July 27, 2011

"You're so far away. Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?"



This is the song chosen to end the funeral for Amy Winehouse.

94 comments:

Known Unknown said...

Great song. Perhaps appropriate.

BJK said...

Tried to make her go to rehab.

She said, "No, no, no."



Hard to mourn the passing of someone who's looked as though she's been trying to kill herself for as long as she's been famous.

Phil 314 said...

Mitch Winehouse told mourners that his late daughter had recently found love and had beaten her drug dependency three years before her death, but he admitted she was still struggling to control her drinking after several weeks of abstinence.

This is a case where

"Well,2 outta 3 ain't bad"

didn't apply.

Ann Althouse said...

"Hard to mourn the passing of someone who's looked as though she's been trying to kill herself for as long as she's been famous."

We've lost someone who had a lot she could have given us, quite apart from whether she's to blame for her own demise. You could mourn what we've lost. In any case, I don't think it's hard to mourn for the person herself. She was 27 and I don't think she meant to kill herself.

If she did mean to kill herself, she does need to be counted as another self-murderer, but that doesn't mean those who've lost her don't suffer for their loss.

Trooper York said...

I feel bad for Amy.

Especially as she is messing up my blog by croaking so soon.

Patrick said...

I find these two people annoying. they are excellent musicians, however.

Luke Lea said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Patrick said...

And I find the death of Amy Winehouse very sad. I didn't really pay her any attention while she was alive, I just sort of assumed she was another train wreck trying to get headlines. I listened to a bit of her stuff, and it turns out she was quite talented. 27 is really young.

traditionalguy said...

They cremated her remains.

Will anyone care enough to make a memorial to her?

Luke Lea said...

Roger Cohen in today's NYT: "Nothing, however, can excuse the widespread condoning of an anti-Muslim racism once reserved for the Jews of Europe. Not on the weekend when Amy Winehouse, a [nice] Jewish girl from East London whose artistry would once have been dismissed by a racist and murderous European right as degenerate "cosmopolitan" trash, died."

You mean her?

Bayoneteer said...

She was actually pretty good and could have don'e a lot more good work. But there are some people, like her cohorts in the Dead At 27 Club that just don't make it. Ann is right; it's a tragedy for her and an artistic loss for the rest of us. When I look at most of the lame vocal music artists out there currently I feel the loss more acutely. I'd trade Amy for a whole boatload of Lindsay Lohans/Miley Cyrus'/Katy Perry's.

SunnyJ said...

Her dad was quoted saying, "The one thing Amy always wanted was to be worried about". He was relaying stories of her pretending to be missing or injured etc. as a child/adult.

Perfect for our high drama, victim groups, narcisstic evolving human condition.

Celebrate she had talent and shared it for awhile.
Celebrate the parents that created a child to love.
Celebrate she didn't take 65 other people with her.

Mourn the beautiful brave lost young men and women that volunteer to serve and are sent to war when all they wanted to do was live.

Amy Winehouse owns her own death. At least let her take some individual responsibility for something in her life instead of the insufferable condescenion to feel bad about an outcome she craved.

Fred4Pres said...

Amy Winehouse is like the girl next door...provided you live next to a methadone clinic.

I am being a bit gruff on this but I was a fan of her music. I have had friends who have done things like this and my first reaction is anger that they could do this to their friends and family. It is a waste. We saw it coming. And it came.

And the sad part she was an attractive (and obviously talented) girl before she started spinning out of control. But hey, you cannot save some people from themselves.

Trooper York said...

Hey just because you like Amy Winehouse is no reason to diss the incredible talent that is Miley Cyrus.

Trooper York said...

And Katy Perry has some really nice tits.

Trooper York said...

And what would a Slutwalk be without Lindsey Lohan.

Trooper York said...

Dude you have some issuses.

edutcher said...

A very poignant choice by her parents.

I feel sorry for them.

Shouting Thomas said...

I've been friends with several (very well known) musicians who crashed in a similar way.

The circumstances were different in each case.

Musicians are sensualists. Musicians crave passion, depth of sensation, eroticism and dramatic presentation. These cravings are real, not imagined or affected.

