Pullin’ ‘Tubes: Difficulties with the Cueball

When Roger Waters staged The Wall live in Berlin in 1990, it was easy to figure out the lingering moment would turn out to be the Van Morrison-infused Comfortably Numb that graced both The Departed soundtrack and the Sopranos scene in which Tony kills Christopher. But there’s a seldom-discussed performance that’s fairly interesting: Sinead O’Connor singing Mother backed by The Band’s Rick Danko and Levon Helm, with Garth Hudson on accordion.

The Band’s definitive online resource relays a cool footnote about the night:

According to Waters in an interview on the 2003 DVD release, there was a total power outage on stage during the live version of “Mother.” They had recorded the rehearsal the night before as a back-up because it was going live on the air all over the world. On the video you see Roger Waters standing by the Band, holding the lyrics to read. After the show Waters wanted to re-record the song but Sinead O’Connor refused, so it is the night before the concert that is shown on the video — if Waters’ version is correct. He also describes how unreasonable O’Connor was and suggests she is the most difficult person he has ever worked with.

In any event, let’s take a look at a performance worth resurrecting:

[youtube]nXb0KnVjeDQ[/youtube]

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0 Responses

  1. Um…thanks…not all of us have HBO so were not able to watch the last season of “The Sopranos” and were waiting for the DVDs.

  2. Shit, sorry…never even crossed my mind. But do you really expect people to hold off on spoilers this far after the fact? As GOB Bluth would say, “C’mon!”

  3. really?? when i met sinead, i hung out with her for several hours (jammys). she was as sweet and accomodating as possible!! complained a bit about the lack of AC backstage at MSG (but granted, i was too!)

    hola from peru!! keep up the good blogging… keeps me in the loop somewhat.

    (note: this comment typed while Creed is blasting in the internet cafe… shudder)

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