Amy Winehouse

[tiggertoo]

Amazing artist, very strange, troubled life.

[heyalice]

I thought she was amazing as well. I love the song, 'Addicted', because I love to imagine how the song came together, opening lyrics, "Tell your boyfriend
Next time he's around to buy his own weed and don't wear my shit down, I wouldn't care if he would give me some more..."
Sitting around with her friend and mooch of a boyfriend, just annoyed...

[seat6]

The Guardian has an interesting op-ed on the new movie. I think I tend to agree.

The media exploited Amy Winehouse’s life. A new biopic looks set to do the same with her death

[Auroranorth]

Let the poor woman rest in peace already. Enjoy her music, mourn that she died young, and leave Amy alone.

[Ginger]

To me, it's a matter of whether the movie is good or bad. Any movie about a famous person who died tragically is inherently exploitative. Sylvia Plath's daughter was very against the movie that Gwyneth Paltrow made, and wrote a poem about how people would be watching her mother's death while eating popcorn and putting it on pause to go to the bathroom. She's correct. But I also don't know if that means those movies shouldn't be made.

I have to disagree with The Guardian writer on this:

The reaction was one of pure vitriol, with one particularly viral tweet describing the images of Abela, looking cartoonishly distraught in a halloween costume-level approximation of Winehouse’s trademark beehive, as “fucking revolting”

The actress playing Amy looks a thousand times better than Amy did during most of her time in the spotlight. That was a key part of Amy's bad years is that the British tabloids were serving up daily photos of her looking dirty, disheveled, and physically ravaged by the substances she was abusing.

The history is all here in this thread. It was like, "When is she going to die?" not even "if". And it was difficult to feel sorry for her at the time. People with ongoing addictions are frustrating. Everybody watched her make really bad choices over and over (notably by going back to that loser she married). And I think it is worth honestly acknowledging and exploring the fact that there was a lot of visceral disgust for her because she looked, frankly, gross.

[cremetangerine82]

Ginger, this biopic has been approved by Mitch Winehouse, Amy’s dad. He has been called out for how much he has exploited and possibly hastened his daughter’s death by telling her not to go to rehab. I just don’t think he has any good intentions about this movie, unless to make more money off of his deceased daughter. Unfortunately, the production needed Mitch's and Janis Winehouse-Collins' approval in order for it to use her music. Because she died unmarried and without children, half of her estate went to her living parents.

However if anybody has seen the Oscar and Grammy-winning documentary on her, I just don’t think her parents had her best interests in mind. I can’t imagine a mother hearing her daughter saying her weight loss program is binging and purging and not immediately seeking treatment for her. I just don’t like the parents, and the beehive wig I’ve seen from the production photos look like they’re from a Spirit Halloween sale after October 31.

Saying that Amy Winehouse was a “lost cause” and "hard to feel sorry" are very nihilistic comments and I think that had she continued with therapy and abstained from alcohol, she would still be alive. The last known photo of her showed her gaining weight and there were no illicit drugs found in her body at the time for death. I’m thinking she should’ve taken more time off and cut her parents out of her life (she already divorced what’s-his-face). If both the United Kingdom and the United States of America treated mental health and substance abuse as much as they treat cancer or heart disease, many lives can be saved. Right now, it's still easier to throw stones at someone who has a mental illness and/or a substance use disorder than truly care about their recovery.

I’ll sit out on this movie (along with the Whitney biopic, more bad wigs!).

[sardonictart]

Agreed on Winehouse's parents being enablers and possibly exploiters too. I saw that documentary and was a bit shocked by her parents to be honest. Between the music industry grind machine and useless parents, that girl was set up for pain. I hate that she missed out on a good life, and that we missed out on hearing her for many more years. She was amazingly talented. RIP, Amy.

[cremetangerine82]

That was incredibly sweet, sardonictart. One quick note: since Amy was Jewish, the term "may her memory be a blessing" is more appropriate than "rest in peace", which is for Christians and Muslims.

I looked through the SPIN archive, and I found this lovely quote from the 2011 year-end wrap-up:

We need divas. Endless foreshadowing non-withstanding, Amy Winehouse's death devastated us, underscored how precious and desperately finite a resource that sort of transcendent talent really is, reminded us of how few artists in a generation have a shot at occupying that center, fusing the garish mainstream-pop spectacle of your Katys and Nikkis and Gagas with the brutal ardor of your Taylors and Mirandas and Kellys with the blow-your-house-down vocal pyro of your Christinas and Florences and Beyoncés.

