Well, so much for rehab. The London Daily Mail has the grim initial details:
Amy Winehouse has been found dead at her home in London.
The Back To Black singer was found at the property by emergency services at 3.54pm. Her death is being treated as ‘unexplained’ by police.
Winehouse was apparently ‘beyond help’ when paramedics arrived, according to Sky sources.
In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: ‘Police were called by London Ambulance Service to an address in Camden Square NW1 shortly before 16.05hrs today, Saturday 23 July, following reports of a woman found deceased.’On arrival officers found the body of a 27-year-old female who was pronounced dead at the scene.
‘Enquiries continue into the circumstances of the death. At this early stage it is being treated as unexplained.’
In reality, this is the most expected “unexpected” development in history:
The photo on the left shows Winehouse around 2004; the photo on the right is from about 2007. Rock deaths are a bit like the Mirror Universe version of Nietzsche’s concept of Eternal Recurrence; they’re the Eternal Self-Destruction. Read any book on the history of jazz music in the 1950s, and it’s a history of brilliant musicians consuming an endless amount of pharmacological products; a decade later, rock musicians of the late ’60s and early ’70s became determined to live out the same life — and death — style. A decade after that, punk rockers thought both earlier groups of musicians were pikers when it came to self-destruction.
Keith Richards is celebrated because he’s seemingly indestructible — as the joke went in one of the Wayne’s World movies, “Keith cannot be killed by conventional weapons.” But as today’s latest example highlights, he’s very much the exception to the rule.
It’s a lot to take in one weekend. Almost 100 people robbed of all their tomorrows for no reason whatsoever in Norway followed by an equally senseless death, that of Amy Winehouse, the greatest talent in her field in her generation.
If Lady Gaga or Katy Perry suddenly decided to retire tomorrow their musical legacy would be considered as virtually non-existent. With Winehouse, we have all been robbed of a lot of really fine musical tomorrows.
When I heard that she had relapsed again after her stint in rehab that sinking feeling set in that she wasn’t going to make it–we had seen this before–an amazing talent self destructing is not at all surprising in the music industry. Her amazing voice will be missed.
Pity. Talented. Pretty a long time ago. The vile die young. She had a lot of help with her self-destruction.
That last is so true. Hers is a profession with numerous enablers and hanger-ons.
Heard the name but, not “with it”, old fogey that I am, was not familiar with her work, saw a video of her singing, ironically, “Rehab,” and was not impressed but, I do believe that most artistry is usually driven by great personal pain.
Talent or no, although others may believe that “its a great day in the neighborhood,” that everything is just “hunky-dory,” and that “it will all work out” without any effort on our part, it seems to me that the path through life is a very dangerous, faint, often crooked, and rocky one in what has been rightly described as a “vale of tears,” and that the ways to lose sight of, to wander off the path, or to fall by the wayside are numerous and often not, at first, even self-evident.
Thus, great attention and care must be taken to keep your balance, you attention fixed on the path, and your feet on it.
In the case of Winehouse, it seems to me, she lost her way/deliberately stepped off the path, and she basically committed suicide. Did she get heavy into drugs because she thought it was sort of expected of her as the intro to this thread hinted at? Who knows?
Here she is, 2 months past 19 yrs. old. Wrote it, played it, be impressed. Jools Holland sure as hell was and he’s seen it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gmZTAt1lls&feature=related
Not sure if you’re still tracking these comments, but thanks for this link. I can’t stop watching it, right up until the end when we see her beautiful smile.
Here, old one. Try this one from 2005: http://tinyurl.com/27bqegd
(Winehouse singing ‘Teach Me Tonight.’)
She truly was brilliant. Her best years were ahead of her. It could have been so different.
Show your kids the ‘before and after’ videos of her on youtube as a tragic object lesson that drugs really do ruin your life.
Although a fan of Amy Winehouse, I was unaware of her career prior to “Back to Black”.
When I came across her singing “Teach Me Tonight” just a few weeks ago, I was stunned by her talent, as well as how healthy she looked in 2004. She was blessed with real talent, but her demons got the best of her.
May she rest in peace.
