Last summer, or perhaps the summer before, I was driving home listening to random music on my phone when a beautiful little acoustic guitar pattern started playing. This is good I thought, what is it? Turns out it was The Last Day of Our Acquaintance from her album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. This is her best song, and of course being her, it’s about divorcing her first husband.
It’s a great album. I’d be lying if I were to say that it’s one I’ve been constantly listening to, but it certainly featured quite heavily last summer. For folk of a certain vintage, and with impeccable musical taste, like me, it features Jah Wobble, Marco Pirroni, Andy Rourke, and was produced by Nellee Hooper. When you consider that it’s a piece of work that features songs like the aforementioned Last Day, I Am Stretched On Your Grave, the wonderful Emperor’s New Clothes, and of course Nothing Compares 2 U, that’s some legacy right there.
She’s was an artist I actually did listen to throughout her career. Listen to 4th And Vine, an EP that she released about 10 years ago. Or her wonderful backing vocals on the totally sublime GMF by the equally sublime John Grant. Both out of this world.
Obviously she was, to use a term that I abhor, troubled. I suppose when you look at her appalling upbringing at the hands of her mother, it’s little wonder. She was one of the first to call the Catholic church out on it’s cover up of sexual abuse. Tearing up a picture of the pope on US telly killed her stateside. She never recovered from it. The greatest thing she did, and it’s totally hilarious, was to attend a protest about her by a load of religious nutters. She went in disguise. Long black wig, sunglasses, the whole nine yards. That’s brilliant.
It’s also worth mentioning how beautiful she was. Those eyes! An astonishingly attractive woman. Of course there’s been the usual wankers taking the piss out of her on social media. But that says more about them than it does about a woman struggling with her demons. It’s a genuine tragedy this. Heartbreaking.
_________________ They say don't kick a man when he's down. Show me a better time.
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