CW: foul language, bad Jay-Z singing

Of course, 75% of the time, that magazine mocked the hell out of her, so of course they say something kind postmortem. A September 2008 review of her Glastonbury performance said she "ranted about Kanye West (she suggested he call his next album Cxxxs Like Kayne" (in the show, she replaced ONE lyric singing "I wouldn't open for a cxxx like Kanye"), "warned against dating white men" (she joked that Blake was the only white guy she loved), made a nonsensical reference to The Cosby Show, elbowed and punched a fan "and was escorted away, stage left, by security".

After watching the whole thing on YouTube, those events definitely didn't happen or were exaggerated. She did fall off the mini-stage and stumbled once in the crowd pit riser when she into the audience for the final two songs (who wouldn't in 4 or 5-inch Christian Louboutins and with a single spotlight after dark?) She did elbow and threw a punch (unclear if it landed) at a fan when he/she/they threw something at her (a dick move on the fan's part) and more security came into the pit to make sure that it didn't happen again; that's why most performers stay on stage. I give her credit to let lucky audience members get that close to her.

She danced joyfully in some perilously high heels, joked constantly (like saying if one of her ribs popped out because of her tight dress for an audience member to kindly return it), did a great cover of the Specials' "A Message To You, Rudy" in tribute (she knew two of the band members) and only mentioned The Cosby Show in reference to the Specials' song and the character Rudy on the show, did impressive lyric improvisations and covers (an interpolation of "Back to Black" with "Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand)" by The Shangri-Las), corrected the band when they played the wrong chords and the drummer counted in wrong (8 counts instead of 4 counts) of the song "Rehab", returned a fan's scarf when she didn't feel it was hers to take, asked the crowd how they were doing three times, hugged one of her backup singers, playfully slapped the other on the thighs, kissed the backup singer who lifted her off the stage to get closer to the audience ("Don't tell my husband! Aw, tell my husband, yo!") and spent 9 minutes thanking her band and backup singers/dancers individually.

Yes, she was too flat or too sharp or missed some lyrics, but who hasn't messed up while working? Most of the time, she was on point and sang as if her life depended on it. Despite the hot lights and tons of moving (seriously, she was running to all sides of the pit so she could sing and touch/be touched by fans), she didn't break a sweat. That amount of generosity and physically (she didn't even stop signing while giving the "fan" a physical reminder in manners) was impressive.

The same article praised Jay-Z for "a deft, if off-key version of Oasis' 'Wonderwall'", while subtitled Amy's (unflattering, by the way) photo and captioned her speech (perfectly coherent stage patter and well-timed jokes) with "Amy Winehouse: 'Pffft...Blake...glurrrp...Kanye...zzz'". Also, Jay-Z sung badly, and "played" an electric guitar that wasn't plugged in, but mainstream magazines must feel obligated to not trash a powerful celebrity who could easily cut off having interviews with them (lost profit is more important than accurate reporting!). Amy was easy pickings, so it fine and dandy to mocked her otherwise terrific show.

[Ridha]

Jan 30, 2023 20:24:23 GMT -4 cremetangerine82 said:

That was incredibly sweet, sardonictart. One quick note: since Amy was Jewish, the term "may her memory be a blessing" is more appropriate than "rest in peace", which is for Christians.

Muslims say rest in peace or May the soul rest in peace all the time, so I don’t think it’s for Christians.

Amy did seem very open hearted and the type to eat the marrow of life or whatever the Dead Poets Society quote/yardstick was. One of the few modern talents I listen to often on my iPod, usually that’s reserved for 80s and 90s.

[cremetangerine82]

//

Feb 1, 2023 2:02:51 GMT -4 Ridha said:

Jan 30, 2023 20:24:23 GMT -4 cremetangerine82 said:

That was incredibly sweet, sardonictart. One quick note: since Amy was Jewish, the term "may her memory be a blessing" is more appropriate than "rest in peace", which is for Christians.

Muslims say rest in peace or May the soul rest in peace all the time, so I don’t think it’s for Christians.

Amy did seem very open hearted and the type to eat the marrow of life or whatever the Dead Poets Society quote/yardstick was. One of the few modern talents I listen to often on my iPod, usually that’s reserved for 80s and 90s.

Thanks for the clarification, ridha. I was told that Jewish people don't use "peace in peace"and I wanted to use the appropriate phrase for Amy. I've also heard "to Allah we belong, and to Allah he/she/they returned", it that phrase used?

OT: Amy was known to make homemade chicken soup if a friend was sick, which showed a kindness to her character.