Sinéad O'Connor (64,03 %)

Universal Mother (54,91 %)

In collection

Sinéad O'Connor - Universal Mother
Released: 1994-09-13
Type: Studio

Ranking:
Artist:
4

Year (1994):
32

Decade (1990's):
339

Overall:
2051

1.
The Charge of the Goddess
00:38
2.
Fire on Babylon
05:12
3.
John I Love You
05:32
4.
My Darling Child
03:09
5.
Am I Human?
00:24
6.
Red Football
02:48
7.
All Apologies
02:38
8.
A Perfect Indian
04:23
9.
Scorn Not His Simplicity
04:27
10.
All Babies
04:30
11.
In This Heart
03:11
12.
Tiny Grief Song
01:56
13.
Famine
04:57
14.
Thank You for Hearing Me
06:26
 
Album length:
50:11

Lyrics

1.
The Charge of the Goddess
I do think that women could make politics irrelevant.
By as a kind of spontaneous cooperative action,
the like of which we have never seen.
Which is so far from people's ideas of state structure
and vital social structure that seems to them like total anarchy.
And what it really is is very subtle forms of interrellation
which do not follow sort of hierachical pattern which is
fundamentally patriarchal.
The opposite to patriarchy is not matriarchy but fraternity.
And I think it's women who are going to have to
break this spiral of power
and find the trick of cooperation.
2.
Fire on Babylon
She took my father from my life oh
Took my sister and brothers oh
I watched her torturing my child
Feeble I was then but now I'm grown

Fire on Babylon
Oh yes a change has come
Fire on Babylon
Fire
Fire
Fire

She's taken everything I liked
She's taken every lover oh
And all along she gave me lies
Just to make me think I loved her

Fire on Babylon
Oh yes a change has come
Look what she did to her son
Fire
Fire
Fire on

Life's backwards
Life's backwards
People turn around
The house is burned
The house is burned
The children are gone

Fire
Fire

Fire on Babylon
Oh yes a change has come
Fire on Babylon
Fire
Fire, oh
Fire, oh

Fire on Babylon
Oh yes a change has come
Look what she did to her son
Look what she did to her son
Fire, haha
Fire, haha

Fire
Fire
Fire, aha
Fire on Babylon
Fire on Babylon
3.
John I Love You
John I love you
I'm ever so fond of you
Will you wait for me
'Til I am heavenly
Oh there's much work to do
But I love you

Oh you're tender
Your name's a whisper

I let tears fall like rain
Apple-sized they were
All over her
And through all of those times
When you could have died
This is what you find

There's life outside your mother's garden
There's life beyond your wildest dreams
There hasn't been any explosion
We're not spinning like Dorothy
If you look now then you'll see why
Don't be afraid to cry
This time don't let yourself fly
Child
Pick up those dancing shoes
Kick off those wedding blues
These are the ways
You can choose

Child you're tender
Your name's a whisper

There's life outside your mother's garden
There's life beyond your wildest dreams
There hasn't been any explosion
We're not spinning like Dorothy
And if you look now then you'll see why
Don't be afraid to cry
This time don't let yourself fly
Child
Pick up those dancing shoes
Kick off those wedding blues
These are the ways
You can choose

Child I love you
I'm ever so fond of you
4.
My Darling Child
My darling child
My darling baby
My darling child
You gave life to me
My darling child
My darling baby
My darling child
You came and saved me
My darling child
My darling baby
My darling child
God gave you to me
Me little ninja
My little dancer
Me little streetfighter
Me little chancer
Me lovely boy
Me lovely babby
My pride and joy
Me little puppy
Me little wolf
Me little lamby
My favourite boy
My angel babby

Me little ninja
Me little dancer
Me little streetfighter
Me little chancer
Me love me boy
Me love me babby
My pride and joy
Me little puppy
5.
Am I Human?
Am I a human
It's very good
Maybe I am
It's very nice
The feelings in me
And the fire
Keeps me warm
6.
Red Football
I'm not no red football
To be kicked around the garden
No no
I'm a red christmas-tree ball
And I'm fragile
I'm not no animal
Though I am to you
I'm not no crocodile
Like the one in Dublin Zoo
Who lived in a cage
the length and breadth of his body
When a window which people would look through
And throw coins on his back to taunt him
'though he couldn't move
Even if he wanted to

