Excellent essay. My vanity license plate in the 90s used to be "Lithium" because I was such a huge Nirvana fan. But I only still regularly listen to Sinead. She was too good for me in the 90s. It took 30 years for me to grow up enough to appreciate her (artistic) voice.
Wow, even more true than it was in 2016. I did see the Melvins play recently. But they're running around opening for Napalm Death and the crowd was mostly old folks and a few young hipsters. It felt very retro and was at a small art rock venue. I suspect Nirvana would be playing the same small arty venues if Cobain had decided to live. Well it is true that when the Pixies spin through the same joint in the fall, they are outside on the lawn with much higher capacity, but I bet that crowd isn't young either.
Wow! Never thought I would see the day that Nirvana and Sinead would be written about together! While reading this it reminded me of how often I have thought about certain singers and whether they would have been able to weather the years. Would they have been able to adjust to their audience growing older as well as the changes in music? I do think that Sinead was able to adjust to the time : she had a wonderful voice and was able to sing in many types of music. One of her outstanding songs (to me) is with The Chieftains on Long Black Veil "The Foggy Dew." Great album with incredible list of collaborators.
By the way I have a World of Music bag (Germany) from the 90's with the Nirvana Nevermind album on the front - just how far they reached.
Excellent essay. My vanity license plate in the 90s used to be "Lithium" because I was such a huge Nirvana fan. But I only still regularly listen to Sinead. She was too good for me in the 90s. It took 30 years for me to grow up enough to appreciate her (artistic) voice.
Wow, even more true than it was in 2016. I did see the Melvins play recently. But they're running around opening for Napalm Death and the crowd was mostly old folks and a few young hipsters. It felt very retro and was at a small art rock venue. I suspect Nirvana would be playing the same small arty venues if Cobain had decided to live. Well it is true that when the Pixies spin through the same joint in the fall, they are outside on the lawn with much higher capacity, but I bet that crowd isn't young either.
Napalm Death is alive?
Wow! Never thought I would see the day that Nirvana and Sinead would be written about together! While reading this it reminded me of how often I have thought about certain singers and whether they would have been able to weather the years. Would they have been able to adjust to their audience growing older as well as the changes in music? I do think that Sinead was able to adjust to the time : she had a wonderful voice and was able to sing in many types of music. One of her outstanding songs (to me) is with The Chieftains on Long Black Veil "The Foggy Dew." Great album with incredible list of collaborators.
By the way I have a World of Music bag (Germany) from the 90's with the Nirvana Nevermind album on the front - just how far they reached.
I wondered about the present tense of "the way O’Connor has”, but then you mentioned at the end that it’s a 2016 essay.
When O’Connor died, I was blown away by all the folk songs she sang that people were posting:
https://andrewjshields.blogspot.com/2023/07/sinead-oconnor-1966-2023-folk-songs-and.html
As for Cobain, I mostly hear him these days in performances by Brad Mehldau! https://andrewjshields.blogspot.com/2025/02/brad-mehldau-solo-piano-martinskirche_15.html