I felt, and still feel, that my relationships with those musicians were worth the struggle. Not everybody wants to live a sensible, orderly, conventional life.

And, yes, I could see the train wreck coming in each case.

Irene said...

Maybe this was Amy Winehouse's favorite song, or maybe it was had a special meaning for the family when she was a little girl.

rhhardin said...

I've heard three Amy Winehouse jokes already:

1. Celebrating four days of sobriety;

2. The fire burned three days when they cremated her;

3. Only ten more years to put up with Justin Bieber.

Chuck66 said...

That song.....just today I saw a list of the top songs of 1971 (linked to by another blog). Its amazing how mellow that year was. Think "My Sweet Lord", James Taylor tunes, that sort of music.

Steve Koch said...

Was that James Taylor playing guitar?

The other guitar player kinda looked like Jackson Browne.

Carole King was a huge star back then. Her Tapestry album was awesome.

KCFleming said...

If there's a rock and roll heaven, well you know they've got a hell of a band.

KCFleming said...

I'm sure hell is pretty good, too, bandwise.

ricpic said...

Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?

Troop stays in Brooklyn. It can be done.


Thomas Wolfe wrote that you can't go home again.

The question is, can you leave?

KCFleming said...

But they'd never play together.
Buncha prima donnas.

ricpic said...

Some of the greatest musicians have lived the lives (outwardly) of accountants.

Carol_Herman said...

I don't know what to liken this to. Is it like James Dean dying young?

My generation has reached maturity, now. It seems a lot of folk died young. Belushi. John Lennon. The voice that was the Momma's & the Poppa's, who choked on a chicken sandwich, in bed.

But today's youth hardly consider death. So, Winehouse ... who overdosed ... is a reality to the young ... Does it surprise them?

Were we surprised by those who had fame and exited early?

KCFleming said...

BTW, that is James Taylor playing the gee-tar.

Skippy said...

Beautiful, beautiful.

KCFleming said...

The band in Purgatory is pretty meh, if you ask me.

kjbe said...

I have had friends who have done things like this and my first reaction is anger that they could do this to their friends and family.

I've had friends who have done this, too. As I've learned more about addiction my anger has turned to compassion. Their affliction wasn't about me, but rooted in their own fears and self-loathing (part of which was knowing how they disappointed others).

FWIT, I think that is Sweet Baby James.

Peano said...

If she did mean to kill herself, she does need to be counted as another self-murderer, ...

As E.B. White once said of Hemingway's writing, that statement is like the farting of an old horse. I would think that this case, in particular, would lead you to see the stupidity of your position. But once an idea is fixed ...

Shouting Thomas said...

Some of the greatest musicians have lived the lives (outwardly) of accountants.

I haven't seen much of this in the blues, rock or country biz.

KCFleming said...

Purgatory has too many woodwinds.

edutcher said...

Carol_Herman said...

I don't know what to liken this to. Is it like James Dean dying young?

My generation has reached maturity, now. It seems a lot of folk died young.


It was ever thus. Look at all the poets who died young - Byron, Keats, Shelley, and others - some from TB, others from syphilis, the AIDS of its time.

Roger J. said...

I have no idea who amy w was--apparently a drug addicted and destructive life for which I offer condolences to her family.

But please--enough of this kind of celebration of a loser--good people die all the time. there is no need to sentimentalize the death of a loser.

I do hope that Ms W RIP--and I wish her family peace--but this is not appropriate for any kind of larger lament

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Were we surprised by those who had fame and exited early?

Not really.

But I am surprised about the chicken sandwich in bed. I wasn't paying attention then, I guess.

Francisco D said...

Two Thoughts;

First, I heard Carol King (with James Taylor as the opening act) sing that song 40 years ago. It was a wonderful concert that lasted until 3 AM (a big deal for a teenager in those days) and a wonderful song.

Second, Unless Amy was drinking like Jim Morrison, I doubt if alcohol poisoning was the Cause of Death.

SteveR said...

The other guitar player kinda looked like Jackson Browne.


