Amy Winehouse, who died over the weekend, was a wonderful singer-songwriter. Her genius for adapting older popular music forms — notably, jazz and R&B — to new times, is probably as close to total originality as this post-modern era allows. Winehouse, for all her tabloid-fodder habits, was a musical marvel and I miss her already — just as, on some level, I’ll always miss her “next album,” which, obviously, won’t be coming out.
People react differently to celebrity deaths. Many feel obliged to see lessons for us all in the death, usually lessons like “Just Say No,” “Use a Condom,” or some other simplistic moralizing. The death of Amy Winehouse has been no exception. CNN, BBC, MSNBC, whichever media outlet you watched, someone there had a lesson all of us could — and should — learn from the diminutive, alcoholic chanteuse’s demise. It’s an annoying habit, this “lessons learned” thing — repeated after every sensationalized celebrity death or blast of political violence. (So far, people still seem too stunned by the horrors in Norway to find many “lessons” there yet, but have no fear, they’re on the way.)
Tricia Fox has come up with one of the oddest, not to say most self-serving, reactions to Winehouse’s death we’re likely to see. Her site within Huffington Post says “Tricia Fox is a Scottish entrepreneur and marketer who is utterly, utterly passionate about building brands.” OK, if that’s what pulls your trigger, but surely Amy Winehouse — who, was, if nothing else, impractical, non-business-minded, and representative of the flighty-artiste stereotype — offered nothing for Ms. Fox to muse about in her column, right? Wrong. According to Ms. Fox, and I am not making this up, Winehouse’s death “is a wake-up call to all small business owners.” To which I offer a big, fat, “Huh??” Or, as an old friend used to say, God al-fucking-mighty. Usually, someone’s body is allowed to get cold before crass vultures try to use it for their own narrow self-interest. I guess now, however, the hungry maw of the non-stop news cycle dictates that you get your shots in ASAP. Congrats, Ms. Fox, you’ve come in first in the “I can’t see past the end of my own friggin nose” contest.
This article appears in Jul 19-25, 2011.
“I’ll always miss her “next album,” which, obviously, won’t be coming out.”
You mean like there haven’t been any Hendrix albums since he died? I guess I imagined (pun intended) John Lennon’s posthumous “Milk And Honey”. Trust me, there will be more Winehouse “product”.
Yet another manifestation of Grooms’s stupidity.
Sheesh, pretty harsh there. And a pretty horrible “pun” there about Lennon, to boot.
While people can obviously continue to release all sorts of things that artists recorded prior to their deaths, some of which may just not have been completed, and some of which may never have been INTENDED to be heard, the artist in question obviously won’t be able to actually write or record anything new. An artist that dies will obviously never be able to sit down and conceptualize another album, song, etc. Maybe that is what he meant.
Is a new Hendrix compilation representative of what he would be playing / writing if he were still alive today? How about Lennon? Do you think that the majority of the crap of ‘Milk and Honey’ would have seen the light of day if he were able to continue recording into this century? On b-sides, perhaps, but that’s all.
While I don’t even know how much of Winehouse’s stuff she actually had anything to do with writing, etc, I don’t think it’s strange that soemone would say that they would miss not hearing any “new” music from her. I’m thinking you probably wouldn’t have even said anything about it, except for the fact you obviously has some sort of beef with this guy.
Learn to pick your battles, and maybe you won’t look so ridiculous, ass.
Joe:
How much deep seated hatred do you have to harbor to turn a respectful statement of condolence and support into an excuse to derogate the author?
Grow up.
As if losing Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Hendrix, Robert Johnson, and ALL the other young talent through the years wasn’t enough, in our DIGI world of modern still cannot stop this runaway train. Amy was a very troubled young woman, anyone could tell that. The drugs kept coming from her “handlers”, WHY???? http://bit.ly/qu8K9w
Of course there are lessons to be learned. Life is an exercise in learning. If we can’t learn from the tragic life of Amy Winehouse, then you doing a total injustice to young people who admired her for her avoidance of rehab. In fact, she was proud of not going to rehab and getting better. Thank about that next time before you become a critic of what is healthy and good for a society. Be a good journalist.
Joe, what is it? Have you got a serious case of hemorrhoids, or what?