Sinéad O'Connor And Karen Finley | Jump In The River

Sinéad O'Connor with Karen Finley

Jump In The River

London, UK: Ensign Records, 1988

12", 45 RPM, vinyl record

Edition size unknown

Sinead O'Connor and performance artist Karen Finley both released their debut albums in 1987; The Lion and the Cobra and The Truth Is Hard to Swallow, respectively. 

The pair met the following year when they were both performing as part of a concert hosted by the human rights activist group Refuse & Resist (see their Keith Haring designed logo below). The event took place the New York Palladium, and featured performances by Afrika Bambaataa, De La Soul, Lenny Kaye, D.O.A., MC Lyte, and others. 

O'Connor had recently contributed a new song to Jonathan Demme's film Married to the Mob, and was preparing a single release. She invited Finley to participate in the 12" remix of Jump in the River, to be issued that October. 

True to form, Finley's vocal contribution ensured no radio station would ever play it: 

Mother, do you have a prick?

Yes, I do, just like cows do

Mother, do you have a prick?

Yes, I do, just like cows do

After my mother washed me, powdered me, I insisted that she masturbate me

You wonder why I got panic attacks

You dreamed you ate me through my silken panties

But baby, you got it wrong

I don’t smile when I come

Jump-start me

Jump-start me

Jump, jump, jump, jump

Ain't got a leg, but i got a stump

Ain't got a dick, baby, but i got a pump

Ain't got a titty, but i got a lump

Never knew how to walk, so i gotta jump

Jump-start me

Jump-start me

Jump in my arch

Jump on the starch

He loved to wear silk knotted scarves around his neck, baby

Finger them, finger the scarves

He twists the scarf around my neck, baby

I wish he was twisting it around my clit

I mean, my dick, i mean, my cock, baby

Twist it, twist it good, twist that silky scarf

Well, you sell those ties on madison avenue

Work me, work me good

And you perform that magic trick good

By taking that silk tie, oiled, knotted

Pull it out of my ass

Oh, let me come, let me come

(I used to play it at closing time, when I wanted to empty the record store where I worked of customers). 

Village Voice critic Robert Christgau described Finley's part as "the voice of mad lust on a dance remix of the ravishingly sexual Jump in the River." The single failed to chart and the song (without Finley) was included on O'Connor's breakthrough smash sophomore album I Do Not Want What I Have Not Got. 

It was announced yesterday by her family that Sinéad O'Connor had died at the age of 56. No date or cause of death were given. 

For another performance artist related track by O'Connor, click here for her cover of Yoko Ono's Death of Samantha.