Kinda does but at the beginning she introduces him, Charlie Larkey, whow she was married to and played on Tapestry

Known Unknown said...

I've heard three Amy Winehouse jokes already:

1. Celebrating four days of sobriety;

2. The fire burned three days when they cremated her;

3. Only ten more years to put up with Justin Bieber.


Four, if you include North London cocaine supply doubles.

A. Shmendrik said...

Cardella: "Geez Woody, you gotta help me out with this!"

Woodall: "No way. I'm not doing it!"

...

Woodall: "We could always call that nudnik Wezyk...that's it!"

Cardella: "Woody, you're a friggin' genius, you are! Problem solved!"

Synova said...

"Nothing, however, can excuse the widespread condoning of an anti-Muslim racism once reserved for the Jews of Europe."

Dear god that's offensive.

Anonymous said...

We've lost someone who had a lot she could have given us,

No. "we" have haven't.

WTF?

"Inner hippy chic" still finding fundamental value in dead musicians?

"I" look forward to your next post titled "We've lost someone who had a lot he could have given us" when the next Wisconsin son comes home from overseas in a flag-draped coffin.

That young man, like the one's before him, ensures 60's love children can romanticize over a time past....the one's who sacrificed everything to give "us" sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll.

So far away indeed....

reader_iam said...

It was a ham sandwich, and Mama Cassette didn't die from choking in it (urban legend).

reader_iam said...

"Cass," not cassette. Damn iPhone autocorrect!

Aurelian said...

Browndog:

that was absolutely right the fuck on! Her death has got the bullshit catapults firing en masse.

ricpic said...

Some of the greatest musicians have lived the lives (outwardly) of accountants.

I haven't seen much of this in the blues, rock or country biz.


Here's a list, off the top of my head, of musicians/composers who could be classified as square or at least led orderly lives:

Chet Atkins
Richard Rodgers
Irving Berlin
Les Paul
E.Y. Harburg
Frank Loesser
Dave Brubeck
Jerome Kern

I know it's a dated list but I'm sure the type persists.

The Dude said...

Has Keith asked to snort her ashes yet?

Why isn't this a case of self murder?

Junkies suck, then they die.

Fred4Pres said...

Trooper,

Miley...a qualified check (not my type of music but she is talented for that type).
Perry, check.
Lohan, check.
Issues, check.

rhhardin said...

Purgatory has too many woodwinds.

Clarinets for the cheese course.

Fred4Pres said...

ricpic, I am not so sure about Irving Berlin. That dude could party. It is a shame he burned out at such a young age.

rhhardin said...

Lady Gaga said Amy Winehouse changed pop music forever.

Vince the Armstrong and Getty call screener lists other groups that Lady Gaga also thinks changed pop music forever audio page link, in minutes 2 thru 3, starting with Midnight Runners and Right Said Fred.

ricpic said...

That's it Fred, mock me...and Irving. ;^(

Carol_Herman said...

The first clue that she was self-mutilating, were the tattoos.

To each his own when they choose talent.

This doesn't work for me, anymore than Haley and his Comets worked for my dad. I nearly got sent to the backseat ... for turning on the radio in his car, while he was driving. And, I seemed to know "Rock Around the Clock."

Cedarford said...

Althouse - "If she did mean to kill herself, she does need to be counted as another self-murderer."

Big gray area, Althouse. You can argue that there always have been "subpopulations" that by inclination of personality, and where their talents drive them...engage in self-destruction in ways associated as common in that subpopulation. I don't know if that makes them "self-murderers" as much as driven by things that make them likelier to die.
Gays getting HIV due to lifestyle.
The long history of poets, singers, other artists and substance abuse.
Thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies that freeclimb ice cliffs, ride Italian and Japanese racing bikes at 130MPH on winding Cali mountain roads, beg for another "shot" at going door-to-door combat in Ramadi.

Sometimes the odds are beat and the person avoids "self-murder". Clapton and Taylor lived through their addictions - Joplin didn't. Freddy Mercury got AIDs - George Michael got lucky and didn't.

