Amy, Amy, Amy

Global warming? David Cameron’s new Conservatives with balls? The deterioration of the social fabric of Britain? No, I’m going to add to the litres of ink already spent over Amy Winehouse.



Firstly, a disclaimer. I think Amy Winehouse is a fantastic musical talent, and if I could listen to Back to Black back to back all day I would.

It’s more-or-less a given that any sensible human being does not want to see someone with so much potential going mad on drugs.

But should we really be so critical of her drug taking when it goes hand in hand with her music? As her friend/producer Mark Ronson was quoted in the press this week: “That's Amy — taking her pain and turmoil and making it into the music we enjoy.”

I can’t stand the Daily Mail-esque moralising over Amy Winehouse. (See this one. Thanks for the marvellous insight that "it would be a tragic waste if her wild lifestyle destroyed a brilliant singing career". Actually I think most right wing commentators would be pleased for another told-you-so lecture on the evils of drugs.)

If her music comes from the same place as her more destructive behaviour then it’s hypocritical to blame her for it.

I think we should leave Amy Winehouse alone, unless we want to produce a million James Blunts. Please no.

We need people to live on the edge and to feel the emotions we are too busy to take notice of. The Amys of this world remind us that there is life outside a cosy suburban workaday existence. But it’s an uncomfortable place that perhaps we don’t want to visit too much. Poor old Amy has to live there all the time.

This article on the Guardian arts blog has come nearest to my thoughts on Amy.

"Every culture needs a totemic figure who is prepared to go into the wilder terrain of subtance usage, a place where the rest of us don't want to or don't need to go. And there is something defiantly totemic about (Amy) Winehouse. The tall figure, the tattoos carved into the arms, the boldly painted face, the huge pile of hair - they all resemble some fabulous totem pole.

"And the great, yodelling, soulful voice brings us news of a place we don't want to go to ourselves."