When my wife and I watched the superb 2022 Sinead O’Connor documentary, “Nothing Compares,” a month or so ago, my ultimate takeaway — besides being struck, again, by Sinead’s singularly arresting voice, artistic fearlessness, and political courage in speaking truth to power — was this: She was right about pretty much everything she spoke out against, and whom she spoke up for.
As a young, unapologetically outspoken and fiercely independent Irish woman standing outside the institutional corridors of power and privilege who dared question its imperious authority, Sinead was — of course — summarily scorned, ridiculed, shunned, and publicly punished.
Booed and mocked even at a Bob Dylan 50th birthday concert at Madison Square Garden supposedly celebrating the legacy of a master provocateur who wrote and sang righteous, anti-authoritarian anthems such as “Masters of War,” “The Times They Are A’ Changin'” and “Blowin’ In The Wind.” Let that tone-deaf hypocrisy sink in.
I remember watching this ugly, troubling travesty unfold in real time and wondered if anybody in the well-heeled, star-studded audience actually even knew who the hell Bob Dylan was.
Even though many of us, at one time or another over the years, probably worried about and braced for O’Connor’s early death after so many years of struggle and trauma, including the suicide last year of her beloved son Shane (she also has three other children), and her own publicized suicide attempts, this still feels like a blindside attack on humanity and the human spirit.
O’Connor’s death marks a sad and terrible loss of a remarkable person and supremely gifted, mercurial artist who blazed like a white-hot comet and lit the sky, before the demons that tormented her, and the crushing weight of the world pulled her down.
And of course, these lyrics from “Emperor’s New Clothes” feel prescient now, portending what was to come:
“Everyone can see what’s going on
They laugh ’cause they know they’re untouchable
Not because what I said was wrong
I will live by my own policies
I will sleep with a clear conscience
I will sleep in peace.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VLy1A4En4U
A Lion, A Cobra, A Phoenix From The Flame: Sinead O’Connor (1966-2023)
RPM: Jonathan Perry's Life in Analog 
This really captures how and why her fearlessness—politically and sonically—made her into such an extraordinary, exotic creature. The courageous can’t flourish when venality rules, and god help you if you’re a woman. I hope she is sleeping in peace.
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Great piece Jon. That Dylan concert moment is so maddening. Thank God for Kris Kristofferson.
She was an incredible artist. I saw her in NYC at The Beacon or Town Hall mid career post SNL backlash. At one point she stood on the front of the stage and sang acapella without a microphone (what I think may have been an Irish traditional song) and she completely captivated the entire room. It was silent and her voice was so powerful It felt like a transcendent moment. I will never forget that concert experience. Easily one of the most moving performances I’ve witnessed. Rest in peace Sinead.
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