I met a Swiss guy who set a record ice-climbing without ropes. He was a breed apart, like the AF buddy of mine that they calculate was air borne for 800 yards when he lost it on a curve in the Sierras.

Anonymous said...

All By Myself woulda been better.

Cedarford said...

Browndog said...
We've lost someone who had a lot she could have given us,

No. "we" have haven't.

WTF?
.................

"I" look forward to your next post titled "We've lost someone who had a lot he could have given us" when the next Wisconsin son comes home from overseas in a flag-draped coffin.

That young man, like the one's before him, ensures 60's love children can romanticize over a time past....the one's who sacrificed everything to give "us" sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll.

================
Browndog, every society with a strong militaristic element has those that demand we fall to our knees and fellate the memory of "hero soldiers who die" - as the only people who achieve something substantial and worth venerating in that society.

That is a stunted perspective. Rome was more than it's generals and fallen Legions. The Ummah is stunted precisely because it ignores aspations of those who want to advance society for heroworship of the "fallen martyrs" above all others.

England is Shakespeare, Byron, Newton and even Freddie Mercury and Lennon and Amy Winehouse - as much as it was was Admiral Nelson, and the 11,768th nameless soldier dropped as meat for war fodder on the Somme to no consequence.

People now and 50 years from now are still inspired by Joplin, dead at 27...as they will be with Billy Holiday and Amy Winehouse. And it stings, but while overall admiring the duty and honor of warriors in the Panzer divisions of WWII or the Redcoats in Crimea or at Yorktown....or the dead US heroes who gave "The Noble Iraqis" their freedom - their sacrifice was of little positive contribution to advancing their nation or society overall.

It would be good from time to time to remind both Americans and Islamoids that "hero warriors" are just one part of society that can sacrifice and occasionally deliver a feat of great value to the nation and the people. Germany has learned that there is more to society than soldier veneration...though it took a lot to hammer the lesson home.

Luther said...

AW had a unique voice, for sure and to a point. Beyond which point she was just a 'normal' human being. I suspect that that is what she might hate the most, here, being characterized as 'normal'. But from her injected tits to her childish tattoos she let herself be defined and influenced by outside forces. Live hard die young. I'd bet she wouldn't have changed a thing.

Tim said...

The only question is, how many people had her in their "dead pool" this year?

Luther said...

"every society with a strong militaristic element has those that demand we fall to our knees and fellate the memory of "hero soldiers who die" - as the only people who achieve something substantial and worth venerating in that society."

You have such a huge misunderstanding of who the fuck some of us are here.

And this, this is one of the more offensive things I have read in years...

"... a strong militaristic element has those that demand we fall to our knees and fellate the memory of "hero soldiers who die..."

Is one of the more disgusting things I have read in years.

Fuck you, you asshole. You, and that goddamn R. Cook together.

You fucking simpletons.

Palladian said...

The attitude toward art here is often very depressing. If you don't care that Amy Winehouse died, and you think she was a worthless junkie &c, then why waste the time posting a comment? If we disdained and ignored the work and importance of artists who lived less-than-perfect lives, we'd live in a bleak, impoverished world.

It's not imperative that artists are "troubled" and as ricpic wrote above, some artists lived seemingly "normal" lives (one of the greatest artists of all time, J.S. Bach, lived a workmanlike life and had 20 children), but self-destructive trouble sometimes accompanies the creative spirit. It's not sometime to be celebrated, but it's not generally something that should condemn an artist's work either.

I have lived very close to that sort of destructive fire; I've been burned by it and indeed I battle it every day of my life. That I survive another day without falling into it again is something I thank God for. That Amy Winehouse and so many others didn't manage to escape in the end doesn't by itself justify thoughtless condemnation.

But thoughtless condemnation is easy. And so many people like easy.

Palladian said...

"every society with a strong militaristic element has those that demand we fall to our knees and fellate the memory of "hero soldiers who die"..."

I prefer to fellate living soldiers myself.

Luther said...

"I prefer to fellate living soldiers myself."

Fucking glib asshole.

Give us the character of one unknown, unacknowledged, tomb of the unknown solider, compared to a thousand of Winehouse.

