Amy Winehouse

[clueless]

I thought I'd start a thread for Amy Winehouse after she was brought up a few times in the Peaches Geldof thread.

She was such a talent. I love her and her music. Her story was tragic, I followed it all at the time for years, but was still so shocked when the news broke of her passing.

I really liked the documentary film. I loved seeing old footage of her from before the fame, and hearing from her and her real friends. I think the documentary was very well done and brought her some justice in a way, bringing a lot of unknown details to light, as well as showing Mitch's true colours, and that other parasite Blake...

I still think of her a lot and wish she'd made it through.

 

[Miffy29]

Amy always scared me, dont know why but I thought she was so hard. Its only now im older that I realise what a talent she was and is much missed. I have wondered how amazing an Amy and Adele or Lady Gaga collab would have been!

 

[Tilly41]

It's her songwriting that made me follow her and she was such a unique voice. Any one who can write Love is a losing Game is otherworldly in my eyes. I think I explained in the Peaches thread that I saw her by chance in Sainsburys. But admittedly she was in a terrible way at that point. Addiction had ravaged her and her beautiful voice. Towards the end she was unable to perform and it was awful to see such a great talent like that

 

[Tilly41]

She was also incredibly insightful and her melancholy translated into her music. It was heart breaking to see her descent. But she was so perceptive tho she said that as a child she isolated herself because of her looks. When she first came out with Frank i felt she was pilloried so much for her looks and I never knew why because all my life I have been surrounded by girls and women who look just like her so she was both beautiful and familiar to me. She felt pulled apart by the music industrys terrible and deep rooted sexism tho. A loss to music and so many were.influenced by her.

 

[PeteM]

People tend to think that Amy's unreliable attitude to performing on stage and missing gigs only began in the Back To Black period. It happened during the Frank period, but only on gigs in Europe. Sometimes she'd turn up absolutely hammered and incapable of going on stage. Her management 19 were pretty adept at covering this up and her relatively low media profile ensured that it was kept quiet.

Of course, her subsequent management saw the PR "benefit" of an act spiralling out of control and chose to ride with it...

 

[MaryX82]

I just love her music fave songs stronger than me and duck me pumps

 

[Dollylovesshoes]

Loves a losing game.

 

[DCICassieStuart]

I think she was fabulous. She was so lovely, but so damaged and confused. I know that Blake Fielder Civil is held responsible for a lot of Amy's problems and he certainly didn't help her, but I think that a lot of those problems were there before she met BFC and most of them were caused by her horrible father
She was damaged from her childhood with him, disappearing with strange women, having numerous affair and finally leaving her mother when Amy was still quite young.
All he was interested in was how much he could profit from Amy. You can really see it in the documentary, especially the bit where she was chilling out with her friends and next thing her father arrived with a camera crew, and she was really unhappy and upset about it. He spent years after she passed away playing such a public grieving role. I'm not saying he wasn't genuinely grieving her but he milked it and was still trying to profit from her name.

I remember reading somewhere that 'Back to Black' (my favourite of all her songs) was taken to be about BFC, their relationship and that the line "You go back to her and I'll go back to black" was taken as he went back to another women and Amy went back to drugs, but apparently was really about her relationship with her father and that it referred to him going back to a woman he was having an affair with and Amy ending up with depression (black) because of it.

 

[Tilly41]

Also she seemed to fall into this persona to protect herself. I remember her taking about Blake around 2004. He was in a long term relationship with another woman and he wouldnt leave her and Amy was like ' I am not bothered as long as she feeds him'. She was an incredibly nurturing, generous and kind person by all accounts but I think she was into this idea of the tragic doomed love story.

I watched The Brits 2008 because Amy was up for several awards which she won. Also Lily Allen was their with her Dad Keith because she was nominated in the same category and they were interviewed. Lily was tense and uncomfortable about Amy winning. Now of course the press loves nothing more than to compare and also it's normal to be invested in winning but I also think being a peer and contemporary of AW would have been incredibly difficult. She was an absolute power house.

 

[FrostyChops]

The documentary film made a few years ago is a real eye opener. Her poor friends.

