The singer Sinéad O’Connor called “mindblowing”
The late Sinéad O’Connor helped redefine Irish music, bringing it into the modern era and ridding herself of the stereotypes attached to artists from the Emerald Isle. She was a unique individual who used her songs to tell her truth and frequently shined a light on injustice, two traits that O’Connor looked for in other musicians.
At the beginning of her burgeoning music career, O’Connor moved to London. Initially, she found the English capital to be an isolating place as she knew few people. However, records were there to offer a source of solace for the singer-songwriter, who found herself smitten with the work of Van Morrison after she was introduced to the Northern Irish musician through a friend.
Similarly to O’Connor, Morrison, who first rose to prominence thanks to his work with Them, has never fit the bill of a typical Irish artist. First and foremost, Morrison is a lyricist with an innate knack for storytelling, a skill that O’Connor greatly admired.
In her 2021 memoir, Rememberings, O’Connor explained how her friend Nigel was responsible for enlightening her about Morrison’s mesmeric talent. “Nigel gave me two tapes of Van Morrison songs. I never heard him before. He sounds like one of those Tibetan monks, the kind who use their voices for healing,” she wrote.
O’Connor continued: “I get hoovered up by him into some university beyond the veil. It isn’t about his words; it’s what he does with the sounds of them. He’s taken me to where I’m supposed to study. I see beautiful stone buildings, golden-buttressed.”
This discovery proved vital in her musical awakening, and his music continued to play a pivotal role in her life. Furthermore, O’Connor named Morrison’s 1973 album Veedon Fleece, which spawned fan favourites such as ‘Streets of Arklow’ and ‘Cul de Sac’, as one of her favourite albums of all time during an interview with the Daily Express in 2014.
In her assessment of the album, O’Connor again praised Morrison’s use of the English language, noting: “He’s up there with Dylan and wrote these songs wandering around Ireland, which was extremely volatile in the 1970s. ‘Who Was That Masked Man’ is the most beautiful discussion of terrorism I’ve heard. It’s very mellow, and his use of language is mindblowing.”
While they never collaborated in the studio, O’Connor did record a cover of ‘Who Was That Masked Man’ in 2020, which, combined with her comments about the track, suggests it was her favourite song by Morrison.
Additionally, in 1995, they joined forces for a duet on Letterman and were backed by the traditional Irish group The Chieftains for a rendition of ‘Have I Told You Lately?’ The track originally appeared on Morrison’s 1989 album Avalon Sunset; watch the performance below.
