Salon.com > Sinead O'Connor

Margaret Thatcher, grotesque puppet

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:33:00 +0000

Of the many things for which Margaret Thatcher, who died Monday, will be remembered, surely one of her most enduring and oddest legacies will be role as a pop culture muse. She was a woman who could coax songs out of Elvis Costello and films from Stephen Frears and Derek Jarman. She was a television series plot point and a music video star. And she inspired, in part, because that lock-jawed, big-haired former British prime minister possessed that irresistible combination of being both easily imitable and widely loathed. The result was an astonishingly rich 35 years worth of rich inspiration.

Sure, if it weren't for Thatcher, we might not have had the miner's Strike and the poll tax riots, but give a woman credit for launching a whole lot of artists and their works. Almost four years ago to the day, when the U.K. Guardian reflected on her artistic legacy, Billy Bragg observed, "Whenever I'm asked to name my greatest inspiration, I always answer 'Margaret Thatcher.'"

Sinead O’Connor vs. the pope, round two

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:15:00 +0000

Remember when Irish chanteuse Sinead O'Connor went on "Saturday Night Live" and ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II? (Of course you do, everyone remembers that!) A move that so shocked the television-viewing public that none other than Madonna -- who only a couple of years earlier had seduced a saint, burned a ton of crosses and committed other sexual unsavories inside a church for her "Like a Prayer" video -- remarked to the Irish Times, "I think there is a better way to present her ideas rather than ripping up an image that means a lot to other people... If she is against the Roman Catholic Church and she has a problem with them, I think she should talk about it."

Well, O'Connor's picture ripping days are behind her, but she hasn't gone soft. Now she is just slicing and dicing the papacy with words.

In a statement on her website, O'Connor "congratulated" the pope on his resignation, writing:

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame overlooks legends again

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 20:13:00 +0000

It's a wildly incomplete list, but at least they finally gave us a Rush we can be happy for. When the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees were announced out of Cleveland Thursday, they included a list of music idols straight outta Compton — and Ontario.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame may be shredding its way toward its 30th anniversary, yet the notion of enshrining an art form forever mentioned in the same breath as sex and drugs is still somehow paradoxical. The Grammys and VMAs celebrate the moment, and with that, the fleeting, youthful exuberance of popular music. The Hall of Fame, which an artist can only qualify for 25 years after a first record release, honors the durability of popular music, the power of certain acts to transcend time and retain their hold on our hearts and imaginations over the span of decades. Geddy Lee, meet Flavor Flav.