Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits

Subject: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Peter T.
Date: 25 Apr 03 - 07:41 PM

Sinead O'Connor says she is giving up the music biz. Never quite figured her out, but I can remember fondly her explosive arrival, extraordinary charisma, and sheer talent (not to mention that voice). She seems to have made all sorts of bad career choices (her album of standards is to wince at), imploded many times, and clearly offended all kinds of people. But no one can say that she isn't one of a kind (though you might not like the kind). Her first two albums can't help but be seen as classics -- I lost touch with the later stuff. Good luck, priestess.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: michaelr
Date: 25 Apr 03 - 07:46 PM

Where did she say that, Peter? There was a recent concert on TV where she did a few songs from the trad album (which I think isn't half bad, but that could be due to Donal Lunny and Christy Moore's contribution, as well) and some greatest hits. The band was great, and Ms O'Connor seemed to be having a good time. `Twould be a shame if she hung it up.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Peter T.
Date: 25 Apr 03 - 07:50 PM

Reported on the BBC today, yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: leprechaun
Date: 25 Apr 03 - 07:54 PM

Sinead's first retirement, what a memorable event!

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Apr 03 - 07:56 PM

Sorry PT......I recall we have always disagreed on her so I know you hate to see this happen. For myself...Good-bye and good riddance.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: DonMeixner
Date: 25 Apr 03 - 07:58 PM

I heards her do The Foggy Dew with The Chieftains. It was pretty good. Everything else has been too hard work.

Don

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: GUEST,sorefingers
Date: 25 Apr 03 - 08:04 PM

Amen to the sentiment Catspaw! Another hussy who should do it is Mad Donna...

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: GUEST, heric
Date: 25 Apr 03 - 08:04 PM

>> . . I would request that as of July, since I seek no longer to be a "famous" person, and instead I wish to live a "normal" life, could people please afford me my privacy. By which I mean I would like not to have exploition of my self or my name or anyone connected with me by newspapers.
I also mean that (with love) I want to be like any other person in the street and not have people say there is Sinead O'Connor. As I am a very shy person, believe it or not. So I ask with love, that I be left in peace and privacy by people who love my records too. And I hope it doesnt sound rude. It aint meant rude. I am glad that ye are helped by my songs. So help me too, by giving me what is best for me, a private life. . . . <<<

http://www.sineadoconnor.com/news.php

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Apr 03 - 08:06 PM

The Michael Jordan Club goes international.

~Susan

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 12:16 AM

Sounds fair enough. I hope she gets the privacy she desires.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 12:30 AM

Kinda ironic, innit, having her own dot-com and makig a very public announcement that she wants to be.... unpublic.

~Susan

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 01:25 AM

What better way to get the message out?

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Sarah the flute
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 03:49 AM

Oh dear! This is interesting news. My band have been asked to do a foyer event in Paris this autumn as a support for an evening concert featuring her good self and Mr Lunny! Wonder what will happen now.

Sarah

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 07:09 AM

I'm with Peter on this one. I respect and admire Sinead and she is one of the few female singers who really moves me. right up there with Joni, Aretha, Emmmylou on my list. The cynic in me agrees with the "first retirement" comment though. I hope for our sake that she'll be back, I hope for her sake that she does whatever brings her peace.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: gnu
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 07:35 AM

It would be a great loss if she chose to discontinue her creative efforts. Perhaps she needs a respite for renewal. As for your comments, Spaw, turn the damn channel. You've been awfully cranky lately... I hope you get a fresh box of cornflakes soon.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: catspaw49
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 08:11 AM

Cranky? Who me? Up yours gnu! I ain't cranky you jerk!!!

Anyway......I don't know why I don't like her.....really. Steve and PT and I have pretty much the same taste and by all rights, she fits right in and I should dig her. I dunno'.......Maybe there is something just a bit off for me....too strident maybe? Not her beliefs which are fine, but something a bit more in the voice maybe? Whatever it is, I just can't take her.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Big Mick
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 08:41 AM

I know whatcha mean, Spaw. She is extremely talented, and always has a fresh take on the music, but I just couldn't care less about her. I never have been able to put a finger on it. One exception......her interpretation of The Foggy Dew with The Chieftains is excellent and I love hearing it. But other than that I just don't care for her.

