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(Source: as heard)
| INTERVIEWER (Jody Denberg):: |
| "We People Who Are Darker Than Blue," a Curtis Mayfield song performed by Sinéad O'Connor, from her new 2-CD set, Theology. Of course, "people who are darker than blue" refers to people of color, but I also heard it as blue as a mood. |
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| SINÉAD:: |
| Yeah, me, too. That's how I hear it--a people who are very, very sad. |
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| I:: |
| Did growing up in Ireland, with all the strife, make you spiritually introspective at a young age? |
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| S:: |
| Yeah. You know, I'm convinced that I can remember my baptism. I'm sure probably I'm wrong, but I'm almost certain that I can remember my baptism, and that I remember understanding what it meant. The Ireland of those days was one where all there was was religion; you went into anyone's house, it was covered with pictures of the Pope and, you know, pictures of saints, and you know what I mean? Sacred Heart lamps, so every family was extremely religious and Catholicism was the main religion, you know. Also, another thing was that I was born on a particular day, which is the eighth of December, which is a big Catholic feast day; it's the feast of the Immaculate Conception. But if you're a girl born on that day, it's associated with the Virgin Mary, you know, so because I was a girl born on that day, everyone would always give me Virgin Mary things; that's what happens if you're born on that day, if you're a girl, you're always associated with the Virgin Mary, you know. You couldn't get away from that kind of introspection, really. |
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| I:: |
| You were ordained several years ago in the Latin Tridentine Church, as Mother Bernadette Mary. Is that a path that you still follow? |
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| S:: |
| Yeah, very much so. I would say that music is my priesthood. Yeah. I mean, that's what I think this record is--the act of a priest, actually. |
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| I:: |
| But then in 2003, you announced your retirement from music. (S: Mmm.) Was it shortly after that that you began studying Scripture at a college in Dublin? |
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| S:: |
| Yeah, it probably was shortly after that. Now, I'd been studying all my life, actually, just privately, I'd been reading theology all my life, again, since I was young, you know. I'd started to study Judaic theology when I was like 9 or 10, and, like, over the years studied a lot of theologies, you know, just by myself, on the Internet or buying books, but the first time I went to college, yeah, it was like 2003, so. I started to study Kabbalah years ago, when I was about nineteen, as well, so. |
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| I:: |
| One of your new songs that we're just about to hear from the London sessions, is inspired by Psalm 33. (S: Yeah.) Let's give it a listen, and then we'll talk about it. |
| From her new double-disc set, Theology, this is Sinéad O'Connor with "33." |
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