Sinéad O’Connor

Released: June 18, 2007

Songwriter: Curtis Mayfield

We people who are darker than blue
Are we gonna stand around this town
And let what others say come true
We're just good for nothing they all figure
A boyish grown up shiftless jigger
Now we can't hardly stand for that
Or is that really where it's at
We people who are darker than blue
This ain't no time for segregating
I'm talking `bout brown and yellow too
High yellow gal can't you tell
I'm just the surface of our dark deep well
If your mind could really see
You'd know your color same as me
Pardon me brother
As you stand in your glory
I know you won't mind
If I tell the whole story
Now I know
We have great respect
For the sister and the mother
It's even better yet
But there's the joker in the street
Loving one brother and killing the other
When the time comes and we are really free
There'll be no brothers left you see
We people who are darker than blue
Don't let us hang around this town
And let what others say come true
We're just good for nothing
They all figure
A boyish grown up shiftless jigger
Now we can't hardly stand for that
Or is that really where it's at

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”.

more tracks from the album

Theology

From the album

Theology (2007)

Sinéad O’Connor popular songs

We People Who Are Darker Than BlueSinéad O’Connor

Sinéad O’Connor

Theology