Which of those opens up the advantages of freedom, versus those who only take advantage of same.

Palladian said...

"Fucking glib asshole."

I prefer fucking non-glib assholes.

Luther said...

"I prefer fucking non-glib assholes."

I suspect, as like Titus, it's any port in a storm for you.

Luther said...

And, in an attempt to keep the language, if nothing else, straight...

"I prefer to fellate living soldiers myself."

"I prefer fucking non-glib assholes."

Fucking, in the historical sense, has no relation nor relevance to fellation. In my world, anyway. In your world, well, that's your world.

Palladian said...

We all live in our own worlds, is the lesson of this thread I think.

And I've nothing but respect for honorable members of our armed forces, lest you think my sexual fondness for Marines is intended as some sort of disrespect or mockery.

You'll notice that my initial comment was not directed at you, anyway.

Cedarford said...

Fuck you right back Luther.

I am a Vet as well, so dispense with your dripping sense of entitlement for "the soldiers".

I am also a person who studied history as an undergrad and keep up with it today.
My reading is a society that venerates the shaheed, the hero warrior above all other vital sectors and contributors to society is A STUNTED SOCIETY.

We lecture the Arabs that they should build things, do things to improve their society, advance the arts, educate and feed their masses....and their response is "what is all that compared to the contribution of a hero martyr who dies on Jihad trying to smite the enemy Jew, heretic Shiite, the American soldier his bomb oblitered? The highest place is to be a dead Jihadi. Architects, nurses, artists, engineers and teachers are NOTHING compared to the Heroes."

PS - the Islamoids and Nazis also had their own Cult of the POW/MIA going. KSM said he was motivated to select the WTC because the need was to redeem the hero POWs who tried and failed on the 1st try. And MIA Jihadis are religiously important...and unlike American advocates that want MIA payments to continue forever rather than declaring death or spend millions trying to find the sacred bones that will allow the Hero Family's to "Achieve Closure" - Muslims want the bones left wherever they lay and the martyr acknowledged dead as soon as possible. So the widow can be assigned to another relative especially if she is still in her fertile years - and the village can properly celebrate his glorious death while trying to butcher Western or Hindi infidels, black animal pagans, or Muslim heretics and apostates.

Palladian said...

And again, I think Amy Winehouse would have loved this conversation, all of it.

Palladian said...

"I suspect, as like Titus, it's any port in a storm for you."

As long as there are sailors in port.

Cedarford said...

Palladian - With the repeal of Don't Ask Dont Tell" - Luther's Heroes, even the atheists, will have another pass the time activity they can do in foxholes. Besides smoke cigs and pray to Jesus.

And like you I have nothing but respect for military doing duty...without having to put them on a pedestal above all other parts of society as the Nazis did and Islamoids do. (And just being in military, firefighter, cop uniform does not make one an automatic Hero - something Luther and other military figurative fellators forget. Nor does being a casualty mean herohood - be it in a war zone, in a military plane crash, or an on-duty cop in a squad car getting T-boned by a truck while turning into a donut shoppe)

Luther said...

""so dispense with your dripping sense of entitlement for "the soldiers"."

Well, then, dispense with your dripping condescension of 'the soldiers'. And I'm certain sure I never hinted at a sense of 'entitlement'. Fuck that, asshole. No one owes me anything. Except honesty in discourse.

The rest of your comment makes no sense to me. Which, of course, doesn't mean it makes no sense to anyone. Perhaps to some Hamas guy in Palestine it means something.

Yeah, Pallidian, perhaps Amy would have loved all this, too damn bad she couldn't see far enough outside herself to know it was here, the conversation. Yeah, my wife likes sailors, too. Kind of galling for a Marine, but there you are, no accounting for taste.

Palladian said...

"Palladian - With the repeal of Don't Ask Dont Tell" - Luther's Heroes, even the atheists, will have another pass the time activity they can do in foxholes. Besides smoke cigs and pray to Jesus."

From the stories a couple of buddies tell me, it already happens sometimes anyway, though I've never heard of it in any foxholes.

