Monday, February 11, 2008

 

Is It Too Late For Amy Winehouse?

I think this is the first time I've posted on anything connected with pop music but I feel I want to in this case, so great is the possible tragedy hanging over Amy Winehouse. Female singers come and go normally for me these days, with very few registering on a personal radar which recognises few other than Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell and (possibly) Dusty Springfield. But I have no doubt that Amy is in that class. She has only produced one classic album, Back to Black, but it is of such surpassing excellence that even those murky people who award the Grammys have bestowed no less than five awards upon her.

She could not travel to collect her awards because of visa problems but did so via video link and even managed to sing a couple of numbers from her album. Music of her type has long attracted doomed chanteuses like Billy Holiday and a clutch of male singers too depressing to mention. Having seen pictures of her in recent months where she looks even more wasted and waif-like than above and seen those pictures of her allegedly smoking crack cocaine, I rather doubt whether the revival enabling her to sing her songs, is evidence of an imminent recovery.

She is still totally enamoured of her imprisoned drug addict husband Blake Fielder-Civil and even her precious art has emerged from the depths of an addiction she shows no real signs of overcoming, or even of wanting to overcome('They tried to make me go to rehab/ I said "No, no, No!'). I desperately hope that an artist so liberally endowed with musical gifts can fight back and overcome her problems but, to be honest, right now the chances appear to be be slight indeed.

Comments:
I feel like a High Court Judge here Bill, and I am inclined to ask... "Who is this Amy Winehouse?" and you could say ditto for Pete Docherty, Britney Spears and all of the other talentless twonks who fill the tabloids but never actually sing anything of any merit.


I've heard bits of her album and was singularly unimpressed, (Grammys are not a judge of quality but of sales- U2, Culture Club and Phil Collins have won Grammy's for Christ's sake)) and comparisons with Simone and even Dusty seem odious, and the mention of the great Billy Holiday even in the same article are right out of order. However, perhaps it does serve to remind us of real talent and Billy, Ella, Nina and the other really great singers relied on that talent rather than an endless stream of tabloid stories put out by their publicist.
 
Bob
I'm a fan so you can't expect me to agree. Doherty is indeed talentless as far as I can make out though Spears may be a rung above, but Bob, Winehouse is genuinely fucked up- anyone can see that- and if you can't appreciate the amzing flow of musicality out of Amy W. then there's nothing I can do for you.
 
Bob
I'm a fan so you can't expect me to agree. Doherty is indeed talentless as far as I can make out though Spears may be a rung above, but Bob, Winehouse is genuinely fucked up- anyone can see that- and if you can't appreciate the amzing flow of musicality out of Amy W. then there's nothing I can do for you.
 
Who the hell cares? She is a nothing, sets an immensely bad example to all the youngsters around and people like you still try to find excuses for her outlandish and frankly bizarre and illegal behaviour.
Better to focus on far more important issues in life than this total idiot!
 
I think I'd shag her though
 
I'll ignore anon's crass comment to report that The times today features an article by Winehouse's brother which suggests she is in rehab for real and seemed much better- the broadcast to the Grammys was clearly a amajor triumph for someone in such a tragic state only a few weeks ago. I do hope this agurs well for the future. And bollocks to those who don't like her or don't appreciate her sublime music... or even want 'to shag her'.
 
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