 

[James.P.Sullivan]

I remember reading some interviews with her in glamour when her first album came out and couldn’t believe the change in her by the time back to black came out. I was never a huge fan but her talent was amazing, she could have gone so far. Its really sad that she’s gone

 

[PeteM]

I used to see her out in Soho a lot in the Frank era. She was just over 5 ft but quite curvy - really attractive. Then I passed her around there about two months before Rehab was released. The change in her physically was so extreme. And her management and PR company then exploited her "duck up" status to the max.

I was never much a fan of her voice - way too affected. But there's no doubt that she made direct relatable lyric writing popular again - I think people forget that there weren't really many other female solo acts at the time being so honest in their songwriting. And we see how it certainly set a trend that still resonates which Adele and Lily Allen ran with, though not necessarily in a calculating way - well, not Adele, anyway...

I saw her live over the years thanks to mates in the business. I have to say that most times, she was shambolic. And even worse, most of the audience seemed to love her for that towards the end and even encouraged it through their tacit approval via exhortations and applause.

To be honest, it seemed likely that things weren't going to end well seeing her just before Rehab came out...

 

[Sideboard Bob]

Thank you for starting the thread @clueless I love her, her music just hit me, like it did with so many people. I know she was so troubled, but she was so funny too. I thought she was so beautiful.
One of my favourite funny stories about her is that she had to cover up her pin-up tattoo for performing at the Grammys. She used eyeliner to draw on a little bra!

 

[Peterboroughmum]

Loved her - loved the music and how funny and sweet she was. Never saw her live and I'm kinda glad I didn't.

RIP Amy

 

[Ohflogoff]

I love Amy. Saw her live a couple of times and the last time she was supporting basement Jaxx. You could just tell she was very troubled.

 

[Sunshine&clouds]

Men destroyed Amy Winehouse, a combination of Blake Fielder Civil and her Dad. She did what so many women do who have been let down by their Dad, by meeting someone completely unsuitable, but battling (virtually to the death) to have a different ending relationship and marriage wise to her parents. She was damaged before BFC, but that relationship, in all its horror (and it's worth remembering we only saw a small part of it), consumed her. The only surprise was that she lasted as long as she did.

 

[Tilly41]

Sunshine and Clouds this is a very perceptive statement. And it must have been even more difficult for her because of her been a singer and especially the songs she wrote. She seemed to be haunted by this as many women are. I often think it's because there is such a push for women especially to meet the right one. If you havent it can make you feel so hopeless. Also not helped if you are a romantic by nature. Like she seemed to be. The romantic genre whether it be songs,movies , books is such a massive genre and I am so guilty of buying into it on every level. What I mean is that if that's your thing, I am into (historical romances ) you do buy into this notion that your life is waiting for your true love. It takes a massive reset to change that.

 

[To cat lady]

It really stuck with me in the documentary where she was so out of it and they just put her on the plane unconscious. Such a terrible waste

 

[Sideboard Bob]

Loved her - loved the music and how funny and sweet she was. Never saw her live and I'm kinda glad I didn't.

RIP Amy

I had tickets to one of her shows around 2007/8 but couldn’t make it, and I’ve always regretted it. But you’ve made me realise now that maybe it was for the best, it sounds like sometimes she could really pull it out of the bag for gigs, but other times she was clearly unwell, it would have been sad to see. Ugh that poor woman, the tabloids were all over like vultures her at that time.

 

[Vanelope]

I wonder about her relationship with Mark Ronson. He obviously cared about her, made a record with her that is a future classic and seemed to bring out the best in her talent and writing. The record also made his career as well I think. As a friend I don’t think he had much influence over her especially with the drugs and alcohol and husband choices but it must be hard for him to think of how the third album could have been. When she sang with Tony Bennett she seemed so happy in the film. I remember watching it and being so sad for her friends and so cross with her dad. Her father and husband manipulated and abused her.

After writing Rehab she should have been put in rehab. The tortured artist trope should be dispensed with, Adele writes soulful songs and is perfectly happy with her life.