Amy Winehouse

[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!

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[Phil Anne Throw Pee]

She is my absolute QUEEN. Forget Adele, Kylie et al, Amy had a uniqueness, her style and music was so 'out there'. Sure, her voice and style of music wasn't especially original, but she was one of a kind. I remember seeing her on 'Buzzcocks' and she was so quick witted and lovely. Her record company and Father should hang their heads in shame. I watched one concert, think it was in Estonia, not sure, and she was almost unconscious. Her death was pretty much inevitable but she will never be forgotten.

 

[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.

 

[clueless]

So happy to see so many others on here who love her as much as I do!

I totally agree too, that she had her troubles before the big-time fame, which made them so much worse... it definitely began with her dad. She never even seen him and he took nothing to do with her until the fame and money started to roll in. And bringing the camera crew along when she was trying to find some peace in the Caribbean... it beggars belief. Her friend Nick was right when he said that she could have had a chance to get well before the world wanted a piece of her. The sad thing is, it seems she would definitely have went to rehab if her dad had said so.

Another part I found very upsetting (and just plain WTF?) in the documentary, is how when she was a teen, she told both her mum and dad about her 'great diet' where she would make herself sick after eating, and they BOTH didn't think anything of it or take it seriously?

The doc also put the timelines in order for me, as Blake said when they got back from America after getting married, that was the first time he introduced Amy to hard drugs. Does anyone else get the impression that he deliberately waited til they were married before doing this? So they were more tied together. And I was absolutely spitting feathers at him mocking her when they were in a rehab facility, getting her to sing 'Rehab' but then smirking 'but where are we now? give us the new updated version' ... then she said "I don't really mind it here" ... it was just awful. A few days later, the infamous bloodied pap shots

The paps were such vultures, never leaving her alone, winding her up and quite literally waiting outside her front door... a few years ago I took a walk in Camden and went to see a couple of her old houses (that's how bad it was, that her very addresses were public knowledge!). The Prowse Place one was completely in the open, no gates or anything, you could have walked right up to her front door. Were injunctions against paparazzi not a thing back then?

 

[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

 

[Tweacle]

My other half knew her quite well. I had a couple of wild nights out with her. She was lovely. Absolutely kind and loving. Tighter than anyone I’ve ever met though. And totally messed up before Blake came on the scene, he didn’t help the situation. Her dad ? I just didn’t like him, he pushed her to the max the majority of the time and was a bully. He’s spent the time since she passed trying to further himself. She’s sadly missed. She just wanted a nice man and babies, in fact I’m sure given time and with the right person, she would have been a lovely mum.

 

[VielleFemme]

I see the statue of Amy Winehouse in Camden has had a Palestinian flag placed over her Star of David necklace, I can't link the article it's on the BBC website.
I'm not going to get into a discussion about the politics of that region as its way to complicated and most people really don't know as much as they think they do but that is a provocative act and unnecessary.

I am Jewish and know a lot about the politics (and knew Amy very slightly) but will also not get into it here. This was a truly disgusting act of pure racism. Amy was a proud British Jew and Londoner and this has absolutely nothing to do with any kind of legitimate political protest and everything to do with driving Jews out of every part of British life - cultural, social, artistic, academic.

I never thought I'd see a time like this in my lifetime. It breaks my heart, and to do this to Amy's statue just makes me so sick and angry.
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I think it’s clearly a good thing that we’ve become less tolerant of transphobia though! Not sure how being Jewish is problematic now either?

Guessing you're not Jewish if you don't understand how problematic it has become for us

 

[NomDeGuerre]

She was just fabulous.

Frank was one of the first albums I bought as a young teenager and it absolutely blew my mind.

The press have a lot to answer for in her demise. That kind of coverage, for a woman who was clearly deeply unwell, is almost unthinkable nowadays, and it’s only a decade or so ago.

 

[Blockster]

Was it removed or has it just stayed there?

The sticker has been removed
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I am Jewish and know a lot about the politics (and knew Amy very slightly) but will also not get into it here. This was a truly disgusting act of pure racism. Amy was a proud British Jew and Londoner and this has absolutely nothing to do with any kind of legitimate political protest and everything to do with driving Jews out of every part of British life - cultural, social, artistic, academic.

