amy winehouse - C or D? [RIP 7/23/11]

there was a definite cool-factor in tupac's hologram, but that was for a limited purpose, and a one-off event. i really hope winehouse's family doesn't go through with this.

Tupac's also happened over a decade after he died. this is kinda...soon. co-sign this is a bad idea.

It just seems kinda random. How much demand would there be for an Amy Winehouse hologram, even with the novelty factor? Amy's legacy is a blip compared to that of Tupac's (and I'm a fan of both).

that too. I would just feel real fucking depressed, I mean. when Tupac appeared, his fanbase et al had over 10-15 years to kinda deal with it, but Amy died what, 3 years ago? yea I know 'we never really knew her' but still. I still get a lil misty when I even hear one of her songs on the radio.

this post still causes involuntary sharp intake of breath:

Isn't she the one I will be leaving the Bowery Ballroom to miss when the Pipettes are done?

I just don't know her... do I stay?
― Saxby D. Elder, Thursday, March 8, 2007 5:34 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

...damn

Hologramy Winehouse

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/heres-the-back-to-black-story-that-hit-the-amy-winehouse-documentarys-cutting-room-floor-7387387

Man, the documentary wrecked me.

i am okay missing this doc

murgatroid otm

Wow, don't watch Amy if you're feeling emotionally fragile, say at the tail end of a heavy drinking weekend.

yeah.. much tougher to watch that i was prepared for. lots of troubling, tragic stuff but oddly it was the shot of a dazed-looking Mark Ronson with his hands in his pockets slouching into the funeral service on his own, which affected me most.

One good thing is it's spurred me to check out some of her deep cuts, I was more just a casual admirer before.

I essentially watched this twice this weekend, it's depressing.

Channel 4 has just shown the documentary, indeed it is very sad. Reminded me of when my best friend David worked in the bookstore at Camden Market, and I often used to wander down there of a Sunday, it was walking distance from where I lived at the time. I'd hang out in the shop for a while (Adam Ant was a regular) until he closed up and then we'd go out for some beers. Usually a LOT of beers! It must have been summer, because we'd generally start off at the Lock Tavern, not a bar I've ever had any affection for but it did (and does) have the advantage of an outdoor beer garden area - anyway, Amy Winehouse would often be there (I almost called her Amy but have no right to such familiarity). She wasn't totally 'Camdenized' yet, so it must have been between her 1st and 2nd albums and before that baldy junkie prick she married had got his claws fully in her. Anyway, as the light failed, me and David would probably head off to the Enterprise, or somewhere, and she'd no doubt go off and do 'the Camden thing'. I'm not even sure why I'm mentioning all this, it's not like I ever even spoke to the girl. I probably saw her in the Hawley Arms, now I come to think of it, we did use to venture in there occasionally. Now, David lives in Edinburgh and, if I decide to catch the 253 bus to work in the morning, I pass a sub-Banksy wall painting of Amy Winehouse - Camden's version of the Edith Cavell Memorial. Have I ever mentioned before how much I detest Camden?

Probably the hardest film to watch I've ever seen short of a genocide documentary or something. Harder in some ways. I feel like it might make me want to be a better person though.

whenever she walks out and the paparazzi is there, it's horrifying like almost like some kinda mindfuck clockwork orange type mental strobelight torture all those flashes going off and she just looks so tiny and afraid

that blake motherfucker should burn in hell

I felt like it was a horror movie where fame was the stalker killer. Blake was a real shit for sure but her dad was worse imo

I can't sleep. This was so powerfully done as a doc that I partly wish I didn't watch it. It really feels like I just watched a friend commit slow suicide and I wasn't even the biggest fan.

i've been avoiding watching this because i know i'll just be a wreck

worrrd

yea i was never a fan of her really but the doc is v well done + tragic obv

Blake was a real shit for sure but her dad was worse imo

nah

Tony Bennett gets almost inadvertently comical when he keeps repeating his "true jazz singer" schtick. OTOH his line that "Life teaches you how to live it, if you live long enough" was great, probably the most heartbreaking sentiment in the whole movie in relation to the subject.

I liked that the doc allowed both the dad and the boyfriend the rope they needed to hang their sorry selves.

her father has complained that the film misrepresents him

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/01/mitch-winehouse-interview-amy-documentary-film

Her father is exploitive but I think you could make a strong case that she might be alive today if she had never met Felder.

Bennett is kind of a caricature at this point but I was pretty touched how kind he was she was so upset about the takes and he just kept encouraging her felt like he could tell she needed some kindness

Considering how she was all about the music, there's not much about music. It was disappointing that they didn't include even one complete song performance. Just 40 second snippets.

I think you could make a 10x stronger case that she'd be alive today if her dad had been a dad to her from the beginning.

