Sinéad O’Connor – History of Sorts

What the World Needs Now is Love

This is just a tribute to some of the musicians who died in 2023. It will only be a limited list, because so many died, especially in January there were more deaths then there were days.

Jeff Beck, member of The Yardbirds, founder of the Jeff Beck Group and one of the most influential rock guitarists of all time, died on Tuesday (Jan. 10). He was 78 years old.

Burt Freeman Bacharach was an American composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist who is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential figures of 20th-century. He died on February 8.

Stephen Patrick Mackey (10 November 1966 – 2 March 2023) was an English musician and record producer best known as the bass guitarist for the Britpop band Pulp, which he joined in 1989. As a record producer, he produced songs and albums by M.I.A., Florence + the Machine, The Long Blondes and Arcade Fire, he died on March 2.

Timothy Gregg Bachman was a Canadian guitarist and vocalist best known for his work with rock bands Brave Belt and Bachman–Turner Overdrive (BTO). Bachman was one of the four founding members of BTO, a group that have sold nearly 30 million albums worldwide[1] and also featured his brothers Randy (guitar/vocals) and Robbie (drums), as well as Fred Turner (bass/vocals). He dies on April 28.

Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock) was a singer, songwriter and actress. Known as the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, she rose to prominence as the lead singer of the husband-wife duo Ike & Tina Turner before launching a successful career as a solo performer. She was recognized for her “swagger, sensuality, powerful gravelly vocals and unstoppable energy.”In 1994 she began living in Küsnacht, Switzerland, and relinquished her American citizenship after obtaining Swiss citizenship in 2013. She died on May 24

Christy Dignam was an Irish singer who was best known as the lead singer of the popular Irish rock band Aslan. His career of over 40 years was characterised by numerous successes on the Irish charts as well as recurring problems with drug addiction and recover. He died on June 13.

With her bald head, piercing eyes and fierce bearing, O’Connor burst onto the music scene in the late 1980s, serving as a rebuke to the parade of sexist tropes that dominated the era’s hair metal scene. She gave notice of her bold path away from the typical packaging of female pop stars from the very first notes of her 1987 debut, The Lion and the Cobra, which she recorded while pregnant at 20 with her first child. She died on 26 July.

Robbie Robertson, beloved guitarist, songwriter and front man of The Band, died after an unspecified long illness on Wednesday Aug. 9. He was 80 years old. He was lead guitarist for Bob Dylan in the mid-late 1960s and early-mid 1970s, guitarist and songwriter with the Band from their inception until 1978, and a solo artist.

Roger Henry Brough Whittaker was a British singer-songwriter and musician. His music is an eclectic mix of folk music and popular songs, the latter variously in a crooning or in a schlager style. He is best known for his baritone singing voice and trademark whistling ability as well as his guitar skills .He died on September 13

Steve Riley was an American rock drummer, best known for his work with Keel, W.A.S.P., and L.A. Guns.

After graduating high school in the 1970s, Riley moved to Los Angeles to pursue a music career.[2] In 1979, he joined a revival of Steppenwolf, but the lineup broke up later that year.[3]

Riley joined up-and-coming L.A. band Keel and recorded their breakthrough album The Right to Rock with them in 1984.Later that year, Riley departed Keel to replace founding member Tony Richards in W.A.S.P., another L.A. band whose debut album had recently achieved gold status in sales. As a member of W.A.S.P., Riley performed on the albums The Last Command, Inside the Electric Circus, and Live… in the Raw. He died October 24

Shane MacGowan was a British-born Irish singer-songwriter and musician best known as the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of Celtic punk band the Pogues. He also produced solo material and collaborated with artists including Joe Strummer, Nick Cave, Steve Earle, Sinéad O’Connor, Ronnie Drew, and Cruachan. Frequently noted for his exceptional songwriting ability as well as his heavy alcohol and drug use, MacGowan was described by The New York Times as “a titanically destructive personality and a master songsmith whose lyrics painted vivid portraits of the underbelly of Irish immigrant life. He died on November 30, making him the 3rd Irish music legend to die in 2023.

Denny Laine (born Brian Frederick Arthur Hines) was an English musician who co-founded two major rock bands: the Moody Blues and Wings. Laine played guitar in the Moody Blues from 1964 to 1966, and sang their hit cover version of “Go Now”. While the Moody Blues were on tour with The Beatles in 1965, Laine befriended Paul McCartney, who later asked him to join his band Wings.

Laine was a constant member of Wings for their entire run from 1971 to 1981, playing guitar, bass, keyboards, singing backing and lead vocals, and co-writing songs with McCartney including the 1977 hit “Mull of Kintyre” He died on December 5.

May they all rest in peace.

Nothing Compares to Sinéad

Ireland lost one of its most talented singers yesterday. Sinéad O’Connor was a great performer and artist, there were very few like her.

However, she wasn’t always known for her music, she had many controversial moments. She leapt to international fame with the release of her first record, The Lion and the Cobra in 1987, but her career catapulted in 1990 with her iconic cover of Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U. O’Connor and Prince didn’t meet until after her version of the song was recorded and released, apparently the pair didn’t get along when they finally did. It’s not clear what kind of relationship the singers had, but O’Connor alleged that Prince once locked her in his home and suggested they have a pillow fight, only to reveal that he had a hard object in his pillowcase. O’Connor said she ran from his property and he followed her in his car.

Prince had recorded “Nothing Compares 2 U” on 15 July 1985, but Sinéad O’Connor made that song her own.

Nearly from the moment Sinéad O’Connor appeared in the mass public consciousness, she created controversy: her first release, a song called, “Heroine,” co-written with U2’s guitarist the Edge for the soundtrack to a largely forgotten 1986 film called Captive, was swiftly followed by the singer causing a controversy by expressing her support for the IRA.

In 1991, she boycotted the Grammy Awards and refused to accept her award for Best Alternative Album, explaining that she believed that the ceremony was steeped in commercialism.

Her 1992 performance on Saturday Night Live, during which she ripped up a photo of the pope, was described by the New York Daily News as a “holy terror,” and attracted harsh criticism from everyone—Madonna to Joe Pesci.

In April 1999, a month after O’Connor attempted suicide, she was ordained as the first-ever priestess in the Latin Tridentine Church, a dissident Catholic group in her native Ireland. In 2007, she announced she had become a Rastafarian and also hinted she was bisexual. She later cancelled a tour because, she said at the time, she had learned she was bipolar.

Sinead came out as a lesbian in 2000 saying most of her life she’d gone out with “blokes because I haven’t necessarily been terribly comfortable about being a lesbian.”

She told Curve Magazine that she wanted to eventually become celibate.

In 2005, she said that she considered herself to be “three-quarters heterosexual, a quarter gay” during an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

In 2018 she converted to Islam and changed her name to Shuhada Sadaqat but she kept performing as Sinead O’Connor.

Finishing up with that iconic rendition of “Nothing Compares 2 U.”