The day the news of Amy Winehouse’s death reached me was the same day that I had decided to listen to her albums on this great new music service that allows me to listen to almost any artist I want—for free.
I had known of her of course. Fuck me pumps, Amy Amy Amy and of course Rehab were hits that you couldn’t miss unless you lived under a rock.
And of course I also knew of her addictions and bad girl/rebel lifestyle which must have been really something because I don’t watch ET, and I don’t read the tabloids.
So she made enough of a splash with her FU lifestyle that even non-fans knew of her.
Her fans, friends and family all confess to being saddened but not surprised. What does that say about them, and about her? Why couldn’t she have been saved if everyone knew where she was heading? Why didn’t people reach out to help?
My guess is they did. But you can’t help people that don’t want to be helped, and as she sings in her song Rehab her answer to any help was “No, no, no!”
Amy wasn’t ready to be helped; she needed to get really close to the edge to want to come back. She had to choose life.
But alas, she slipped over the edge and now one of the most talented female vocalists of the 21st century is gone.
What a loss.
Who knows what great music we will now never hear.
There’s one song that for me really captures the haunting, beauty and soulfulness of her voice, and that’s “Love is a losing Game,” which she wrote.
Perhaps for her it wasn’t just love, but life itself that was a losing game.
Enjoy this acoustic video performance of that song for as long as it stays up on you tube.
If you don’t know her music I highly recommend you check her albums out. She won’t be producing any more. No, no, no.
Any thoughts? Contributions/acknowledgments welcome.