Mick

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: gnu
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 08:59 AM

Is Foggy on any particular CD ? I've never heard her do it and it is one of my favourite tunes.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Peter T.
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 09:30 AM

Yeah, it is weird. Somebody gave me her first album, and I thought, oh god, what a wailing mess; and then somebody else gave me the video of one of her concerts, and I thought, wait a minute! I think I like the fact that she was obviously someone born with a skin too few, nothing but nerve ends -- or maybe not born like that (she has regaled everyone with her abuse story). She seemed to me to be someone who had no veil between herself and her audience (a bit like Judy Garland towards the end). But like a lot of people it was "Nothing Compares To U" that did me in. I really don't think anyone has sung as well in those three minutes about bitter love loss since Billie Holliday (I mean that). Like someone throwing up broken glass. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Big Mick
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 09:43 AM

Gnu, it is on "The Long Black Veil". Off to coach a Soccer (football) game.

Mick

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: van lingle
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 10:34 AM

Maybe she should shave her head to help maintain the anonimity she seeks. Oh, wait. Doing the traditional material exclusively that she does so well (IMO) might be a good way to avoid fame. vl

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 10:43 AM

Ahhh to those who found/find Sinead's 'interesting' journey from one note to another a tad irritating......just remember

.....you didn't like Yoko Ono at first either.

Rick

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Alba
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 10:46 AM

Good Luck to her and more power to her if she seeks some Privacy.
I have always enjoyed her Music but did'nt like all of "Sean-nos Nua"
"Oro Se Do Bheatha'Bhaile" was really great, Loved the beat introduced to the song, but "My Lagan Love" I feel, took a beating. It is brave though to take these songs and present them in a different format. I just found it hard to like some of them presented that way but that is a taste issue not a talent one. In my mind there will never be a question of her Talent.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: GUEST,MTed
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 11:00 AM

Though I was not a big fan, I spent many hours pouring over her first two albums, owing to the fact that I had a a number of guitar students at the time who wanted to learn everything she had recorded. We had a deal, which was that I'd teach them to play anything they wanted, but no one was allowed to sing "Mandinka" in full voice in my apartment--

Like her or not, you really have to respect someone who ruined their career so thoroughly with a "Beau Geste"--

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 11:16 AM

I've NEVER liked Yoko Ono... Or Sinead for that matter...

And well, if she's fed up with being famous... she should move to Canada, where no one gives a rats ass about 'fame'...

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 11:39 AM

Clinton Spaw n' me all in the same camp then! I sort of thought of her as a legend in her own lunch-time, and what's more, she's not half the woman her father was.
Giok

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 11:54 AM

Now that's true Giok, Donald O'connor was one heck of a hoofer-song and dace man!

cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Peg
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 11:58 AM

I heard her perform live with the Chieftains and it was quite amazing actually. I heard she showed up at McGann's later that night and sang some traditional stuff. Would have liked to hear that too; I think most of the songs on the traditional CD are way over-produced and do not do any justice to her fine voice.

Good luck Sinead.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 12:06 PM

Rick, a dace is a sort of fish in the UK, how did he sing and fish at the same time?
Giok

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: GUEST,bloke in the Corner
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 02:37 PM

Vocie like an angel, but made the common mistake of the famous - viz Michael Jackson, Mick Hucknell, many others - of thinking she was in any way important other than as a singer. She has no credentials for telling me or anyone else about any aspect of religion or morality.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 06:02 PM

Giok, DAMMIT! I hate it when I'm being a wise-ass and make typos!

I'm tryin' to remember, when Sinead dared to dis the Pope, I seem to remember that only Kris Kristofferson came to her defence. Did anybody else....or would they have instinctively seen that as a career killer?

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Peter T.
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 06:17 PM

She came on Saturday Night Live, dissed the Pope, and then the next night (or a week later, sometime very shortly after) she appeared at the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary concert where she was booed off the stage (NewYawkers) -- this seemed to me a pity, as I have heard that she did a great "Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat". I have often wondered about what sort of comfort Kris Kristofferson gave her (jealousy rears its ugly head here).

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Pushkin
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 06:24 PM

Hair today gone tomorrow.

As she baldly goes where no woman has gone before.

And do we really care....................

Orc (typed by Pushkin as he's a lazy sod:-)

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Art Thieme
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 06:41 PM

Sorry, but who is she??

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Den
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 07:00 PM

I'm with you Peter. What a job on nothing compares 2 u. Real emotion. My favourite is her duet with Shane MacGowan on Haunted. You have Shane rough and ready and then Sinead, with the voice of an angel, what a combo and a great song. Peter if you haven't heard it check it out. Well said kat, twice. If Sinead wants to quit well I respect her descision. She had a pretty tough go early in her life and brought some enjoyment to others through her music. Good luck to her. Den

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Peter T.
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 07:41 PM

Thanks, Den, will do. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 09:08 PM

I love Sinead, and I loved the ripping up the pope pic episode. Another political maverick was host of the show that night--one who has been making news for his political stand on the war against Iraq too.

