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Watcher of MenSinéad O’Connor

Released: June 18, 2007

Songwriter: Ron Tomlinson Sinéad O’Connor

Why did I not die at birth?
Expire as I came from the womb?
Why were there knees to receive me?
Or breasts to feed me?
Why was I not like babies
Who never saw the light?
Who lie with kings and counsellors
Who rebuild ruins for themselves

And where rest
Those whose strength is spent
Where small and great are alike
And the slave is free of his master

Oh watcher of men
Do you have eyes of flesh?
Is your vision like man?
Are your years the years of man?
You know that I'm not guilty
And that none can deliver from your hand

Also you know that you have deeply wronged me, oh
And you have fenced me in
You made it so nobody knows me
And I'm an outsider to them

When I accused you, you wouldn't speak
I said you tore up my hope like a tree
But I spoke without understanding
Of things beyond me which I did not know
And now I've heard you with my ears
And I've seen you with my eyes
Therefore I recant and relent
Being but dust and ashes

Sinéad O’Connor

Sinéad O'Connor (who goes by Shuhada' Sadaqat in her private life) is an Irish singer-songwriter who rose to fame in the late 80s with her album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success with her cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares to You” in 1990.

O'Connor was discovered in 1985 when Nigel Grainge of Ensign Records saw her band Ton Ton Macoute perform. Although he was not fond of the band’s music, he was impressed by O'Connor’s ‘amazing voice’. Grainge had O'Connor record four songs with Karl Wallinger (World Party) and signed her to his label. O'Connor’s first single was the song “Heroine” which she co-wrote with U2’s guitarist The Edge for the film Captive.

Her debut album The Lion and the Cobra was a sensation when it was released in 1987, reaching gold record status and earning a Best Female Rock Vocal Performance Grammy nomination. O'Connor’s debut single “Troy” charted in The Netherlands and Belgium, and “Mandinka”, released in late 1987, cracked the top 20 in the UK and top 30 in three other European countries, helping her album chart well in Europe. Spin Magazine described the album as a “remarkable, still-spine-tingling first record”.

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