I'm not no animal in the zoo
I'm not no whipping boy for you
You may not treat me like you do
I'm not no animal in the zoo
My skin is not a football for you
My head is not a football for you
My body's not a football for you
My womb is not a football for you
My heart is not a football for you
I'm not no animal in the zoo
This animal will jump up and eat you
I'm not no animal in the zoo
And I've every intention
Of leaping up and getting you
7.
All Apologies
What else should I be
All apologies
What else should I say
Everyone is gay

What else could I write
I don't have the right
What else should I be
All apologies

In the sun
In the sun I feel as one
In the sun
In the sun
I'm married
Buried
Buried

I wish I was like you
Easily amused
Find my nest of salt
Everything's my fault
I'll take all the blame
Aqua sea-foam shame
Sunburn with freezer-burn
Choking on the ashes of her enemy

In the sun
In the sun I feel as one
In the sun
In the sun
I'm married
Buried
Buried

All in all is all we all are
8.
A Perfect Indian
A Perfect Indian is he
Remembering him life is sweet
Like a weeping willow
His face on my pillow
Comes to me still in my dreams

And there I saw a young baby
A beautiful daughter was she
A face from a painting
Red cheeks and teeth aching
Her eyes like a wild Irish sea

On a table in her yellow dress
For a photograph feigned happiness
Why in my life is that the only time
That any of you will smile at me

I'm sailing on this terrible ocean
I've come for my self to retrieve
Too long have I been feeling like Lir's children
And there's only one way to be free

He's shy and he speaks quietly
He's gentle and he seems to me
Like the elf-arrow
His face worn and harrowed
Is he a daydreamer like me

I'm sailing on this terrible ocean
I've come for my self to retrieve
Too long have I been feeling like Lir's children
And there's only one way to be free
9.
Scorn Not His Simplicity
See the child
With the golden hair
Yet eyes that show the emptiness inside
Do we know
Can we understand just how he feels
Or have we really tried

See him now
As he stands alone
And watches children play a children's game
Simple child
He looks almost like the others
Yet they know he's not the same

Scorn not his simplicity
But rather try to love him all the more
Scorn not his simplicity
Oh no
Oh no

See him stare
Not recognizing the kind face
That only yesterday he loved
The loving face
Of a mother who can't understand
what she's been guilty of

How she cried, tears of happiness
the day the doctor told her it's a boy
Now she cries tears of helplessness
and thinks of all the things he can't enjoy

Scorn not his simplicity
But rather try to love him all the more
Scorn not his simplicity
Oh no
Oh no

Only he knows how to face the future hopefully
Surrounded by despair
He won't ask for your pity or your sympathy
But surely you should care

Scorn not his simplicity
But rather try to love him all the more
Scorn not his simplicity
Oh no
Oh no
Oh no
10.
All Babies
All babies are born saying God's name
Over and over,
All born singing God's name
All babies are flown from the Universe
From there they're lifted by the hands of angels
God gives them the stars to use as ladders
She hears their calls
She is mother and father
All babies are born out of great pain
Over and over
All born into great pain
All babies are crying
For no-one remembers God's name

All babies are born saying God's name
Over and over,
All born singing God's name
All babies are flown from the Universe
From there they're lifted by the hands of angels
God gives them the stars to use as ladders
She hears their calls
She is mother and father
All babies are born out of great pain
Over and over
All born into great pain
All babies are crying
For no-one remembers God's name

There's only love
There's only love
There's only love in this world

There's only love
There's only love
There's only love in this world
11.
In This Heart
In this heart lies for you
A lark born only for you
Who sings only to you
My love
My love
My love

I am waiting for you
For only to adore you
My heart is for you
My love
My love
My love

This is my grief for you
For only the loss of you
The hurting of you
My love
My love
My love

