Let Me Fix That Headline For You

I can't believe that anybody is surprised that Amy Winehouse is dead. I'm about as disconnected from the culture that she inhabited as can be, and it was clear to me two years ago that she was a suicide waiting to happen.

Probably about as good an article as anyone could write about pop music. She had talent, she destroyed herself, but she didn't hurt anyone else.

(And she would have been good as a James Bond theme singer. I hate all ones who aren't Shirley Bassey [of course], but that's kind of an interesting idea.

Ah well.)

Don't mean to sound callous, but when I heard she died my first thought was "about time". She was so far gone the last couple years this ending was inevitable.

"It's hard to leave when you can't find the door."
-- Joe Walsh

Not the first self-destructive singer, won't be the last.

I thought she was great. It's all too bad.

Sad, but un-surprising.

As I get older, I am amazed how predictable somethings are, and how SHOCKED the media can be when they happen.

Amy Winehouse is dead... and it is an occasion the media uses to enshrine her rather than use her passing for what it is. A lesson in what drugs and self indulgence results in. It was always a matter of when it would happen not if it would. A huge contrast to her would be Avril Lavigne who is one year older than Winehouse was and a success in every project she attempted in addition to her music.

So is she really dead or is she like Charlie Sheen - not quite dead yet?

Well, Mr. Devine, it is a lesson indeed but we didn't need it and most of us didn't want it.

A very good lesson is to walk in certain neighbourhoods in Vancouver.

Bod Devine - "A huge contrast to her would be Avril Lavigne who is one year older than Winehouse was and a success in every project she attempted in addition to her music."

Yeah, but her music sucks. (And she's a year younger.)

Another "A Star is born" that flammed out.

Amy Winehouse had great pipes, but I wasn't surprised at news of her death.

As for Avril Lavigne, her life has grown more and more sketchy recently. She's slipping.

Amy Winehouse died. Sad, but another reason why its GREAT not to have TV. Because now I don't have to quickly flip past all the TV peckerheads trying to squeeze one last shekel out of the poor woman's cooling corpse.

I find my life much more pleasant when I'm not having my morals assaulted every night. I recommend it.

She didn't hurt anyone?

"In April 2008, a poll by news site Sky.com suggested that Winehouse was the “ultimate heroine” for British women under 25."

Sadly, there are millions of young women to whom she will be seen as a tragic hero, and who will think that her reckless and self-indulgent lifestyle is to be emulated, not despised.

Let's not forget that every 18 year old really doesn't believe in their own mortality yet, and to them, crack and heroin are just "life experiences" that OTHERS can't handle.

Let's just be candid.

Amy Winehouse was a screw up, a failure at life, and, at best, a mediocre talent who's fame owes more to her stupid lifestyle choices than any significance, long-term, in the world of music.

Let's not suggest to our youth that there is ANYTHING about her that they might choose to emulate.

Amy Winehouse was not responsible for the pathetic, broken state of white trash British society. Those girls will be attracted by a new shiney thing already.

Natural selection.

Well at least she doesn't have to worry about rehab any more. RIP A.W.

The unfulfilled promise angle, as it applies to the "27 club" is not accurate, as could be expected from a younger author. He seems to think her situation is different than the key members of the club, saying that, unlike others members of the club, her productivity had ebbed. The real truth is, most of the performers who make up the 27 club were in a downward career spiral. Morrison hadn't performed in a year, Hendrix was depressed over a failed attempt to take a new path, Robert Johnson was in very poor health. Janis Joplin's career had stalled, Kurt Cobain was in a slump. Only Brian Jones was in a good place, professionally. Most of the club members may have had career slumps as a contributing factor in their untimely ends. In fact, Morrison was quoted as saying "I'm next", shortly before his death.

The world is better off with one less drug addict in it, particularly one who has influence. Rehab would be my preferred method but if it had to be through death, then so be it. It's not like the dangers of drugs aren't known.

And in a truly catty moment, I just gotta ask - did she do drugs to get past the hideous eyeliner and matted clump on her head or did the drugs make her think both were a good look? Yikes!

mojo

Joe Walsh is still sucking air. He does an ad for MADD wherein he offers to drive you home in his Limo if you've had a few to many wobbly pops.

I kid you not.

I'm still not over Patsy Cline.

"She had talent, she destroyed herself, but she didn't hurt anyone else."

Uh, what about her family? THEY didn't deserve this misery.

Sorry but I have no use for self-pitying self-indulgent booze-swilling pill-popping celebs. If you can't handle being a movie star/rock idol, then just leave the business. There are many more deserving people who'll be glad to take your place.

foobert

Me neither...sometimes I fall to pieces...

"they tried to make go to re-hab...
and I said No...no,...no..." err, wrong answer.

Uh, Ellie - watch out, it's politically incorrect to "dishonor the dead" as one commentor on my blog put it.

