Sinéad O’Connor has died at the age of 56 years old. She was a fixture on MTV with her version of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” and the #1 album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. She was nominated for dozens of awards between 1989 and 2015 – carried by her soothing, soulful voice. Her life was filled with battles personal, political, and religious. While her cause of death has yet to be known publicly, she’d mentioned ending her own life a few times in recent years, struggling with depression and bi-polar disorder.
Make no mistake, she pissed a lot of people off too. She was an outspoken Muslim, denigrating other religions, and later backpedaling her comments against the backlash received. She once claimed that Prince got violent with her, then backpedaled that, and she had a spat with Madonna about the famous SNL Pope-photo incident, probably (and sadly) what most people associate her with.
There have been countless recaps over the last week about her highs and lows, and how she was brave (and ultimately completely justified) in speaking out against the crimes of the Catholic church.
My favorite Sinéad moment was her 1994 Duet with Shane MacGowan on “Haunted.” The song, originally recorded years earlier by The Pogues with Cait O’Riordan handling the female part, was a single for Shane’s first solo album. O’Connor’s voice is the beauty to the beast that is MacGowan’s growl. The song, not hurting from a little over-production, is beautiful. A few years later she’d call the cops on her friend, tired of watching drug-addled bodies carried from his flat to the morgue, waiting for one of them to be him. Add Shane to the list of people she rubbed the wrong way, but it may well have also saved his life, and they eventually reconciled.
RIP Sinéad O’Connor. They don’t make `em like this anymore.
Randy Meisner was a founding member and bassist for the Eagles from 1971-1977. He passed last week at the age of 77. Meisner was best known as the lead vocalist on their hit “Take it to the Limit” and for his high harmonies, one of the elements in the complicated fabric that made the band great. He hated the spotlight and sometimes wouldn’t play “…Limit,” or just skip the climactic outro because he didn’t feel like it that night. This drove the bosses (Frey & Henley) bonkers, and fisticuffs erupted backstage after one of those occasions in Knoxville. Randy quit the Eagles after the Hotel California tour and was replaced by Timothy B. Schmit, who had ironically also replaced Meisner in Poco a few years earlier.
Like Sinéad O’Connor, but for different reasons, the Eagles are a polarizing band. Randy Meisner was a key to their early success, their peak with Hotel California, and ultimately the drama that spread throughout their ranks as they sputtered to the end after the inconsistent The Long Run in his absence. But man, this video makes the hair on my arms stand on end. For my money, it’s magic.
RIP Randy Meisner.
Jeremy Porter lives near Detroit and fronts the rock and roll band Jeremy Porter And The Tucos. Follow them on Facebook to read his road blog about their adventures on the dive-bar circuit.
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