"Nothing compares to you, except maybe a banana, peeled or unpeeled, I don't care, though when they're unpeeled they can get awful messy"

December 31, 2011 3:27 PM

Sinead O'Connor plays a concert in a church in Reykjavík at Iceland Airwaves last October. Icelandic state broadcaster, RÚV, recorded the concert and you can listen to it in full. There is some talking in Icelandic in the beginning, but the concert starts up at around three and a half minutes in. This concert was not long after her online jokes about her lack of companionship making her resort to bananas. She cracks many jokes about that and the fact that she's playing in a church. And she's in brilliant form as a performer and plays for almost two hours. As a bonus, here's not-very-high-quality video of that night's rendition of Nothing Compares to You, which includes a bit about bananas.
posted by Kattullus (11 comments total)

She and Morrissey would be perfect for each other.
posted by punkfloyd at 3:38 PM on December 31, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ah, nice. Was a shame I missed this the first time around, being stationed elsewhere. Thanks!

(Og gleðilegt nýtt ár, félagi!)
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:38 PM on December 31, 2011 [1 favorite]

Her amorous post is really quite charming (to me). I know it's a little bit absurd to feel sorry for rock stars and movie/tv stars, but in the context of long-term romantic relationships, almost everything is stacked against them. And it's not as if it's easy to find love and to keep it working for the rest of us, either. It's nearly impossible for them.

What kind of blows my mind about it is that the core difficulty is that anyone who is interested in them in any way because they're a celebrity is rightly suspect, but that level of interest is directly proportional to how famous they are. There have been a few famous people that I've thought are very attractive, and I've known enough about them to think that I'd actually really like them, and then I'll think, well, just the fact that I'm interested without having ever met them excludes me from consideration. From their perspective, I'm one-quarter of the way to being a stalker already.

So pretty much everybody they meet, even when it seems earnest and genuine, they're still thinking all the time, is this person only interested in me because I'm famous? Or, hardly less disturbing, is this person only interested in the person they think I am, some imaginary person in their head?

And so let's say that stage is successfully navigated, but then there's all sorts of problems in actually maintaining a relationship. The partner can't be prone to jealousy, of course. But even if they're not, maybe they should be. Because while finding love is difficult for the famous, finding sex with people eager to have sex with them is not. But let's say that's not a problem. There's still the issues involving lifestyle. A lot of these people are traveling much of the time, away from their partners. And, more damaging I think, is just the cultural divide if the partner isn't also a rock star or movie/tv star. But when they are both in the business, then that's just trading one set of difficult relationship problems for another.

For most of us, love and sex and relationships and all that is one of the two or three most important part of our lives. For many, it's the most important. So I do feel sorry for these folks because for all the benefits of fame and fortune, they're paying a pretty hefty price.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 5:24 PM on December 31, 2011 [10 favorites]

Thanks for this post
posted by Sailormom at 6:20 PM on December 31, 2011

Banana or no banana, she's a true inspiration. Unfortunately, I've been thinking about the vapidness of Kim Kardashian as this year ends -- Kim Kardashian, who even the queen of shallow journalism, Barbara Walters, recognizes as having no talent. It's hard to believe that Kardashian and the great Sinead are even the same species. I just watched her (in)famous SNL appearance where she tore up the photo of the Pope, and it brought tears to my middle-aged-man's eyes. Holy fuck.
posted by anothermug at 6:23 PM on December 31, 2011 [5 favorites]

Even more likely to bring a tear to your eye, anothermug, is her post-SNL appearance at a Bob Dylan tribute concert. At least that's the case with me.
posted by Kattullus at 7:54 PM on December 31, 2011 [1 favorite]

'Can't. Talk. Cock. In. Mouth'
posted by andywolf at 8:26 PM on December 31, 2011

Even more likely to bring a tear to your eye, anothermug, is her post-SNL appearance at a Bob Dylan tribute concert . At least that's the case with me.
posted by Kattullus

Wow, pretty great ... thanks, I hadn't seen that.
posted by anothermug at 9:10 PM on December 31, 2011

Can't she afford a proper vibrator?
posted by bardic at 12:03 AM on January 1

It's hard to believe that Kardashian and the great Sinead are even the same species.

And yet Kim's marriage this year lasted four times longer than Sinead's.
posted by shelleycat at 3:14 AM on January 1

Thanks for the concert links. She's a brilliant musician.
posted by immlass at 10:27 AM on January 1