The photo on the left is really eye-opening. I didn’t realize she had ever looked like that. Most of what I knew about her were the news reports about her drug use and her strange behavior in concerts, etc. In the accompanying pictures, she always looked more like the picture on the right, somewhat dishiveled with ridiculous eye makeup. I didn’t even know how or why she came to be famous as a singer, since it seemed that her drug use overshadowed everything else. Now that I see the “before” picture, I have to marvel at a time in her life and career when the news of her death from a likely overdose at a young age didn’t seem so inevitable.
Such sad news…I have been a serious fan since I bought her CD and listened to it over and over. A terrific singer and songwriter…what a shame that she had no talent for living.
Well, at least she’ll get to meet Janis Joplin. And John Belushi. And Richard Pryor. And the list goes on and on. Attention Martin Sheen; you have a call waiting message……………….. How will we survive?????
Jimi Hendrix? Jim Morrison? John Candy?
Agreed she was hot in 2004. What a waste.
Aside from her family who cares? I am really tired of dysfunctional entertainers getting so much attention while there are serious things happening. Her death is a distraction from issues that effect millions of people. From what I have read the was an active participant in her own death. I’ll save my sympathy for real victims.
No man is an island, entire to itself…
I am glad you said what you did, so I will not have to repeat it. Although I am not into that type of “music” or entertainment, it is impossible to be free from it, as all the publications, the TV, news etc. dish up every story about people like Winehouse all the time. I am tired of it, the same goes for the Lohans, the Spears, the Gagas and others. So privileged, so spoiled, so overrated by a gullible public and so irrational. Perhaps now we don’t have to hear about Winehouse anymore and for that I am grateful.
The day is coming when we will no longer have to hear from you either.
Many are mourning Winehouse. Why be cruel?
Thank you for your reply. It spared me from responding to one more ugly commenter.
The very same people who complain about Ms. Whinehouse being unable or unwilling to control her addiction are unable to keep from making vile and unnecessary comments about a young woman who clearly had lost her way in life. Yet, how hard is it, really, to NOT make a nasty comment?
“The very same people who complain about Ms. Whinehouse being unable or unwilling to control her addiction are unable to keep from making vile and unnecessary comments about a young woman who clearly had lost her way in life.”
It’s a blog post. They’re more than entitled to make comments under it about someone feted with very large sums of money for performing in public, who chose to self-destruct. If you wish to see that as the moral equivalent of getting blotto on a variety of white powdery substances, and not heeding the lessons taught by the death of numerous musicians going back six decades, that’s your prerogative, but it’s got to be an awfully frustrating way of viewing your fellow man.
Ed Driscoll: Are you in favor of comments that equate to “good riddance, drug user” ? If so, why? (Please don’t say “freedom of speech” unless there is some arm of government involved in this)
My comments have nothing to do with those who make a case that the pamperred could do with a lot less pamperring, hand holding or sucking up to, just because they have talent– that is a legitimate discussion. But cheering the death of somebody has no redeeming value, as far as I know.
How does “Perhaps now we don’t have to hear about Winehouse anymore and for that I am grateful” have merit?
That is what you find on HuffPo and Daily Kos– expressions of joy for the death of somebody.
Is this really what you want to defend?
Henry,
As with Charlie Sheen’s meltdown, at some point, when you become fodder for the tabloids, you have to ask yourself how much your own actions are responsible for your condition. And taken from that perspective, I think all of us are glad that we don’t have see new photos of a once attractive woman destroying herself in such graphic fashion. At least that’s how I’m viewing the above comment.
Celebrate this: I’ve watched it many times. Cried this time. What an amazing vocalist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po_tj84j2XA&feature=related
ALCOHOL and PILLS
“Hank Williams, he came up from Montgomery,
With heart full of broken country songs.
But Nashville, Tennessee didn’t really understand him,
‘Cause he did things differently than the way that they were done
But when he finally made it to the Grand Old Opry,
He made it stand still
He ended up on alcohol and pills.
Elvis Presley, he came up from Jackson,
With a brand new way of singing, lord
And a brand new way of dancing,
And even from the waist up, lord, he gave the world a thrill
He ended up on alcohol and pills.
