Amy Winehouse was the embattled darling of neo-soul/pop. The year 2003 feels like yesterday, when a friend turned me on to the tattooed, raven-haired soul singer, via the song "Fuck Me Pumps". Amy reminded me of a cross between Shirley Bassey and Etta James. A few years later, in 2006, Amy hit it big with the (self-prophesying) hit single "Rehab", from her second album 'Back to Black'.
Amy's lyrics were unrepentant, and her personal reputation followed suit, with stories upon stories of mental health and drug and alcohol abuse. I saw Amy perform in May 2007 at the Highline Ballroom in the Meatpacking District here in Manhattan. Amy played for about an hour, in which she drank an entire bottle (750ml) of Sambuca.
Amy was also a kind soul, who donated her money, music, and time to numerous charities and causes, particularly those concerned with children.
'The Collection', a 5CD set, is not the complete Amy Winehouse, but it is pretty close.
CD1: 'Frank'
CD2: 'Back To Black'
CD3: 'Lioness: Hidden Treasures'
CD4: Live In London
(Live from Shepherd’s Bush Empire, 2007)
CD2: 'Back To Black'
CD3: 'Lioness: Hidden Treasures'
CD4: Live In London
(Live from Shepherd’s Bush Empire, 2007)
CD5: Remixes
On July 23rd, 2011, Amy Winehouse shed her mortal coil.
She was only 27 years old…
For the freeload, who's your favorite member of the so called "27 Club"?
I think it is disgusting to cheer over people who died age 27 as a club, utterly shameless
ReplyDeleteJim Morrison. It's always sad if someone died. For me is the person important, and what i feel about his/her dead. You also say a movie star died or a music star died, or a political died. What is the different? Kindly regards, Mike
ReplyDeleteTechnically not 27, but he looked much older than he was, but Otis Redding's loss was huge.
ReplyDeletefun/ny "fact": for eons there was a "33 club," supercharged in what would come to be seen as the West (now Global North) by that supposedly being the age Jesus was when he died. But Alexander the Great and others too and subsequently a raft of folks--Che, who was almost 40, is one of the last I know of--who supposedly died at this age. I'll take a runner that the number 3 is part of the key here, but eff if I know.
ReplyDeleteAs for the 27ers, I think Janis Joplin coulda/woulda been fascinating to see evolve and Hendrix, well, y e a h...
There are no winners in this contest. But Hendrix (of course), and a quick interwebs search shows Ron McKernan also passed at that young age. Imagine what his band would have been like if he had stayed hale and healthy...
ReplyDeleteRobert Johnson with honorable mention going to his electrified descendant, Jimi Hendrix.
ReplyDeleteAmy (sorry Pigpen). Its not just the voice, she had a better band than most vocalists.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, "Fuck Me Pumps" came from when Suzanne Moore went to interview Germaine Greer, and Greer took exception to Moore's footwear.
ReplyDeleteI had to read about this club, and it's really horrible to see the list on Wikipedia:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27_Club
There's a lot of people i never heard of, but at last my personal favorite, many years after his tragical death, is Otis Redding (* 9. September 1941; † 10. Dezember 1967).
Brian Jones, because he recorded and published an LP of one of my favourite bands - The Master Musicians of Jajouka (Morocco)
ReplyDeleteHendrix, but also the "Big 3": Hendrix, Joplin, and Morrison.
ReplyDeleteThen, too, a second "3": Brian Jones, Pete Ham, and Chris Bell.
Everyone mentioned, including Ms. Winehouse, had a lot to offer and it is tragic for any life to be that short. I was immature at 27, but not so prone to risky behavior, and I'm very glad to have had the luck and privilege to make it another four decades and counting.
D in California
Has to be Jim, Jimi, or Brian and on the toss of a coin today it is probably Jim but it could be either of the other two tomorrow. Or it could be Jim again. Suffice to say its pretty close between the 3 of them. But today I'm hearing Jim's vocals on Riders On The Storm. So today its Jim.
ReplyDeleteFor me it's Hendrix - he had so much more to offer but really losing anyone at that age is a tragedy.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize or forgot that Pigpen was in this group, as Bombshelter Slim mentioned, imagine what his band would have been like. I also really liked the direction Jimi Hendrix was heading, Cry Of Love is my favorite of his. Thanks Babs
ReplyDeleteRobert Johnson by a mile.
ReplyDelete"Pigpen" and Brian Jones get an honorable mention.
ya not wrong about Johnson...imagine the damage he coulda done...
DeleteI've often thought about Robert in say 1961 (when he would have been 50) playing an ES-345, into a cranked tweed era Fender Twin.
DeleteWould he have kept pushing the envelope, or been like Son House, who had to be re-taught how to play his own songs?
DeleteOne of my favorite questions is, "If Hendrix hadn't died young, how would he compare against Buddy Guy today?" :)
Gratis footnote: I was born in Hazlehurst, MIssissippi, which was where my dad grew up. The stretch of I-55 past Hazlehurst is the "Robert Johnson Memorial Highway." I've scoured my grandpa's farm ledgers, and while he did employ a few Johnsons, I do not know if the "papa-daddy" was on the list...
DeleteHendrix, being perhaps the first electric guitarist with a genuinely orchestral sensibility, might have gone on to do great things. Who knows? But sadly, in my view, Buddy Guy phoned it in over the last couple of decades of his career. His shows largely consist ed of little but pyrotechnics in which actual songs took a back seat—a far cry from the tormented, stinging guitar and vocals with which he forged his rep. Still, it was good seeing Buddy get respect and commensurate paydays late career. And he's still an active endorser for Fender well into his nineties!
DeleteAlan Wilson - Canned Heat
ReplyDeletesteVe
27, is also the year researchers have found most people stopped adding to their music libraries. Personally, it was about that time. I guess it doesn't apply to music lovers cruisin' music blogs,,, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteWow, 27 is a pretty young age to stop discovering music! Talk about sad ;/
DeleteLink
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/V2Xfuyp3Smx
27 is also 3x3x3 isn't that superspecial.
ReplyDeleteLittle Ronnie died at the age of 27 months of a tumor. One day he would have saved the world, and now we are lost without him. Uncanny, just realised that it is 54 years ago this year.
Robert Johnson
ReplyDeleteA poor girl and an giant singer (on her time specially). As for the 27's Jimbo and Jimmy
ReplyDeleteTwice the man, twice the age, at 54 Herman Brood, artist, poet, singer, painter, pianoplayer, womanizer, drugadict, pusher, shotter, father and famous for being Herman Brood, jumped off the Amsterdam Hilton.
ReplyDeleteJimi for me. All these artists burned so brightly -- it's like they were incendiary rockets and the rest of us are coasting along in hot air balloons.
ReplyDelete