I never thought I'd see a time like this in my lifetime. It breaks my heart, and to do this to Amy's statue just makes me so sick and angry.
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Guessing you're not Jewish if you don't understand how problematic it has become for us

It is very problematic and Amy was a down to earth North London girl and probably never gave the government of Israel a second thought, this is nothing to do with the war on gaza its a blatant hatred of Jews and no one can convince me otherwise.

 

[GingerJones50]

I have to admit I’d be quite interested in hearing what’s happened to him since Amy died. It is interesting and makes you think about what Amy would have made of it all.

Amy was successful and died young because of addiction so she’s almost the glamorous face of it all. Blake is the reality of addiction though, eking out a shitty life, losing your children, seeing people around you die.

 

[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

 

[Flowerpotgirl]

I just listened to 2 odd hours of Blake telling his tales. The comment section is filled with people who have a newfound understanding of him and what a lovely person he is. He did a very good job of whitewashing and not discussing several things that would paint him in a less positive light. And not one word about his recently deceased baby mamma, or their kids- of which both were adopted out. Or how he was selling stories to the tabloids. There was a couple comments about the porn movie that was being shopped around of Amy and how some people managed to get that shut right down. The implication was that Blake was behind it, from what was implied.
I remain firmly in the camp that he remains an awful human, and always was. Oh-also someone who claims to be Saras daughter is in the comments and she doesn’t have anything good to say about Blake either.

 

[clueless]

Just watched the film and… wow. Just wow… what a load of crap! It actually felt really weird. It was a bit all over the place, some things not in the right order, some things glossed over, a lot of important things left out entirely. I actually don’t even believe that most of these scenes or conversations happened - I know there will be creative license, but Amy’s legacy should be protected more than that. The whole scene where she met Blake for the first time… the scene in the shop where she says to the child “I wish I was your mummy” …

Some of the untruths in it are very annoying and unfair. Like Amy using crack for the first time of her own volition, when we all know that she first tried it when Blake introduced her to it after they returned from America, married. And the way he said that everyone blames him for her drug problems like it’s so unfair, I felt that was an attempt to absolve him in the eyes of the viewer. And he was divorcing her because her addictions and bulimia are too much for him to deal with, suggesting that she is the bad influence on him! Oh and him introducing her to the Shangri-Las and that she’d never heard of them before he told her… oh please!

Even silly things like the Fred Perry gingham playsuit that she wore early on in the film, when it wouldn’t have even existed until years later and her Star of David necklace was left to her by her grandmother, Amy only started to wear this after her grandmother had passed away, but in the film she has it on the whole time. I know I’m being a bit picky but why get these simple details wrong? And Amy did the beehive hair for the first time on her own hair, it wasn’t by her grandmother as the film wants it to seem.

Annoying how Blake was portrayed as this playful and fun cheeky chappy, also full of sense and wisdom - he is shown in much too kind a light. I don’t understand why. And Mitch was the only person in the world who was there for her, her only friend in the world. Her poor real friends shafted again. Even her mum didn’t get a look in!

It was also strange to me that one song used was the original Amy version, but the rest were all the actress’s versions. Why just one? Why not have all Amy, or all Marisa? I felt it should have been Amy’s vocals used. Marisa was very good - great voice and nailed a lot of the mannerisms - but as others have rightly said, she didn’t have a good script to work with, and I just found the whole film very odd.

 

[whathastheworldcometo]

She was so healthy here and her voice amazing. There are less than seven years between his interview and her death!

 

[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.

 

[Flowerpotgirl]

How is it that everyone around Blake dies and yet he lives on? He is an actual cockroach and such a waste of carbon. I will never forgive him for Amy and that whole situation. I know she has some responsibility in it too. But without him ruining her life, it would have been a different story.

 

[sheleg]

Am I the only one who thought she was overrated, she had a good voice but I couldn't take to her songs with the exception of F*** Me Pumps and Rehab.

She was a fantastic performer and songwriter. A true one-off.

 

[NomDeGuerre]

I just read the entire book Tyler wrote. I used to think “if I would have known her, I could have saved her or done something to help”. I no longer think I could have done anything. It was a sad and depressing read of her and the lucozade crack pipe. Blake went to jail and she carried on and got worse and worse. I dont think she got the help she needed, but I dont know that she was willing to be helped either.
so sad all around.

The saddest part of the film Amy is when of her friend’s recounts her their memory of the night Amy won the Grammy for Back To Black.

Despite receiving the highest accolade in music and performing in front of an audience of some of the biggest and most respected names in the industry, Amy turned to her friend and said ‘this is just no fun without drugs’.