Sinead O'Connor's funeral took place earlier this week, an outpouring of sorrow and loss for a woman who clearly had a huge impact on many people. David Holmes dedicated his monthly God's Waiting Room radio show for NTS to Sinead, a two hour tribute with Sinead songs scattered throughout- I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, Black Boys On Mopeds, Jah Nuh Dead, Trouble Of The World, Troy, Don't Cry For Me Argentina, Silent Night and David's superb splicing of Nothing Compares 2U with his own remix of Orbital's Belfast. Alongside these songs are others courtesy of Grian Chatten, Bob Dylan, The Clash, John Lennon, Sly and Robbie, Keith Hudson and Janis Ian. It's a stunning way to spend a couple of hours and a beautiful tribute to Sinead. You can listen to it at Mixcloud and find the full tracklist at NTS.
David was part way through recording an album with Sinead, titled No Veteran Dies Alone, eight songs completed including Trouble For The World (which came out on Heavenly in 2020). He'd introduced himself to her at Shane McGowan's 60th birthday event and on his Instagram page described recording her vocals as being in the presence of greatness, 'like recording Nina Simone, Billie Holiday or Karen Dalton'.
More Sinead- Rich Lane created his own unofficial remix of Sinead's Jackie, a song from her debut The Lion And The Cobra. Rich made it in 2016 to play at a gig in Dublin. It's not available to buy or download (more's the pity) but you can listen to it here, an electronic throbber with 808 blips and cowbell and Sinead's voice on top.
In 1994 Sinead made an album called Universal Mother. Fire On Babylon, produced by Bomb The Bass's Tim Simenon, was released as a single and appeared on Top Of The Pops to promote it. The grooves/ bytes/ TV studio seem almost to small to contain the power and intensity of her vocal, not to mention the huge dub bassline that underpins it. Sinead is singing live and the moment at three minutes where she comes back in singing 'Fire!!!' is both breathtaking and bone chilling.
Lyrically Fire On Babylon deals with Sinead's mother and how Sinead was treated as a child. The video for the song didn't hold back, a film made by Michel Gondry (who also made videos for Bjork's Human Behaviour and Protection for Massive Attack) and which depicted Sinead's childhood. It's a fierce, intense and mesmerising video and song- like the woman herself.
No comments:
Post a Comment