to denounce sexism in the music business and an array of other issues and during a 1992 appearance on the U.S variety show Saturday Night Live she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II inciting a storm of condemnation from America's large Catholic population we have come good over evil fight the Real Enemy and that Bob Dylan tribute gig in New York a little bit after that she was booed throughout her performance and even the endorsement of the songwriter Chris Christopherson who told her don't let the get you down failed to silence the hecklers um her name has become synonymous with courage and integrity Kris Kristofferson said but O'Connor never had another hit record in the states so I mean she she suffered no authenticity killed off her American Career actually it's funny how like um she was devout in in her insistence that she would use her platform for the activism about the you know the subjects that she cared so deeply about and we've talked about activism very recently because of the what happened with Matt Haley and the 1975 in Malaysia I mean just shows you we haven't moved on that far really in the in the 30 years in in terms of of activism um I suppose the advances we have made is is is you know being able to speak more openly about things like mental illness and stuff but when it comes to actually challenging The Establishment there's the same resistance and the same obligation for artists like Sinead O'Connor and Matty Healy believe it or not um to actually get out there and kick as much ass as possible for better or worse and no matter what the cost is to I mean if you think about the impact that they had on on Sinead O'Connor's U.S career I mean you've got to say there's going to be there's going to be some Fallout from the 75s recent Endeavors in Malaysia as well um but those are the I suppose the expression is you have to break a few eggs if you want to make an omelette time proof to write about the church's complicity and the abuse of children in the early 90s um though she was perceived by many as an eccentric with an ax to grind was accompanied by an inability to edit her pronouncements um in years before oversharing became the internet's default setting she regularly revealed uh she revealed troubling personal details about her mental health relationships and family causing one journalist to mock her as the crazy woman in Pop's attic to which she took great exception as you can probably imagine I think nowadays I mean I always think about this uh Sinead O'Connor's career had happened 30 years later um over sharing and talking about mental health issues it's it's more digestible now than it ever used to be you know I think perhaps perhaps because of people like Sinead O'Connor forcing us to confront those issues in a in a healthy way um you know I think I just think you know if she was expressing those things in 2023 nobody would bat an eyelid and everybody would come out in support but to be rejected as a crazy woman is just outrageous really she was looking forward to releasing a new album no veteran dies alone in 2021 the album was scrapped altogether after her 17 year old son Shane took his own life in 2022. may he rest in peace and may no one follow his example is what she tweeted at the time and she's survived by her three children Jake roshin and Yeshua um and I don't really know enough um to do her justice in this video and so please have a listen to um my friend the Irish music journalist Pat carty's radio piece on Sinead and I've done a link to that in the description because it will give you a better understanding of sinead's work and the world that she was navigating at the time um and I've also linked to the article that we used as a resource for this video um so yeah go and check out Pat's stuff it's it is always awesome he's a he's a great journalist and um really understood uh this the Sinead O'Connor stuff um I saw a lot of people were really really upset last week I didn't think it was uh I didn't want to just steam in and do an immediate obituary something just because someone dies I don't necessarily do that but I think um having given it a few days thought it was time today um so let's all spare a moment to consider Sinead O'Connor and her Legacy and the authenticity the art and the great work that she did and yeah we'll all miss her all right guys lots of love to you and I'll see you on the ice again look after yourselves guys never stop sharing or something nice

Channel: Justin Hawkins Rides Again

Views: 257,652

Keywords: justinhawkins, justin hawkins, justin hawkins interview, the darkness, the darkness music, justin hawkins music, justin hawkins the darkness, justin hawkins rides again, sinead o connor, sinead o connor songs, nothing compares 2 u, prince, irish music, music news, music reacion, music industry, music business, sinead o'connor interview, sinead o'connor live, music activism, music history, history of music, music podcast

Id: DImK1HqvA8U

Length: 9min 54sec (594 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 01 2023