4. Sinead O’Connor
1000 Mirrors – Asian Dub Foundation (featuring Sinead O’ Connor) (2003, FFRR Records)
Points 146
Highest Position: Second (Three times)
I’m going to start with a bit of praise for Ireland. In a roundabout sort of way.
I did try to make this all about the countries rather than just about the artists. I had, like the current Championships that are going on, six groups of four countries all set up and ready to go but the sheer logistics of all it was just overbearing and so rather pathetically I reverted to type and used the nomination process to make it all about the artists rather than the country.
Had I gone down the country route I think Ireland would have won the thing. They are the most represented country by quite a distance, in fact one third of all the acts in this top twenty are Irish (and a further five finished in the top 45). If I do the maths properly, an Irish band was more than twice as likely to feature in this rundown than any other country.
The Irish act with the most points was Sinead O’Connor who clawed back a nine point gap on fellow Irish folk Fontaines DCs, on the final day of voting thanks to one of those second places coming in from MJM Bucharest.
Here’s our old friend MJM Kirkcaldy, which despite my email protestations to Stephen Flynn and John Swinney has yet to replace Glasgow as capital of Scotland. They can’t have anything else to do with their time, so I’ll give it a week before I write to Mel Gibson, he’ll sort it and them out.
“Sinead O’ Connor’ is such an important figure in Irish music and society and there is no other option than to place her somewhere near the top of this list”.
Quite right. I’ve written about Sinead before in the series all about females in rock that featured on these very pages last year. She was great. A true maverick in a world of cardboard cutout identical rock stars. She was a proper inspiration and was one that was taken from us far too soon.
I guess that Sinead is best known for her first two albums, ‘The Lion and the Cobra’ and ‘I Do Want What I Haven’t Got’ and rightly so, but I found a copy of ‘Am I Not Your Girl?’ in a charity shop a couple of weeks ago and I’d forgotten what a tremendous record that is.
Success Has Made a Failure of our Home – Sinead O’Connor (1992, Chrysalis Records)
Don’t Cry For Me Argentina – Sinead O’Connor (1992, Chrysalis Records)
MJM Rome and MJM Helsinki also has something to say on Sinead. Here’s Rome,
“I didn’t really know much about Sinead O’Connor until firstly she sadly died and secondly after reading the No Badger Required piece on her last year. I mean I knew about ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, who didn’t, but the rest of her work was completely unknown to me and had largely passed me by. Now, ‘I Do Not Want, What I Haven’t Got’ is a firm favourite in my household. I adore the way it flits between updated Irish poems to scathing yet beautiful songs about racism. “
I Am Stretched On Your Grave – Sinead O’Connor (1990, Chrysalis Records)
Black Boys on Mopeds – Sinead O’Connor (1990, Chrysalis Records)
Nothing Compares 2 U – Sinead O’Connor (1990, Chrysalis Records)
And here is Helsinki
“Sinead O’Connor’s stature grows with every passing moment. Fearless, beautiful, and the owner of a wonderful voice. She is a legend.”
Damn right Helsinki.
Here is tomorrow’s lyrical clue. Good luck.
“Heeeeeeee-haw! He-haw!”
No Badger Required 