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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Amy Winehouse is a great artist. She not only sings like few others, but she writes most of her songs, a number of which on her latest album will be listened to long after I, and James Hannahan are long gone..
This stupid speculation about about her bona fides and motivations by someone who apparently has never met her and especially never been on a bender with her is idiotic.
If she dies young, I'll be pissed that another talent couln't give us years more of her gifts. But unlike Mr. Hannaham, I won't demean her by wondering if it was all a PR stunt gone awry. I look forward to his next article on Jimmy Hendrix "PR Stunt Cause of Death, Vomit not Real, Possibly not Black "
Your list was really funny. Especially that time I read it in the onion.
http://www.theonion.com/content/infograph/the_troubled_life_of_amy
Mose Allison and Van Morrison. Early Tom Jones (yes, that one). Long John Baldry. And Lulu (yes, that one, too. Forget "To Sir With Love, try "Shake" and "Cry Me a River"). Dusty Springfield -- her "Son of a Preacher Man" was the one Aretha should have done. And, what's wrong with me, Jerry Lee and his Sun stablemates, Johnny something and that longhaired guy with the funny name. And while we're at it, Johnny Otis and Leiber and Stoller, who wrote for all of them.
Janis Joplin was the hot mess of my day and a sad day it was when she ODed. Her smack use and dispair were well-known, although I don't recall her downfalling followed with the kind of wolfish avidity accompanying Amy Winehouse.
Drug addiction goes about messy clothes. Drug addicts do not do volunteer work at the children's cancer wing. They steal and they lie and they hang out with terrible people. Amy is doing precisely what addicts do, so why all the wonderment? The amount of tabloid marveling at her is both remarkable and disingenuous. With so many dreadful happenings in the world, many beyond our human comprehension, perhaps we need Amy Winehouse to be a shrunken disaster of a size we can understand.
In the meantime, she wanders the streets weeping and snarling, accompanied by the click, click, click of many cameras, alone in the most terrible way of all.
James Hannaham's suggestion that this is a slick career move is a silly and compassionless notion. Amy Winehouse is in a dark place, devoid of controls or free will. I can only hope her best and most creative self will finally speak to her--urge her to rise and resist.
I'm not sure if the blame should be placed on Winehouse or the press that follow her, but my beef with her behavior is that she attempts to link her musical talent with her drug use. If you want to be a junkie, fine. If you want to be a junkie in public, fine. But when you tell your adoring fans that using drugs is the key to your artistic success, screw you. The romanticization of drug abuse in western culture is shameful. How would we react to models tell their fans that being dangeriously underweight is good for their careers? Or atheletes telling their fans that blowing off school work or using steroids was good for their careers? Even if these statements were true, it's dispicable to tell it to the millions of young, impressionable people that (stupidly) beleive that they can one day be the next big hit, beautiful face, or star player. It ends up killing quite a few of them, needlessly.
the most insightful part of the entire article is when Hannaham claims that the whole Winehouse phenomenon is really a Sarah Silverman bit - while part of me thinks he's right there's only one problem: truth is stranger than fiction
She was the talk of South by Southwest last year, managing to upstage Pete Townsend.
It seems to me that whenever the debate arises over a piece of art (be it song, book, movies, whatever) "glorifying" drug use, it usually picks the wrong target, and that is certainly the case with Amy Winehouse. To me, Amy Winehouse's music is as tragic as it is beautiful. The lyrics to "Rehab" and "You Know I'm No Good" are full of self-loathing from someone who seems to know she's sabotaging her life (not to mention career), yet can't seem to stop. If anything, "Rehab" reminds me of The Velvet Underground's "Heroin," in spirit at least--it's not about saying how great this is. Unlike, say, Eric Clapton's "Cocaine."
It's my devout hope that Winehouse will pull it together because pop music certainly doesn't need another martyr to a life of excess.
I didn't intend to present the infographic as my own; but it is funny as hell and the The Onion is simply the best. There was recently a neat article in Reason playing up the Onion (the tie in here is I received Reason when I renewed my Salon subscription).
I love your name by the way. If it derives from the jewerly commericial radio spot I have been hearing recently that is very clever (I am definately not "that guy"). I love that radio spot.
All I've heard of Winehouse is Rehab and a bit of You Know I'm No Good used to promote the Mad Men series. I did find thata voice an intriguing tease to Mad Men.
So I went to Amazon.com to sample more songs. But what a yawn. That calculated voice no longer intrigued; it annoyed. I agree with the poster who suggested a poptart-saturated audience must be just desperate to have something, anything, new to listen to.
As for her hard life, druggie drama: Amy, as one Jewish girl to another, make up with your mom. Your teenage rebellion is getting old, old.
This retro-pop novelty act is just a one woman Squirrel Nut Zippers on blow. I don’t see how aping music from fifty years ago (Now with added F-word!) qualifies you as a great artist. If the drug thing were all an act I would be impressed (though how irresponsible would that be?), but I don’t think she has that kind of conceptual originality. Overall, the best thing about Amy Winehouse is that she provides great Halloween costume fodder for ironic Brooklyn hipsters. Google it to find out more.
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