There are rays on the weather
Soon these tears will have cried
All loneliness have died
My love
My love
My love

I will have you with me
In my arms only
For you are only
My love
My love
My love
12.
Tiny Grief Song
I'd a terrible broken heart
I'd a terrible broken heart
I'd a terrible broken heart
I'd a terrible broken heart

You were born on the day my mother was buried.
My grief, my grief, my grief, my grief, my grief.
You were born on the day my mother was buried.
My grief, my grief, my grief, my grief, my grief.
13.
Famine
OK, I want to talk about Ireland
Specifically I want to talk about the "famine"
About the fact that there never really was one
There was no "famine"
See Irish people were only allowed to eat potatoes
All of the other food
Meat, fish, vegetables
Were shipped out of the country under armed guard
To England while the Irish people starved
And then in the middle of all this
They gave us money not to teach our children Irish
And so we lost our history
And this is what I think is still hurting me

See we're like a child that's been battered
Has to drive itself out of it's head because it's frightened
Still feels all the painful feelings
But they lose contact with the memory

And this leads to massive self-destruction
alcoholism, drug adiction
All desperate attempts at running
And in it's worst form
Becomes actual killing

And if there ever is gonna be healing
There has to be remembering
And then grieving
So that there then can be forgiving
There has to be knowledge and understanding

All the lonely people
where do they all come from

An American army regulation
Says you mustn't kill more than 10% of a nation
'Cos to do so causes permanent "psychological damage"
It's not permanent but they didn't know that
Anyway during the supposed "famine"
We lost a lot more than 10% of our nation
Through deaths on land or on ships of emigration
But what finally broke us was not starvation
but it's use in the controlling of our education
School go on about "Black 47"
On and on about "The terrible famine"
But what they don't say is in truth
There really never was one

(Excuse me)
All the lonely people
(I'm sorry, excuse me)
Where do they all come from
(that I can tell you in one word)
All the lonely people
where do they all belong

So let's take a look shall we
The highest statistics of child abuse in the EEC
And we say we're a Christian country
But we've lost contact with our history
See we used to worship God as a mother
We're sufferin from post traumatic stress disorder
Look at all our old men in the pubs
Look at all our young people on drugs
We used to worship God as a mother
Now look at what we're doing to each other
We've even made killers of ourselves
The most child-like trusting people in the Universe
And this is what's wrong with us
Our history books the parent figures lied to us

I see the Irish
As a race like a child
That got itself bashed in the face

And if there ever is gonna be healing
There has to be remembering
And then grieving
So that there then can be forgiving
There has to be knowledge and understanding

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from

We stand on the brink of a great achievement
In this Ireland there is no solution
to be found to our disagreements
by shooting each other

There is no real invader here
We are all Irish in all our
different kinds of ways
We must not, now or ever in the future,
show anything to each other
exept tolerance, forbearance
and neighbourly love

Because of our tradition everyone here
knows how he is and what God expects him to do
14.
Thank You for Hearing Me
Thank you for hearing me
Thank you for hearing me
Thank you for hearing me
Thank you for hearing me

Thank you for loving me
Thank you for loving me
Thank you for loving me
Thank you for loving me

Thank you for seeing me
Thank you for seeing me
Thank you for seeing me
Thank you for seeing me

And for not leaving me
And for not leaving me
And for not leaving me
And for not leaving me

Thank you for staying with me
Thank you for staying with me
Thank you for staying with me
Thank you for staying with me

Thanks for not hurting me
Thanks for not hurting me
Thanks for not hurting me
Thanks for not hurting me

You are gentle with me
You are gentle with me
You are gentle with me
You are gentle with me

Thanks for silence with me
Thanks for silence with me
Thanks for silence with me
Thanks for silence with me

Thank you for holding me
And saying "I could be"
Thank you for saying "Baby"
Thank you for holding me

Thank you for helping me
Thank you for helping me
Thank you for helping me
Thank you, thank you for helping me

Thank you for breaking my heart
Thank you for tearing me apart
Now I've a strong, strong heart
Thank you for breaking my heart