Sinéad O’Connor Dedicates Bob Marley’s ‘Ride Natty Ride’ To Late Son
Irish pop singer Sinéad O’Connor has cited Reggae legend Bob Marley’s 1979 single Ride Natty Ride, as part of her tribute to her 17-year-old son, who committed suicide on Friday.
According to the Rolling Stone, the grieving mother took to Twitter on Saturday morning to share the tragic news of his passing, just a day after he was reported missing from the Tallaght University Hospital’s suicide watch ward.
“This is for my Shaney. The light of my life. The lamp of my soul. My blue-eye baby. You will always be my light. We will always be together. No boundary can separate us,” she wrote, while attaching a link to the song.
https://twitter.com/ohsineady/status/1479618504185819141?s=21
Ride Natty Ride formed part of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ eleventh studio album, Survival. The album was originally to be called Black Survival to underscore the urgency of African unity, but the name was shortened to prevent misinterpretations of the album’s theme.
The lyrics of Ride Natty Ride speak to great prowess, amidst adversity. It is no coincidence that O’Conner decided to dedicate this track to her third of four children, whose given name was Nevi’im Nesta Ali Shane O’Connor, as he suffered mentally, according to her.
“Natty keep on comin’ through
And no matter what they say
Natty do them every day, yeah!
Natty dread rides again
Through the mystics of tomorrow
Natty dread rides again
Have no fear, have no sorrow, yeah!,” Marley says in the opening stanza.
O’Conner is no stranger to Jamaican music and culture.
In 1992, after performing an acapella version of Bob Marley’s War on Saturday Night Live, in which she interpolated some of the lyrics to address child abuse, O’Connor ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II, and shouted “Fight the real enemy!” — an act that saw her being banned from the NBC for life.
In 2004, she linked with Jamaica’s riddim twins Sly and Robbie, to produce Throw Down Your Arms, a 14-track album that featured her interpretations of Reggae classics, including covers of Burning Spear‘s Marcus Say Jah No Dead, Marcus Garvey, Door Peep, Throw Down Your Arms and He Prayed, Buju Banton’s Untold Stories, Peter Tosh’s Downpressor Man, Junior Byles’ Curly Locks, and Bob Marley’s War.
In 2011, she released a reggae-spiced track titled How About I Be Me produced by Jamaican Kemar ‘Flava’ McGregor, and included on his compilation of various artists, Club Dance Riddim, that same year.
Last June, she tweeted an apology for any offense she might have caused by stereotyping, when she compared herself to Jamaican men for deliberately having four children by four different husbands. The comments were made while promoting her memoir, Rememberings, on a BBC talk show.
O’Connor has sold more than 10 million albums worldwide.
She won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance in 1991 for her second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. Her first album, The Lion and The Cobra, was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 1989 Grammy Awards.
Her last album, Theology, ranked within the top 20 albums charts in the United States, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, and was listed on the top 100 charts in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Canada.