Anyone care to guess who?

I wish her the best of luck. I truly don't understand why more wealthy celebrities don't decide to take the money & run, bow out while they are at the top of their game, and retreat to a private life. I am sad to lose her great voice, of course. But I've got the CDs. She continues to be a brave, crazy woman willing to thumb her nose at the political and musical establishment, so I'll always love her for that. An absolutely mesmerizing singer, who did it all on her own terms.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: GUEST,MTed
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 10:15 PM

Just a passing thought, and that is, if you plan on blending back into the woodwork, why make a public announcement?

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 10:18 PM

To be thoughtful towards fans who have supported you for two decades maybe? Just a passing thought, since she made the announcement on a fan website.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 01:13 AM

Where else would she make it but a website? I have a recording of here doing "On Raglan Road" that sends shivers down my spine. I forgot Billie Holliday on my list, shame on me. But Sinead moved me, I hope that she changes her mind.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: GUEST,alinact
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 10:53 AM

Good!

Allan

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: leprechaun
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 02:20 PM

I suppose it's the business of nineteen year olds to be fashionably iconoclastic and, while they still know everything, to tell the rest of the world how to live. I wonder if she's any older now that she's reached retirement age. I confess to not paying much attention to her after her very public display of hate and intolerance. So for all I know, she might have wiped the snot from her nose and grown up.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Art Thieme
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 02:24 PM

Friends, I really have not heard of her. I'll try a search engine---but I figured...............oh, never mind.

Art

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 02:31 PM

I think young people who do things like Sinead and/or the Dixie Chicks did are usually judged way too harshly by their oh so superior elders.

Remember, it is what you learn after you know everything, that counts. I always give a tremendous amount of latitude to artists who do truly provocative things like Sinead did on SNL. First of all, it it weren't for them being willing to do it, we would rarely be able to open up to honest debates. Conventional wisdom and decorum just don't allow for honest, open debates.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Neighmond
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 04:21 PM

I never liked the woman, but she has talant, which I respect. Best of luck in whatever jorney she undertakes.

Chaz

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 01:08 AM

Art, her site is taking a lot of hits, right now, so you may not be able to access all of it. It is being moved, too, but if you click HERE, it will take you to it. Scroll down and click on the links to the rest of the site.

She made a big splash when she went on SNL in the 80's and very angrily ripped to shreds a picture of the Pope. From what I remember, I thought of it as a kind of ultimate "I survived an extremely patriarchal/repressive and abusive Catholic childhood, now stick it up yours" thing and applauded her for it. It was, imo and as I remember it, at the time, a very feminist statement, too. She also made waves in general by shaving her head which was pretty outlandish looking. And, she has a voice, as some of the others have said. You can read comments about her and about a few of her albums here.

Here's a bit of what she said about it in 1997, ten years after: From my personal experience," she says, "I identified strongly with the victims of the Church's sexual abuse. Which is what my tearing up the pope's picture was about. Many of the victims were not being helped by the Church. They were basically being shut up. I understand the importance of breaking down the wall of silence that surrounds abuse. There is more at this site.

Oh, just found an archive of a CHicago Sun-Times op/ed on her SNL pope picture ripping: clickety!

Didn't Willie support her, too, guys? I remember seeing her booed off stage at Dylan's thing.

Yeah, Den, thanks.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Gloredhel
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 02:25 AM

Hmph. She has a nice voice, but as far as I'm concerned she's spent a lot of her time not using it. I can't say I'll miss her.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: My guru always said
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 04:56 AM

I liked her voice, don't know about the other stuff. Just hope she keeps using her voice & doesn't box it up completely. Maybe she'll find happiness at sessions / singarounds, I hope so!

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: mooman
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 08:14 AM

It's a shame because I like a lot of her music, especially the earlier stuff, and she did have the guts to speak up as she thought right on some important issues. As a friend of mine likes to say "I don't mind if you have a different opinion to me...I just dislike people who have no opinion at all...".

Good luck Sinead...

moo

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 09:43 AM

Saw her on a chat show a while back & she seemed to have mellowed a lot & came across as a really nice person. I hope she gets the privacy she deserves & does whatever she wants with the rest of her life.
I always thought she was a bit of a crap singer though. Heard her live at a festival and she was all over the place - and her voice always seems to warble & wander a bit. Almost painfully off key sometimes. BUT - "Nothing Compares" was superlative - so she obviously can do the stuff.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: GUEST,duuuude
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 04:57 PM

Said she didn't want to be famous anymore, I think she accomplished THAT a few years ago. Good time to give something up is when you're totally out of touch with it anyway.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 07:30 PM

I like her voice. She sings "Factory Girl" on the Chieftains' "Tears of Stone" album with Paddy Moloney having done the arrangement. I really enjoyed it and it has become a favorite of mine. Other than that one cut from that one album I have not heard her sing. On the strength of that cut, though, I will now go out and purchase some of the CD's mentioned here. I don't care about her shaved head or her feelings about the Pope or any of that other stuff. I don't listen to musicians because of their "political positions" but because of their music.

