Notes on the death of Amy Winehouse
1. We heard the news as we came out of a screening of Rakenrol: Amy Winehouse was found dead in her apartment. We assumed her death was drug-related. These were the things we knew about Amy Winehouse.
a. She drank a lot and did drugs.
b. She was an amazing singer and songwriter.
c. Her debut album was good but her second album was genius.
d. The beehive and eyeshadow.
2. Despite what we’d heard about her lifestyle we were still shocked to hear of her death. Why, when the media had been on an Amy Winehouse deathwatch for years? Perhaps we were hoping that because she was a genuine talent she would be spared the cliché ending. That she would survive her own excesses and hang around to laugh in her detractors’ faces—looking 100 years old at age 50 but with more vitality than singers half her age.
It is hard for us to accept that our good wishes will not keep people alive.
3. Many professed a complete and utter lack of surprise at Winehouse’s death, beginning with those who’d maintained the deathwatch. We suspect that the people who do deathwatches wish someone would do the same for them, for it would mean that a stranger cares whether they live or die.
4. This casual dismissiveness—“I knew this was going to happen”—is interesting because while the speaker professes disinterest, she admits that she is interested after all.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
July 25th, 2011 at 21:51
I swear if I hear or read another Rehab “no, no, no” joke, I’m going to commit a felony.
July 25th, 2011 at 21:57
nice piece, jessica. i liked the last part the most.
July 25th, 2011 at 23:26
Here’s Russell Brand’s tribute to Amy Winehouse:
http://www.tweetdeck.com/twitter/BigBrotherXtra/~1c72Q
July 26th, 2011 at 01:01
I think there was a part of me that would have at least wanted to see Amy’s career flourish the way Billie Holiday’s did. It may have been too much to ask for. She loved too much. She also knew that love was a losing game.
July 26th, 2011 at 17:59
I feel like a family member just died right now. Amy Winehouse is the only truly significant pop musical artist to have come out in the last decade in my opinion. She, Duffy and Adele (the last 2 owe her so much for paving the way) are a breath of fresh air from the muck that is Eurotrash/dance/electronica that has been passing as music all over radio in recent years. (I guess she’s lucky, too, that she does not have to be subjected to it anymore.)
Billie Holiday is exactly who comes to mind when I think of Amy, not only when it comes to the voice and gargantuan talent but the obvious similarities in their personal tragedies.
The public also needs a lot of educating about addiction, which should be treated like the debilitating mental illness it really is and not as a fodder for ridicule and contempt. More and more research is supporting the dopamine reward system (and how it’s all fucked up in some people) that is at the heart of this pathology. Nobody laughs at people who have to be chronically treated for diabetes for example and it should be the same way for mental illness. And we would not have millions of people in jail being punished for illnesses they actually need to be treated for.
In the meantime, I have been listening again to my favorite album of the last decade: Back to Black. I have rediscovered her beautiful soul. Jessica’s choice of Love is a Losing Game is so apropos; it’s her best song and perfectly captures her essence. The original demo stripped down to her cracking voice and acoustic guitar is heartbreakingly beautiful.
Tony Bennett recently mourned her passing on Facebook. Just last month, he was talking about her being his favorite collaborator for his upcoming Duets album. He talks about her being a huge Dinah Washington fan and how their conversation about Dinah set up a wonderful recording, which I cannot wait to hear.
It starts at about 2:24 here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ7J_KQDUUg
Finally, this was her last recorded performance, the infamous Belgrade concert. It’s heartbreaking to watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFTOw9FwHN8
What is more sad is she was TRYING to get over it. She was in rehab (yes, yes, yes) as late as last month.
I am thankful for her gift of music most of all and I will treasure it forever. May she rest in peace now.
July 26th, 2011 at 18:22
As a rejoinder to Love is a Losing Game, I read that she disdained fame and fortune and that all she truly wanted was to be loved by somebody. If it sounds cliche, it’s because it is universal. Everybody’s problems and conflicts, if you look at their very core, stem from the basic human need to be validated. We all just want to be acknowledged that we ultimately matter. That’s all she probably longed for and she probably never felt it.
July 27th, 2011 at 08:51
Two words: Janis Joplin.
July 31st, 2011 at 05:21
With her death,another immortal musician is born.