It's uncanny, but it happened. I was on a Amy Winehouse overdose last week. Blame it on my state of mind, or just a premonition. I was listening to Back to Black and Rehab almost in a loop. And to think, I didn't even know this soulful singer existed till my music aficionado colleague Khristina Patra introduced me to her some time last year. Something just kept telling me her talent was going to be shortlived, so make the most of what she's given. Sure enough, I was proved right on Saturday.
The first song I heard was obviously Back to Black and the first thing that struck me was her brand of music - soulful yet brassy, mix of jazz, blues, retro and pop. For a 26 year old to write a depressing song like that and sing it like she did, was so not her generation! No wonder she dissed her peers saying "So much pop these days is like, 'What can you do for me? I don't need you. You don't know me.' Back in the '60s it really was like, 'I don't care if you love me, I'm gonna lay down and die for you, because I'm in love with you.' Amy boldly declared that she couldn't be someone else's mouthpiece. That's perhaps why her songs mirrored her life and gave them that extra edge, unlike her peers who simply sing to others' tunes.
I can identify with the last bit. I can only write about what affects or inspires me. And Amy did, with all her eccentricities. Just like Morrison, Hendrix and Cobain did way back in my college days. Strange that I should find such inspiration after all these years in a kid in turmoil! (And, no, I don't sport a beehive hairdo, nor have my lip pierced.) She's a lot like AR Rehman -- doesn't always sound great but who grows on you, enchants you and finally leaves you in a trance with her powerful renditions.
I got kinda addicted to Winehouse and her 'troubled' songs, identified with some of her lyrics and constantly feared that I'd wake up to "Amy Winehouse found dead" headline any day.
That's the strange thing about addiction I guess. You want to make the most of it till it lasts, because somewhere at the back of your mind, you live in fear of losing the high. Amy perhaps did the same. She used and abused the drugs to compose some of her best works yet shirk the responsibility that comes with fame and money. Freud did that too. He wrote extensively in that phase when he was 'experimenting' with cocaine and was heavily under its influence.
Amy, too, constantly composed music. When I go back and revisit some of the lyrics, it's almost scary how some of them read like a suicide note. Check this out:
"I cheated myself like I knew I would, I told ya I was troubled, you know that I'm no good"
She did. She cheated herself of a music career that could have certainly got her more than those 5 Grammys and put her right up there in the all time greats hall of fame, perhaps. She was a talented kid. She was.
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The first song I heard was obviously Back to Black and the first thing that struck me was her brand of music - soulful yet brassy, mix of jazz, blues, retro and pop. For a 26 year old to write a depressing song like that and sing it like she did, was so not her generation! No wonder she dissed her peers saying "So much pop these days is like, 'What can you do for me? I don't need you. You don't know me.' Back in the '60s it really was like, 'I don't care if you love me, I'm gonna lay down and die for you, because I'm in love with you.' Amy boldly declared that she couldn't be someone else's mouthpiece. That's perhaps why her songs mirrored her life and gave them that extra edge, unlike her peers who simply sing to others' tunes.
I can identify with the last bit. I can only write about what affects or inspires me. And Amy did, with all her eccentricities. Just like Morrison, Hendrix and Cobain did way back in my college days. Strange that I should find such inspiration after all these years in a kid in turmoil! (And, no, I don't sport a beehive hairdo, nor have my lip pierced.) She's a lot like AR Rehman -- doesn't always sound great but who grows on you, enchants you and finally leaves you in a trance with her powerful renditions.
I got kinda addicted to Winehouse and her 'troubled' songs, identified with some of her lyrics and constantly feared that I'd wake up to "Amy Winehouse found dead" headline any day.
That's the strange thing about addiction I guess. You want to make the most of it till it lasts, because somewhere at the back of your mind, you live in fear of losing the high. Amy perhaps did the same. She used and abused the drugs to compose some of her best works yet shirk the responsibility that comes with fame and money. Freud did that too. He wrote extensively in that phase when he was 'experimenting' with cocaine and was heavily under its influence.
Amy, too, constantly composed music. When I go back and revisit some of the lyrics, it's almost scary how some of them read like a suicide note. Check this out:
"I cheated myself like I knew I would, I told ya I was troubled, you know that I'm no good"
She did. She cheated herself of a music career that could have certainly got her more than those 5 Grammys and put her right up there in the all time greats hall of fame, perhaps. She was a talented kid. She was.
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