Alcohol and pills, it’s a crying shame,
You’d think they might’ve been happy with the glory and the fame
But fame doesn’t take away the pain, it just pays the bills,
And you wind up on alcohol and pills.
Janis Joplin, she was wild and reckless,
And then there was Gram Parsons, lord
And then there was Jimi Hendrix,
The story just goes on and on, and I guess it always will
They ended up on alcohol and pills.
Alcohol and pills, it’s a crying shame,
You’d think they might’ve been happy with the glory and the fame
But fame doesn’t take away the pain, it just pays the bills,
And you wind up on alcohol and pills.
Sometimes somebody just doesn’t wake up one day,
Sometimes it’s a heart attack, sometimes they just don’t say
But they pulled poor, old Hank Williams,
Out of a Cadillac Coupe de Ville
He ended up on alcohol and pills.”
Copyright © 1977, Fred Eaglesmith
Shame to lose such talent, but I’m not going to get all sentimental about her death. From Jimi to Kurt to Amy, how many of these people do we have to mourn for their own stupidity. We should celebrate being alive when those our culture chooses to consider our betters couldn’t hack it. We may be average people with no special talent, whose names aren’t household words, but in the final accounting…we’re alive and the special ones are dead. No tragedy there – just natural selection. They lose. We win.
I honestly thought she was well over 40, from all the photos I’ve seen. I was shocked to learn she was only 27.
Coincidentally, I realized just now that I just happened to see a video about a week ago of her–didn’t really connect with the name until now–disastrous attempt a her recent tour, where she was mumbling and literally stumbling around on stage.
May God rest her soul and provide a venue for her blues in heaven……
Hm, sad but not unexpected given the path she was on.
Just answered a triva question recently, asking what age did these rock/pop stars die, age 27 was the answer – yep I was pretty surprised when they stated he age of 27.
(Joplin, Hendrix, Morrison and one other whos name I forget.
Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones?
Yes.
Aficionados will also remember Alan “The Blind Owl” Wilson (1943-1970).
Another Janis Joplin…died at 27 too.
So did Joplin’s songwriter a few days ago…but he was a ripe old 80!
Also “Ronald C. “Pigpen” McKernan” of the Grateful Dead (at 27).
She died a Heroin.
Obviously many people knew this was coming –but the dealer did not care–give me the money–
What a waste–what a terrible message to our kids
We have drug testing for athletes
–why not for high paid entertainers who influence our kids?
I prefer just to teach my kids not to be influenced by vacuous pop stars. Maybe if we stop giving them all this undeserved attention just because they know how to pluck a few heart strings, less of them would need to act out. Everyone who reads People, or whatever other celebrity gossip rags are out there, are contributors to her death.
I remember when Princess Diana died. I was living in London at the time. Just days before I remember all the tabloids about her and Dodi; they were merciless. Then suddenly she’s dead, and everyone forgets they bought and read those crap paper tabloids, and suddenly there’s all this sympathy and faux outrage at the paparazzi from people who were likely compensating for their guilt at having wallowed in schadenfreude.
This is probably unforgivably frivolous, but what the hey:
In my family (who used to play too much D&D together), we decided that Keith Richards has actually been dead for years; it’s only his vast residual occult power that still keeps him ambulatory and communicating.
So we call him Keith Lichards.
Seriously, may Miss Winehouse rest in peace and her loved ones find comfort. I can only imagine what her parents have gone through for years…
From another gamer who has seduced her family into D&D: that’s brilliant, appropriate or not.
Amy Winehouse. Who’s that? Rest in Peace, Amy Winehouse. May God have mercy on your soul.
… as I pray he has mercy on mine.
It is a shame and a waste of a talented life , but we all make choices and are responsible for our actions. . . . the great blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughn was on the same road to destruction, but turned his life around and was a great influence on others until his death in a helicopter crash.