Also based on the events in the film, I don't even think that's true -- the doc believed it was mostly alcohol + bulimia that killed her, which were both problems before him. Heroin doesn't even take that much toll on the body -- addicts who die mostly do so because of overdose, dirty needles or just the junkie lifestyle. She kicked heroin and crack after he was put in prison and even had a brief improvement before spiraling down again. So I don't really think Fielder killed her.

Yeah, to me it seemed they were presenting the case that it was the pressures of fame that killed her, and the alchohol she was using as an escape from that was the physical manifestation.

Certainly I can remember seeing her perform slightly erraticly immediately around the time of Back to Black, which I mention in this thread, at Brighton Concorde 2 - a medium sized venue. At the time I just thought this was due to drugs, but after viewing the doc I got more of a feeling looking back to that that she really did not enjoy performing at gigs where the personal touch was lost.

i haven't been able to watch the doc yet, but her dad is 100% a piece of shit imo

I've never gotten more of a feeling of an empty, worthless person than from him in that doc.

saw this on a plane yesterday. a great documentary, and so terribly sad (not much to add to everyone else in this thread tbh).

Classic always

Maybe I'm old-fashioned but this reeks of exploitation:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/oct/12/amy-winehouse-hologram-tour

these things are mildly gross but there's worse ways they exploit you when you're dead

Amy Winehouse has always been one of these acts I've struggled to understand quite why she's so highly rated...

A good voice and an remarkable, tragic history (and RIP of course), but I could never hear much beyond a sanded-down All Bar One-friendly retread of sixties soul-pop with most of the character sucked out by flat 2000s production. Am I missing something? Or is it just not for me?

I suspect you're missing something *and* it's not for you. Not sure what anyone can tell you. Soul is in the ear of the beholder, I guess.

Yes, I really like and enjoy soul.. But this is quite hollow-sounding to me. Like a ritzy, gestalt 'La La Land' tribute to soul which doesn't really enhance or improve upon its influences save for chucking in a few swear words and modern references..
Always found 'Rehab' very clunky as a song, while Back to Black sounds like a Shirley Bassey tribute act.. I mean, I get that people like to hear this, but for the level of praise heaped on, I'd have expected something more... original?
Perhaps it's down to set and setting. Her music immediately transports me to depressing provincial bars and clubs in mid-2000s UK.

Anyway, I'll shut up now as it's NAGL to denigrate a deceased star on her own thread when clearly she has a lot of stans here.

oh man. I'd say so. possibly blunted a bit by all of the retro people that tried to catch the same wave in the early 10s.

I had heard her name a bunch around 2007, but sadly, more for her "lol she's a trainwreck" escapades and less the music, but I remember hearing "Rehab" and being so taken by her voice, every inflection, and the immediacy of the track. so I bought the album.

had it been all "Rehabs", I think I woulda enjoyed it for a novelty and then never listened to it again, but Back to Black has this aire of authenticity without kitsch that many of the other retro acts were missing. and the anachronisms, ie the profanity/modern slang, that she brought to the sound worked, without coming across as ironic or detached. she was just infusing her own personality onto the existing template.

That she was trying to recreate 60s girl group sound was obvious, but a lot of retro acts focus too much on the aesthetics, and hope it'll do the job even with subpar songwriting. Obviously, Amy did care about the aesthetics - the harmonies on "Me and Mr Jones" are produced in a way that practically SOUND out of the 60s, but the songs almost feel like they could also work in a modern context.

"Love is a Losing Game" is so understated compared to the rest of her songs, the lyrics devastating, her voice a bit more muted, the strings gorgeous and not feeling "tacked on". "Tears Dry On their Own" is the type of song I woulda danced to as a kid on oldies radio, and that she later released a different stylistic version of that song that was equally amazing just proved her brilliance.

I couldn't stop listening to this album and only this album for probably two months. I got Frank later and I love it too, but it doesn't quite hit the heights of B2B.

I was legit devastated when she died.

There's so much to love on Back to Black, not least the nerve (and skill) to write a great new song on the backing track of an old one (Tears Dry/Ain't no Mountain High) and have it sound genuine and personal instead of just a gimmick.

Great post Neanderthal. I'll go back and listen to some of the deeper cuts with that in mind

Rehab was the one I never really got into till much later. Until I'd watched the Amy documentary, to be specific.

the production is what’s retro 60’s sounding, and it’s easy to think she’s copping on a trend but it’s her style of singing & natural affinity for it that is what made & makex her special

her voice is more on par with jazz singers like Dinah Washington. that’s what’s special - her voice, and her instincts & phrasing, turning her own voice into an instrument of its oen. check out her live covers of old standards, or any of her early live performances & it’ll make more sense

or she’s just not yr bag & that’s ok too

damn neanderthal is otm as fuck

my appreciation of her grew significantly after her death and in my mind Back to Black is one of the greatest albums of the century so far. Ronson's production can be overbearing and gimmicky sometimes but in this case it was in service of an amazing talent.

i absolutely love her 2-tone tracks on the expanded edition of B2B.
no production excess, just her live in the studio with a band providing her with the sounds she clearly loves.