The Last Day of Our Acquaintance

Sinead O'Connor's first two albums were very good. I did not seek her out after that. She seemed a little too volatile. Still, she stood for what she believed. Famously, I turned off the episode of Saturday Night Live where she ripped up the picture of Pope John Paul II.

The show was in decline and I expected more from Tim Robbins who hosted during his hot streak of films. I don't regret turning the show off before the second song.

I never joke about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. No one I know was a victim, at least they never admitted it. Doesn't mean it didn't happen and the church that invented repression would move these predators to different parishes where they resumed bad habits.

Child sexual abuse is terrible no matter the conduit. When many musicians were showcased I discovered Sinead O'Connor. As my life was falling apart and the worst job ever was coming to a close she released her second album. I bought it new.

To the kids of today: there were establishments called "Record Stores" that sold records, cassettes and compact discs (less LP's at the time) where new music could be purchased and appreciated. Downloads seem disposable and royalties from Spotify could barely pay for a gum ball.

Another story, another reason we are stuck with Taylor Swift and nothing else. It should be noted the song I think of the least is Nothing Compares 2 U. I knew it from The Family.

Sinead O'Connor was not a one hit wonder. She took political stands, was a little frisky on The Arsenio Hall Show making accusations later that went nowhere and was right about Miley Cyrus.

To Miley Cyrus's credit she leaned into music rather than having a Britney Spears career where she is a spectacle rather than a performer. Have I reached the twenty-fifth anniversary of not caring about Britney Spears? She is a product.

Be a performer, an artist with something to say. I detest the word "Content." It is the lowest common denominator and some have blocked me for saying this. No one I need to see on LinkedIn anyway.

The ideas are what matter. Don't reward the most common, milquetoast ideas. There are carousels with the ten most popular accounts on LinkedIn. As if you couldn't figure out who has a large following.

The ones who comment "Great list" also wonder why their feeds are full of the same boring topics. Sinead O'Connor is similar to Terence Trent D'Arby in the sense the first two albums are fascinating, I stopped listening and they never stopped recording.

Both converted to Islam. That has no bearing on why I stopped listening. Radio stations are more prone to play new songs from a familiar artist that sound similar to their previous work. In the same era I was annoyed that Whitney Houston's second album sounded exactly like the first.

The third album had different producers and was not as popular. The next album was The Bodyguard. That probably remains the highest selling soundtrack.

Barbie has a soundtrack album. It should sell well. Not like The Bodyguard. Sales are not the only metric. I own many albums you, the reader, never heard. One of the great things about working with different people was they introduced me to different music I overlooked or was not aware of.

Seek out something different. I can listen to Sinead O'Connor's later works. I was not interested in the album of covers which ended up having her banned from Saturday Night Live. At a low spot on the show- who cares? Andrew Dice Clay was banned from MTV.

How did that affect his career? Not at all. He cultivated an outlaw image. I could list a few of the people who blocked me. They won't see it. They were so offended by my existence they gave me the death penalty.

It's not like I was connected to the guy with sculpted eyebrows and Kid N Play hairdo. Onward and upward- he blocked me before the pandemic. It hasn't stopped my trajectory. Sinead was more interested in making new music than selling millions of albums.

She dealt with more abuse than necessary. An abused, volatile person who speaks truth to power and doesn't care about creating an illusion? Can't imagine why I would have been drawn to her.

When the autopsy results come in- she lost her son early last year. Chances are she died of a broken heart. People go as far as they can and hopefully leave something we enjoy for years to come. What she said on Twitter will fall away with that site. We'll always have the music.