CB

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: An Pluiméir Ceolmhar
Date: 29 Apr 03 - 04:10 AM

Didn't she already announce her retirement from music when she became a priest? Is she the new Nellie Melba?

She had a very troubled childhood, her mother was evidently very mentally unstable, but her brother Joe (whose "Irish Male" books incidentally are hilarious) says that she grossly exaggerates the unhappiness of the family environment.

I somehow can't help feeling that we haven't heard the last of her. Just wish she'd stick to rock music which is what she's best at.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: mexican
Date: 29 Apr 03 - 05:47 AM

People who chose to make money out of music/media/exposure/entertainment industry and then start whineing about privacy get on my nerves!

Would have been great when she started out If she was saying "don't play my records on the radio - I want privacy" or "Don't cover me in the media - I'm shy!"

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Apr 03 - 09:14 AM

am I too late to chime in with 'spaw and Mick? I always felt she was a "happening", not a singer. It was never 'listen to this neat song', it was 'look at Sinead and all the esoteric breathy stuff she's doing'.

Maybe I'm just too old.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Apr 03 - 09:46 AM

Kats her brother refuted her allegations of abuse, having seen her once or twice on RTE she come across as a very sour person, I think any abusing would have been done by her. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Apr 03 - 10:30 AM

Yikes, Ard, thanks for that. I have to say, though, in what I've read of abuse in families, that quite often only one child is singled out for the abuse. Also, I know from comparing notes with a couple of my siblings, that each has their own very specific memories of childhood and they don't always agree in the details.:-) Sometimes it sounds as though they were raised in a completely different family than I was!

kat

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 05:31 AM

I've always been irritated by her self-pity as well as her seeming assumption that her every thought and feeling is of limitless interest to the public, and that no one else ever suffered as she has. Her early life is hardly an uncommon story, unfortunately.

The famed ripping up of the Pope's pic seems less a political statement than sheer exhibitionism. There's an element of trolling in it – you just KNOW it's going to ignite strong reaction and get everybody talking about you. I wonder how purely ideological her true motivation was, and I don't believe the attention she seeks – and manages to attract – is displeasing to her. Otherwise why do it? No one is forcing her to be so public in non-musical areas.

A good voice, yes, but I certainly don't hear greatness in it. It will be interesting to see if she means it about quitting, and how many people will be prompted by this announcement to coax and beg her to stay.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: cockney
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 06:22 AM

Reminds me of hester who posts on this forum "I'm leaving" just to bring attention to herself.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: GUEST,James
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 08:26 AM

If it can be said of anyone that they squandered a huge talent..it can certainly be sais of Sinead..I love her music but I have always hated her posturing. I do hope she changes her mind and continues to sing. I will miss her music but not her foolishness.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Steve-o
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 12:01 PM

Way to go, Bonnie!! When I think of all the great folk singers who suffered injustices and shaved their heads and ripped pictures of the pope, it just makes me get all gooey inside. Why are we talking about this? Why am I reading this!? Art- save your money. There are hugely talented folk musicians all over the place who need the money you people are wasting on Sinead albums.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: Cluin
Date: 01 May 03 - 02:44 AM

Personally, she always bored me, not matter what she was singing or doing or saying. Much ado. "Look at me, I shaved my head. Look at me. I have an opinion. Listen to me. Here's where my life is right now."

Except once. I saw her singing with Van Morrison on the Letterman show. It was about the time she was on the outs after the Pope's piccy thingy and I guess Van thought he was showing some kind of solidarity by having her sing with him. She was acting kind of chastened, but Van was very drunk it seemed and was staggering around the stage, acting up. She kind of cracked a smile while singing her verse. And suddenly VM decided he would charge in and sing the last line with her. But he ended up lurching forward, grabbing at the mic and bouncing it off her front teeth. At the same time I was embarassed for both of them, I still laughed my ass off.

Subject: RE: Sinead O'Connor Calls it Quits
From: MARINER
Date: 01 May 03 - 05:06 PM

Ah come on folks! wise up! Every time Sínead makes a public statement or does something controversial it means she has an album or a single due out shortly. Have none of you spotted that?