R.I.P. Amy Winehouse

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Speaking of Elton John, I heard he is going to perform at Amy Winehouses funeral, with a beautiful rendition of 'Candle under the spoon'.

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She battled her demons, and unfortunately lost. R.I.P., Amy.

(I'm making this post more for personal reasons than anything else.)

 

I was a big fan of Amy Winehouse. I'm very saddened to see that she's died, but not really surprised. I'd held out hope that she would get her act together.

She was a pretty big star here in the states. Though she was tabloid fodder here (though nowhere near as much as in the UK tabloids, I'm sure), she was mostly known for her music. Her style was a big throwback to the Motown sound which originated here, and kicked off the blue-eyed soul pop trend that's happening right now (Adele's Rolling in the Deep is enjoying near constant airplay right now). Rehab, I'm No Good, and Valerie were particularly big hits here. Two of her songs were even performed on the hit show Glee. Sadly, she started to become more known for her troubles than her talent. I for one was very saddened when I heard the news, as I've been eagerly anticipating her comeback. But it wasn't meant to be.

Lastly, I really don't understand why people feel the need to sh*t all over someone who just died. Same thing happened here when Michael Jackson died - it's tasteless. Let the people who will miss her say so and if you happen to be glad she's dead for whatever reason, well, keep it to yourself.

 

I'm sure nobody is glad she's dead.

 

+1. I always thought there was some near-universal social norm that said "lay off" when people died. I'm not the sensitive type, but people speaking ill of the dead still gives me the creeps. It's like when people size up minors and say things like "wow, she's gonna be hot when she grows up ..." Creepy.

 

Amy Winehouse had two critically acclaimed albums and was in the music press years before the tabloids ever knew who she was. She was no WAG with no talent beyond publicity. "F*** Me Pumps" is a fantastic cut at these types of nobodies. Defintely worth a listen for a football fan.

 

She did sing good enough to be noticed by the rest of the world. I am biased. Tomorrow her artistic replacement will be presented.

You always ask yourself the question what if she had survived and sobered up?

 

She made a few decent songs we haven't lost the female Bob Dylan here - you can listen to every track she recorded in less than two hours. However, I don't much care about that, really. Talented, or not talented, she was just a terrible role model and person. She was just there going 'Look I can pump my arms and nose full of these illegal things and get away with it!' If she'd have been put in prison, like any other class A drug abuser, maybe she'd still be around?

I'm not happy she's dead, or glad she's dead. I just couldn't care less. She chose to pump her body full of stuff that was killing her, and then chose not to stop doing it, so it eventually took her life. She knew what she was doing and knew the effect it was having on her health. One stand on the scales or look in the mirror would have confirmed it. Does this mean she deserves sympathy? Definitely not. Does that mean I'm glad she's croaked it? Definitely not.

The only reason I'm bothered is that her talent is going to be exaggerated over the next couple of months - it's part and parcel of musicians and death and has started happening already.

It says a lot that without her drink and drug antics she wouldn't have been half as popular as she was (in my view), and her death wouldn't have had half the coverage it has had. People love individuals making idiots of themselves while high on drugs or pissed, it's why the newspapers concentrate on such incidents. So what does it say about us as a society?

 

I'm slightly obsessive and completionist in nature. So when I like something, I research it on Wikipedia and, in the case of bands, carefully work out which albums to prioritize. After getting all their albums, I venture into the live catalogue, and from there, into bootlegs, until I can finally work out the difference between each version of songs and select the best one. This is, essentially, what I did when I was into Queen, and I can (for example) tell you that while the album version of White Queen is nice enough, the live version has an extended solo. The BBC version has the best sound quality, but the Live at Apollo ('74) has probably the most ingenious melodies. All this is essentially a big lead-up to why I've begun approaching Amy Winehouse: now that she's dead with only two albums, I can carefully work through a limited supply of her songs and find my favourites.

Anyways, I guess I was drawn in by the hype, but I'm quite surprised to find that I'm enjoying her music a lot. Smoky jazz is kind of my thing, and she was seemingly quite talented. As for the drugs and her death, I tend to agree with Barmy: it was, after all, her choice. Still a shame she's dead though.

* PS: I find myself hating her normal speaking voice. Really cannot stand that particular class of British accent.

 

According to several reports, evidently Amy Winehouse had no illegal substances in her system when she died. Not even alcohol. So it looks like she was finally trying to get her sh*t together. Unfortunately detoxing can be a big shock to the system, and Amy's must have been pretty fragile - understandably so. Just goes to show you that you can be your own worst enemy, your own tragedy. Sometimes it IS to late to turn things around. I think if she'd done a medically-supervised detox (instead of what appears to be the 'screw it, I'll do it myself' variety), I think it's highly likely she would have made it through.

Since this story has largely faded away, I think some of you guys' fears that Winehouse will be canonized in the wake of her death can be put to rest. I don't think she's gained many new fans, and it appears most people are taking Barmy's "who cares, she had it coming"* approach. I for one think she's due some credit for at least trying to get her life back.

* paraphrasing