I suppose I agree with you about hero-worship— to a degree. I guess I have Purtian iconoclasm in my genetics, because idolatry and hero-worship of any kind makes me very uncomfortable. To me, faithful service is honorable because it is accomplished by mere humans, not by supernatural heroes.

Of course, you and I have very different ways of expressing our similar opinions...

Luther said...

"And like you I have nothing but respect for military doing duty...without having to put them on a pedestal above all other parts of society as the Nazis did and Islamoids do."

You are really, Cedarford, a a most vain, vile, and vacuous person.

vw-smater-no you ain't.

Palladian said...

"Yeah, my wife likes sailors, too. Kind of galling for a Marine, but there you are, no accounting for taste."

Ha. I actually don't know any sailors, and I prefer Marines if we're talking sex appeal and uniforms. Sailors are certainly appealing, but to me the crackerjacks of today are a bit too baggy to be properly sexy.

Of course I may be biased because I come from a Marine family.

Luther said...

"I suppose I agree with you about hero-worship— to a degree. I guess I have Purtian iconoclasm in my genetics, because idolatry and hero-worship of any kind makes me very uncomfortable. To me, faithful service is honorable because it is accomplished by mere humans, not by supernatural heroes."

Thank you for making some sense.

vw-exholl-working your way toward, maybe.

Palladian said...

A lot of my early memories of the US Military were also colored by spending a lot of time with my grandfather, who was a Lt. Colonel in the Army, and grandmother. They used to take me along to various bases when they went for doctor visits and shopping. Almost everything I wore until age 8 or so was from the PX.

The only thing any of the military guys in my family could agree on is that Navy sucked.

Luther said...

Pallidian. I respect your opinions. We, mutually, give way to our emotions on occasion. You can argue that if you like. I like to think though, that it is an argument that needs taking place, everywhere, not just here at Althouse. And, it is I think, taking place, has been for quite some time. Most American's are rational humans, just the media can't sell news that way and thus distorts all.

Palladian said...

Maybe if Amy had found herself a nice RAF guy instead of that scumbag Blake, she'd be singing tonight instead of silent in a little box.

Cedarford said...

Luther - "Give us the character of one unknown, unacknowledged, tomb of the unknown solider, compared to a thousand of Winehouse."
==========================

Most nations have a symbolic tomb for dead, unlocated military. Your basic soldier dragged into war and whose body was lost in the carnage is little different in character they must have had between the Soviet, Syrian, Brit, Portugese, Egyptian, German, American, Saddam's Iraqi one, the Mexican, Indonesian ones the remains symbolize.

So was the character of the life symbolized by the remains of one Egyptian blasted to bits by Israelis in the October War, a German squashed to paste by Soviet tanks on the Eastern front - really "worth the character of a thousand Joplins, Winehouses, Sylvia Plaths"??
Even a guy in the 3rd made IED fodder and vaporized while his fingers were working his Gameboy - thanks to a grateful purple-fingered Democracy loving Iraqi...who had the military and few other employment options thanks to trade with China gutting his state of jobs he could do??

No, I don't think so.

I saw little "character" difference between the officers and civilians in uniform - and comparable status civilians out of uniform.

Luther said...

"is that Navy sucked"

Then we can agree on one thing at least.

My writing at times leaves me open to mis-characterization. Cedarford, so far, the worst at doing so.

Fred4Pres said...

ricpic said...
That's it Fred, mock me...and Irving. ;^(

7/27/11 8:19 PM



Oh come on, you are kidding right? No smiley emoticon? I am a Berlin fan. He is the opposite of Amy Weinhouse in life style and he lived to be 101!

And for Trooper, I am sorry he lost a topic for his blog. Hopefully Lindsay Lohan will not let him down, but it won't be the same.

Palladian said...

"Pallidian. I respect your opinions. We, mutually, give way to our emotions on occasion. You can argue that if you like. I like to think though, that it is an argument that needs taking place, everywhere, not just here at Althouse."

