Book Report: Rememberings by Sinéad O’Connor

I was on a recent comic book hunter at my local Ollie’s (my favorite store in Florida). I didn’t find what I was looking for, but while browsing through their music book section, I came across Sinéad O’Connor’s book Rememberings.

It’s not exactly an autobiography, but it has some interesting chapters from her life, written before her death and through her frame of mind, as only she can recount in her own words. It is written in a way that I can clearly hear her voice in my head as she described her thoughts and fears.

Of course, I need to talk about the moment she decided to shave her head. I don’t remember who she was protesting, maybe someone in the record industry… but he wanted her to look like a girl, like his ex-wife or mistress… and in rebellion, at the age of 19, decided to get her head shaved bald. To look unappealing and to look like a boy.

She went to a nearby Greek barbershop and the older gentlemen working there was begging and pleading her to keep her hair. “Pleeeeeease dthon’th make me do ith! Pleeeeeease!” he beseeched. I laughed as I envisioned this scene in my head.

Sinéad’s bald look became iconic, of course. So, it’s a bit rare to actually find any photographs of the Irish singer with hair. There are few and far between photos of her with hair, mostly before 1986. She’s gorgeous, for sure, but I wonder if she would’ve had the same attention, if not for her bold bald look?

Another thing I wanted to bring up was when she learned how to bel canto or “beautifully sing”. She’s learned the lesson from Frank Merriman, and the idea is to use your emotion in your singing notes. That would explain why her record, Universal Mother, is simply my favorite Sinéad record. Now that I have this knowledge, suddenly I understand why I love some of those songs. It’s not just the music, but it’s literally the way she sings. You can feel her sadness in those notes. It’s beautifully sad.

I’m pretty happy with purchasing Rememberings. Glad to randomly come across this book. It’s really inspired me to keep reading and looking for interesting books to add to my music book library.

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