The best covers illustrate the songwriters’ talents, as simple and simultaneously complicated as that can be.
Sinead O’Connor’s voice… her delivery, her phrasing… was a reminder, an illustration of Prince’s genius at a time when he was starting to get a little kookier, when some from my generation were starting to tune him out. The “1999/Purple Rain” days were definitely over. And then this song comes on MTV one day…
“Nothing Compares 2 U” is such an emotional gut punch. So much truth in these words. And O’Connor, while presenting such terrible vulnerability and fragility, also conveyed the power of an enduring – albeit extraordinarily painful – love.
She didn’t write the lyrics, but boy did she sing the shit out of ‘em.
For over 30 years, the passage,
“All the flowers that you planted mama
In the back yard
All died when you went away”
has just torn me up. Yes, such painful lyrics. But moreover, the voice. Such desperate, deep sorrow in that voice.
God, she had such gorgeous eyes. What a beautiful face.
Sinead O’Connor leaves behind 3 children, in joining another child in the next world.