We can't say bad things about dead narcicistic celebrities, you know, because, darn it, they're just more special than the rest of us.

Stevie Ray Vaughan for me.

"Uh, what about her family? THEY didn't deserve this misery."

How do you know? Maybe they drove her to it. I haven't a clue about them myself, for all I know they're saints, but I've never met anyone as severely self-destructive as Winehouse who didn't have - erm - family problems.

(If I were a liberal I'd blame society. I'm a conservative so I tend to blame the parents.)

Mississauga Matt

Stevie Ray and Patsy both died in plane wrecks...not slow motion train wrecks of their own making.

I enjoy both their music.

My first thought was "what took so long?". I wasn't a follower of her music so I won't comment on its validity as a contribution to the art but she sure made headlines being a frigged up mess. Too bad.

And Stevie Ray is the one I miss most too M. Matt. He finally got his act together personally and was a tremendous talent. For anyone who wants to hear/see a good performance check out "Walkin' the Tightrope" from his last Austin City Limits performance.

coach, I disagree with you about Hendrix and Joplin. I certainly don't recall Hendrix's career stalling out and he put out an amazing amount of music in a few short years. Joplin just did Pearl before her death which was a new musical direction for her. I did watch her consume a bottle of Southern Comfort during her performance in July of 1970 and she seemed pretty good to me at the time. This was in the days before people went to rehab.

Can't comment about Winehouse as I only heard of her a few days ago.

Like everything else connected with pop culture, I was blissfully unaware of who she was and I think I'll keep it that way.

I asked the young women at work, who would be the next to go - Lindsay Lohan?? One piped up with "Nahh, she will end up an old boozed out broad in her 40's shilling on the Home Shopping Channel - if it still exists in 20 years! What say all of you?

is Elvis still in Argentine????

Saw SRV up close and personal in Waterloo in 83/84, buddy and I walked back stage after the concert.
He was unbelievably talented.

Jeff Healy used to live in my building and was a great neighbour I caught his act a couple times, it rips me up to watch these.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d95YFdubGrU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWLw7nozO_U&feature=related

I miss them the most.

Joplin, Hendrix and Kline were before my time but Hendrix was the best ever, my friends that remember Kline pine over her loss.

Amy Winehouse was pretty good, Rest In Peace.

Singers, writers, poets and performers seem attracted to mayhem. Sad, she was a beauty! God bless her troubled soul.

I have no idea who Amy Winehouse was nor could I identify one of her songs having given up on pop music back in the '70s but one of those old songs seems somehow appropriate.

"we are all just prisoners here, of our own device
Where you can checkout anytime you like
but you can never leave".

I hope her family finds the peace Amy so obviously couldn't.

"I have no idea who Amy Winehouse was.."

If it weren't for googling out of curiosity who the emaciated tweaker plastered all over the UK tabloids all the time was I wouldn't have known either.

Re Johanne on Lindsay Lohan: LL seems to like to
drive under the influence, which makes her, at times, an immediate and present danger to the public.
That gets her the attention of law enforcement agencies, and time in jail to dry out. So the young
women Johanne mentions are probably correct.

Joe, "Hotel California"!

Can't comment about Winehouse as I only heard of her a few days ago.
~loki

I've heard of her a little longer than that.
A little.
Her life and her passing will have less than a little impact on my life.
We all die, some of us really live...it seems she didn't.
Poor little rich girl.

Her breakout album, Back to Black, featured cut #1, "Rehab". The lyric "They want to make me go to rehab, but I say no, no, no..." is either the new definition of irony, or the best epitath since "I told them I wann't feeling well."

If only there was a mobile Insite ...

She was a junkie and now she's dead. Totally unexpected, of course.

I blame Reagan and Bush.

OH! And let us not forget Maggy Thatcher!

Look - here is the thing. I am in my sixty's and have live through artist after artist that have fried their brain on all kinds of shit.

You live that way - you die that way. End Of Story!!!

richfisher, thanks for bringing up Jeff Healy as I haven't been listening to much of his music lately. I saw him a couple of times in concert in the early 1990's, and the first time I saw him I was blown away by his guitar playing. Quite a unique style that he had. And of course there's SRV who I unfortunately never got to see.

I'm curious enough to download some of Amy Winehouse's material from Limewire now.

She had a fantastic voice and real soul; and you wouldn't believe it from pictures taken in the last few years, which are the stuff of nightmares, but she was naturally very sexy and stylish. I even liked that crazy Elvira-with-a-beehive look; few could have pulled that off. (Hate the tattoos.)

I don't really give a damn about celebrities qua celebrities as a rule, except in moments of higher-than-usual self-pity and jealousy. I just liked her and I think it's terribly sad. I'm mortally sure she wasn't a "narcisstst"; there was a vulnerability to her which was palpable and I found it touching. It's not like I was even a big fan or anything.

Black Mamba

God point.