I definitely agree. And no matter what disagreements (and insults) I may trade with people on here or elsewhere, in the end I'd happily buy a drink for anyone who was an honest commenter. We're all human (well, most of us). Some of us, like Amy Winehouse, are quite violently and tragically human. But in the end it's because of that very humanity, with its limitations and failures, that gives us the power to transcend it, whether through faithful service in the military, diligent work in science or profundity and power in art. That we're capable doing that constantly amazes and humbles me.

Luther said...

Cedarford. You and I inhabit different worlds, worlds where likely the twain will never meet. Let us just leave it at that, for now. I'll agree to ignore you if you will do the same for me.

Palladian said...

"Hopefully Lindsay Lohan will not let him down, but it won't be the same."

See, I always though Lohan deserved it more than A.W. Even at her most debased and pathetic, Winehouse always had the redemption of her talent. Even when it seemed she had lost it, there was always hope that one day she would find it again.

Lohan, on the other hand....

Luther said...

Palladain. Your 11:50 well said. I can't add to it so won't try.

rcocean said...

I can't help but think of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.

Three young guys who were better musicians than Amy Winebottle - who died young, but didn't kill themselves or perform drunk.

Cedarford said...

Palladian said...
Maybe if Amy had found herself a nice RAF guy instead of that scumbag Blake, she'd be singing tonight instead of silent in a little box.
===================
She had her problems before that loser amped up the mutual self destruction.
One small glint of silver in all of it was reading the tribute of a guy I thought was a real dirtball and lightweight beforehand, Russell Brand. It was beautiful...a flawed but inspired and humble guy reaching out to paint a touching and compelling portrait.

******************
Luther, I have no intent on ignoring you if you say more dumb things self-glorifying "Those Who Served!" as better than other Americans or Brit singers. You are free to say what you want in the way of Idolatry - but if I think it smells too much of what other stunted cultures given to shaheed or warrior glorifying do...I will call you on it.
It doesn't even come down to me being a Gulf War vet so I CAN criticize militaristic boosterism. "Those Who Never Served" have an equal voice in who the country lauds.
IMO, the people that built the Hoover Dan, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Interstate Highway System (who had some in their ranks 'suffer and die' too) - and toss in an artist or scientist as well - did more to help our country at lower cost than the soldiers that worked and sacrificed "rebuilt Iraq" to the enternal gratitude of the noble Iraqis.

jamboree said...

I don't think it's that sad. I've liked her stuff for a long time though I have not been fanatical. "Rehab" has been an absolute staple on my playlist for years - I wish I'd written it. I love the attitude. I love the line "what kind of fuckery" is this as well.

OTOH, I've been watching her physical transformation for years as well. The weak attempts to rise above the water, the final demise.

She did what she came to do. I don't think she had that much more to offer. She was unique, but her talent put her in a very narrow band. She didn't have kids. I just don't think it's that sad.

Kurt Cobain's suicide affected me because I was younger and it kind of represented my own bunch's struggles more profoundly. I understand that about Amy's peers and send my condolences to them FWIW.

But in hindsight, his death really wasn't that tragic. It was tragic for his daughter of course. It was tragic that the world can be so screwed that one of the good guys couldn't survive even with tons of money and fame, but otherwise, in the long run, it just isn't that sad. He had a better life than most and he never has to suffer the slow degradation of time and the absolute tedium of what would have been his continuing daily battles with his demons.

Amy won't have to either. She said recently that if she died tomorrow she'd die a happy girl and I believe her.

Curious George said...

Ann Althouse said...

We've lost someone who had a lot she could have given us, quite apart from whether she's to blame for her own demise."

I assume by this you mean suicide, because only Amy Winehouse is responsible.

Addiction has three ends. All addicts hit "bottom". It results in sobriety, death, or insanity.

Rube said...

Carole King has a ranch for sale on the Salmon River in Central Idaho. It's called the "Robinson Bar Ranch" and it is on the market for $16,000,000. It has it's own recording studio and guest lodge.

ken in tx said...

I never paid any attention to Amy Winehouse until now. I listened to her song about not going to rehab. She sounded like a thousand other white performers pretending to be black. May she rest in peace.