The Real Appeal of Amy Winehouse

At some point during Amy Winehouse's Grammy acceptance speech, I realized my jaw was agape. I looked over at my signif, and so was hers. Watching the rail thin, strange and sultry singer fight for coherency in front of millions was breathtaking. She spoke like there were pieces missing--like the embodiment of the last few moments of a game of Jenga. God bless her for holding it together.

The whole dramatic scene, along with her ubiquitous presence in the tabloids, makes me wonder how much of Winehouse's acclaim stems from her music. That's not to say I don't like her music--I like it a lot. Her voice is kind of delicious, and you have to admire how she's brought Motown and 50's jazz club sounds to a new audience. But five Grammys? Five Grammys to an artist whose singing was overshadowed by her bizarre attempts at dancing (if you didn't watch, it's probably best described as shuddering). Was she under the influence? Or maybe detoxing? And isn't that part of the appeal?

The United Nations, of all things, certainly thinks so. This past November, their Drugs and Crime Office Chief decried Winehouse for glamorizing drug use. "Rock stars, like Amy Winehouse, become popular by singing: 'I ain't going to rehab,' even though she badly needed and eventually sought treatment." Getting past the obvious "Doesn't the UN have better things to do?" question, I think they're right--in part. Winehouse's success does glamorize drug use, but it isn't all her fault. You need only look at the way the media covers Winehouse to see that we glamorize her drug use. And this is nothing new. The glamorization of drug-addled artists has been going on for a long, long time.

One old and famous example of drug-induced art is Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan. With the exception of Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, it's probably his most anthologized work. Notably, it isn't very good. Kubla Khan is tangled and unrealized, and while it's strange, it's not particularly interesting. It isn't close to the standards of a writer whom Keats thought was too polished. If you think I'm being harsh, here's what Coleridge himself wrote about the poem:

The following fragment is here published as far as the author's own opinions are concerned, rather as a psychological curiosity, than on the grounds of any supposed poetic merits.

So why is it so celebrated? Put simply, drugs. Coleridge imagined Xanadu during an opium-induced dream. When he awoke, he wrote what he could remember down in iambic tetrameter (it's just what those guys did). Here's the start of it:

In Xanadu did Kubla Kahn

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round:

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!

A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced:

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail

While Coleridge was writing Kubla Khan, he was famously interrupted by a man from the nearby town of Porlock. He and the poet had to go handle some business. When Coleridge returned, he couldn't remember any more of the dream, depriving us of a Kubla Khan conclusion. This ill-timed man from Porlock has become something of a running joke among writers, reappearing in the work of Douglass Adams, Vladimir Nabokov, and even getting mentioned on Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

The man from Porlock might well have wandered in on Amy Winehouse during her Grammy speech. It would have been a fitting interruption to the same old, but still intriguing, story.

Comments

[parrotslave]

I suspect the drug use is self-medicating for an underlying mental illness. And it is this abnormal wiring of the brain that is tied to her artistic nature. Genius and madness seem to walk hand in hand.

[Coyote2]

"Who is Amy Whinehouse," I asked myself, "and why is she such a star?"

This is what happens when one refrains from pop media sources: the latest hits are unknown, lying in wait of discovery rather than being shoved down our throats by nauseous repetitive airplay.

Since our family feels that local broadcast radio and TV are essentially obsolete, we have removed ourselves from the pop market. Each of us has a personal computer and we seek and share our personal tastes and desires. Our family shares 100+ gigabytes of MP3 music which we enjoy when Internet radio becomes too repetitive and boring.

And before I bore you with the story of our lives, allow me to point out that by NOT BEING EXPOSED to Amy Whinehouse's music and performances that we may be considered more impartial than someone who is more up to date.

So I watched Amy Winehouse's Grammy performance of two songs that was posted here on Huffpost and was much impressed. Replayed for the family, we agreed that the woman was a freak but gifted with an awesome voice. Her quirky stage presence, like the quirky song 'I ain't going to rehab,' merely reinforced that she is driven from the inside by the goddess, rather than driven by the managers of the star-maker machinery.

Perhaps it is the incompatibility of these two forces that drives her to drugs and into rehab. We are sick to death of media Wendigos trafficking in the tripe of the soulless like Brittany Spears, or the desecration of promising talent such as Christina Aguilera.

Amy Winehouse is a true artist and a real star with a marvelous voice and massive lifelong potential. We hope that her record company and drug use does not clip her wings.

