Smoking, child abuse and religion

Composed by Prince, and made famous by Sinead O’Connor on the “tight shot of her shaven head” video. Most people think Nothing Compares 2U is about a lost lover. When she shed that tear, O’Connor claimed to be thinking about her mother, who had recently died. But the other day someone told me it was about missing a smoke. I guess they meant: “Since you been gone I can do whatever I want/I can see whomever I choose/I can eat my dinner in a fancy restaurant.”  O’Connor is an ex-smoker, and I believe a supporter of smokers rights, but the song was written in 1980, long before any government smoking bans. Tobacco is indeed a wonderful pleasure, but it hardly justifies this wonderful song.

Remember her 1992 Saturday Night Live a capella performance of Bob Marley’s War, in which she adapted the original words, which Marley had taken from a speech by Haile Selassie, into an attack on Pope John Paul for his failure to deal with child abuse in his church. Click here. It almost derailed her career, but time has proved her right.

Let’s end with I Don’t Know How to Love Him. Smoking may be bad for your health, but it can be good for your voice. Wow!