She was so incredibly talented-what a voice. Addiction is so powerful and merciless. When in the throes of it, there seems no way out. The mental games it plays tell you that your life will continue on the same, just without the substance. Nothing to look forward to-just the same day everyday. The same struggles to find the substance, use it, attempt to function. Of course that isn’t true, because the substance will be gone, but it appears that life will continue to be that same struggle only with no way to ‘cope’ The obsession and the twisted thinking are impossible to describe. From one who has been there. The abnormal life becomes the norm and any other life is unimaginable. The loneliness and despair are unrivaled. While it might have once been ‘fun’-that ended a long time ago, it becomes hell on earth. For Amy, her voice will live on. Know that her life of addiction was no longer a choice, but a must. I heard her give an interview on a BBC show, she was sweet, thoughtful, and very lost. Rest in peace Amy
Beautiful girl, talented. Very sad.
I am not casting aspersions on this particular instance, but,
As these “Club 27″ stories happen regularly, one has to wonder whether the handlers surrounding these very talented young people are willfully blind. Should one speculate whether there’s an incentive to keep the artist healthy, when a. music careers are short-lived (1 CD in her carreer), and b. the estates, at the peak of their careers, are much more sizable than later, even if it’s a life insurance policy of a few million dollars.
For many of these tempermental “stars,” they can’t or won’t hear anybody telling them what they don’t want to hear; getting rid of the un-hip pests who try.
Eternal adolescence stuck on stupid, awash in self-will and pride. Amy Winehouse knew the risks and was willing to take the gamble. Her choice.
Beautiful and brilliant at 20, wasted and washed up at 24. Dead at 27. This is so sad. I think they’re starting to join that club purposely.
I watched The Fighter last night. Crack is a terrible drug. However, IIRC, there was no crack before our insane drug laws created a market for it.
Honestly, it is someone else’s fault? In this case the government’s or maybe George Bush’s?
Once there are no rules, no anchors, light houses, and safe harbors, it is very easy to become adrift, capsized, and swallowed up by the storm.
Pre-WWII Marxist Antonio Gramsci’s “long march through the institutions/culture,” the far Left’s seven decade long subversive attack against all the building block of Western “bourgeois culture” has been a howling success, has left massive destruction in its wake, and has succeeded in destroying or subverting, degrading, and transmogrifying virtually every aspect of our lives and our traditional culture and civilization.
One of the chief targets of that march has been Religion, and the morality and ethics, the rules and behaviors it teaches, for people without that teaching are un-anchored, disoriented, adrift, “at sea,” “disarmed,” and are much easier targets and much more easily deceived and led, are short on hope but long on desperation, and are thus much more receptive to the allure of the Left’s totalitarian and collectivist solutions.
One small result–among many thousands–of the success of this Marxist blitzkrieg and the atmosphere it has created is the increased prevalence of drugs, and the increased willingness to use them.
Amy Winehouse was just one more casualty of that Marxist victory.
Right to the point, Seth, good writing. You don’t mention cults, they too attract those without stability who are seeking a purpose in life. Although not particularly religious our family was always guided by the ten commandments, makes life a lot easier.
Janis Joplin was the first one to make me sit up and take notice. And Jim Morrison.
Can you imagine having Courtney Love for a mother?
One potential irony about Gramsci is that some reports indicated he repented on his deathbed and asked for a priest.
As for Ms. Winehouse, RIP. Addiction is a killer.
Sad though tragically expected.
I was crushed to learn of Layne Staley’s death some years back. A truly talented and tortured soul.
Staley’s RS interview should be required reading for those with an addiction or knowing someone who suffers such a hell.
‘We all Die Young’ – indeed.
My generation had its Morrison, Joplin, Moon and Hendrix. Frankly, I don’t give a damn seeing that in retrospect, they didn’t speak for me as much as I imagined they did anyway. RIP whoever you were.
I buried a friend at the ripe old age of 32 for reasons similar to Winehouse’s death. Since that time, I just haven’t been able to mock people like her- or Charlie Sheen- because, no matter what they’ve done to themselves, I don’t want to see them die before they get clean. The Grim Reaper might have the ultimate rehab clinic, but he doesn’t tend to let people back out once they’ve gone in.
This is kind of the reason that I stopped making fun of Lindsay Lohan. I cringe every time her name pops up in the news because I figure that sooner or later, the news is going to be final.
Jim, Jimi, Janis, Kurt, Amy… Gone! But Justin Biever is still here… Why!!???