:)

( before you condemn my choice of the word 'freak' be aware that it is a badge of honor. Most of us are too similar and too vanilla to be touched by the goddess. )

[dana94591]

Amy Winehouse and Kubla Khan in the same article!!??? Come on!!! She is a good artist but if drugs were such as bad thing we wouldn't have classic Eric Clapton, Be Bop, Billie Holliday and the soul of Jazz as well as all of the Blues from the 40s on... I am very interested in Amy's story as a person. Who is she and how did she get to where she is now? Why drugs and self-destruction paired with such creative energy?? She is talented. This is some made-up talent like Brittany Spears or Lindsay Lohan. I feel that musicians (any good musician) is a renegade! An outlaw! A Nonconformist outlyer who looks into the world from the outside and lives in the pain of life. That's who Amy is. Kubla Khan??? Give me a break!!!

[mamacat]

Many artists have turned to drug abuse. I think that most of them who have done great work did it before their addictions took hold. I saw Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison perform under the influence, and what they did on stage while using drugs was pitiful. I absolutely loved their early albums, but I am convinced that drug use destroyed their creativity, as well as their lives. The message to young and old alike should be that drug and alcohol addiction is a dead end street. Glamorizing substance abuse does no one any good, and gives a false message.

[laotzunietzsche]

From Merriam-Webster:
glam·or·ous
Function: adjective
full of glamour : excitingly attractive

"Excitingly attractive"? Nope.
I respectfully suggest that you look up the words that you employ more often, so that you know what they mean and, thereby, appear less ignorant to those who actually are cognizant of their definitions.
Well, at least, now, you know.
Better luck, next time.

[mbaty]

The album is great, period. We wish her well, but like Britney, we'll buy the music if it's good no matter what she or other artists do in their personal life. Michael Jackson is a freak, but if he came out with some great new music (besides the remix reissue) no one would care. We'd buy the music and still sing his praises. I think we also want to see what happens to these people that we feel connected with, but ultimately we just want to hear great music, and the Amy Winehouse cd is really good.

[soylentgreenleftovers]

Amy probably shoots all that smack to kill the intense pain she's probably experiencing in her mouth. Looks like years of neglect. It's getting so bad her toofusses are falling out!

[huffdog]

She's wonderful, including her dancing. I find it sexy and feminine. Not canned and mainstream. Elvis had his own moves and was criticized by narrow minded thinkers. Think about it.

[AxelDC]

I love Amy Winehouse's neo-Motown sound, but her message is atrocious. Her song is fun, but telling people not to go to rehab when she obviously needs it herself is irresponsible.

Then again, she certainly isn't the first self-destructive celebrity and sadly will not be the last.

[Cynth]

Post: Part 1

Please stick with what you know, John: from you're comments, it seems music isn't one of them. Winehouse didn't win the awards for her Grammy performance or dancing, drug addiction, or resurrecting "Motown and 50's jazz club sound." And if you're going to take on this subject, please do some basic research: it'll confirm that she's been in rehab. That might shed some light on your detoxing question... (and making the detox crack about her dancing is a cheap shot. She's a musician/vocalist, not a dancer.). Also, Back to Black is inspired by the Shangri-Las (mentioned in the liner notes), who weren't with Motown.

The things you cite are not her real appeal, not to those who appreciate music, anyway. Before she was out of her teens, Winehouse had broken onto the scene in the UK and had established herself there for her precocious jazz vocal chops. Her TV performances back then (on YouTube...they're the ones of her sans tattoos) show her talent -- and tremendous potential.

I'm also baffled by the hippie references floated in the Comments... Winehouse is not a hippie, no more than the many addicted jazz greats were. Her musical influence has been jazz, blues, and (more recently) R&B " listen to her music and look at her.

[continued with Part 2]

[Cynth]

Post: Part 2

I take issue with a few things about the Grammys, but not regarding Winehouse's awards. She's well-deserving of them. Back to Black is among the best pop albums in recent years, from song composition, arrangement, and production, to Amy's vocal performance. The rich, mature, and soulful timbre of her voice is due to luck & genetics, but her phrasing and overall delivery are skillful and brilliant. I hope we can see more musicians who can propel music with true genius, creativity, talent, and musicianship. She may not be a poster girl or engineered by commercial consumption, but she's real and deserving. Her addiction is a pity, but Winehouse is a person, not simply a personality; and the subject should be treated more sensitively, particularly when she is attempting to recover.

While she wasn't in top form for her Grammy performance, she won the awards for the work she did on Back to Black. I was glad to see her recovering and I celebrate her win. As a musician, fan, and fellow human-being, I hope she recovers and continues to make music for decades to come.

Now, poetry? Not my bailiwick... :-)

[PNG]

Cynth:

Fantastic points. "Back" was a solid album, but much of it, particularly the production is just that..product. She IS mainstream: reliant upon a sound that the masses are already 'comfortable' with. Much of what she embeds in her lyrics, even with her strong vocals, would've never reached the pinnacle of success were it not for the 'friendliness of familiarity' laid with the music. Remember Steeley Dan...?

"Tonight when I chase the dragon/ Water will turn to cherry wine/ And then silver will turn to gold...time out of mind"

"chasing the dragon" is slang for the method of which heroine is 'cooked' with a lighter under a spoon. As it reaches the proper temperature for ingestion ( in this method, by needle) the bubbles move in a shape-shifting, swirling motion: the point at which the 'dragon' is to be 'caught' for shooting up.

'Time Out Of Mind' was a very mellow-sounding crossover jazz tune.. and a massive radio-friendly hit in '80. Unless you knew the references being inferred, you were oblivious because the melody was so pleasing.

Winehouse's inferences carry a similar subtlety, but trust me: had she set those lyrics to something along a post-apocalyptic multi/layered grunge track, we would be talking about someone ELSE who captured the awarda this year, and Amy would be cellar-dwelling amongst all the other unknowns, even with that powerful voice.

She should chop-change direction; scare the hell out of the bandwagoners who are currently riding her gravy train.

Let see Winehouse go experimental a la Mars Volta. She could pull it. Question is: Will YOU still be down with her if she gets raw in that regard?

I want to no more hear Winehouse: The Product.
Let's get to Winehouse: The Fearless Artist.

As a songwriter/Musician-slash-label owner, I'd buy out that contract in a minute. But she needs to REALLY 'come with it'
..and scare the bejesus out of those bandwagoneers right BACK to their friendly neighborhood A/C radio stations whence they came. Because 'safe' sucks.

[Cynth]

Thanks, PNG. I agree that many people don't get much beyond melody (and I'm not exempt, sometimes :-) ). You also touch on a problem I have with the Grammys: Within the Grammy system and the criteria it sets, Back to Black was well deserving. Each year, however, there is *amazing* music put out that doesn't ever get attention because it wasn't commercial enough, had enough champions within the industry, et al. I don't have any prescription for Winehouse artistically, except to follow her muse; and I wouldn't aim to shock to get a point across about the state of the music industry (that undermines her authentic artistic voice, too), but I hope she can get it together and grow as an artist, especially now that she has the attention of the industry and she's trying to get healthy.

BTW, despite the commercial nature of the record (esp. compared to her previous ones) I do think Mark Ronson did a solid job arranging and producing. He married early 60s and jazz elements with contemporary sounds and produced something fresh and compelling. He also knew how to how to get something great from Winehouse vocally and how to showcase it.

Cheers.

[SussexBn412fd]

I am 71 I maybe old I may be gray
But me I could listen to Amy all day.
I just love her voice its a change from screamimg yelling ,Touching themselves in strange places.You do not have took, all you have to do is listen..................I do.

[bikerdude]

I'm also an old fart and really enjoy her music. One of my daughters bought me her album for my birthday, but I really, really didn't appreciate her until I saw the whole grammy thing. She is obviously having a terrible time with her addiction, but her lucid moments are brilliant. Remember Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix? All that crossover, old sound new twist stuff? Its happening again. I hope she can get the addiction straightened out before it kills her too.

[citizenoftheworld]

Glamorous! Just look at the glamorous pictures
that the press publishes of her. One of the pictures is her and Blake with blood all over
themselves. Another picture is Amy running the streets crying and with no top on. None of the pictures or stories I have seen or read have been glamorous.
I am afraid I must disagree with you on that point. She is a fabulous artist though.

A lot of the really good artists have tortured souls. Unfortunately they usually don't live very long.

[Wiredwilly]

Vote Winehouse / Spears 08'

So what if she's English. Bush proved the elections are meaningless anyway.
Now that's a ticket I could get behind.

[SouthpawSass]

Okay, since my prior comment, I visited youtube to check this Winehouse out. I stand by my prior comment.