Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and now Amy Winehouse. What they have in common is they all died at 27 years old and were rock stars. What they really have in common is that they did the dance with the R&B, Soul and Blues devil. Robert Johnson sold his soul at the crossroads in Mississippi to play like genius and these other artists did much of the same. Singing the Blues and not coming from the Blues has been a slippery slope for some of the greatest pop and rock artist of all time. All of these artist loved the Blues and were haunted by it all at the same time. Winehouse was no exception. Her music echoed Motown and Ella Fitzgerald. She became it’s new Queen and it’s slave at the same time.
As with the aforementioned artists Winehouse’s breakthrough five grammy winning album ironically named, Back To Black cut through the clutter of the current pop scene. Morrison was a God, Hendrix was a genius and Joplin was a high priestess. Amy was a diva. Those artist did not emerge, they exploded channeling the haunting life-affirming vibe of Afro-Centric music. Now like Amy, they are all gone. Forever to live as lightning in a bottle and always discussed as what if? Tony Bennett, who recorded the pop standard “Body And Soul” with Winehouse at London’s Abbey Road Studios in March for an upcoming duets album, called her “An artist of immense proportions.” Amy in her own words, “I didn’t go out looking to be famous. I’m just a musician.” Born in 1983 to taxi driver Mitch Winehouse and his pharmacist wife Janis, Winehouse grew up in the north London suburbs, and was set on a showbiz career from an early age. When she was 10, she and a friend formed a rap group, Sweet ‘n’ Sour — Winehouse was Sour — that she later described as “the little white Jewish Salt ‘n’ Pepa.” Similar to these other artists it was not always the drugs and emotional excess that plagued them most, it was the writers block. “I had writer’s block for so long,” she said in 2007. “And as a writer, your self-worth is literally based on the last thing you wrote. … I used to think, ‘What happened to me?” With writer’s block comes a crash of self-esteem and an increased use of drugs, alcohol and social patronage. The songs on “Black to Black” detailed breakups and breakdowns with a similar frankness. Lyrically, as in life, Winehouse wore her heart on her sleeve. Increasingly, her personal life began to overshadow her career. She acknowledged struggling with eating disorders and told a newspaper that she had been diagnosed as manic depressive but refused to take medication. Soon accounts of her erratic behavior, canceled concerts and drink- and drug-fueled nights began to multiply. As with Morrison, Hendrix and Joplin, despite the years of frustration and disappointment, Winehouse retained a huge body of fans, all hoping she would find her feet again. Some gathered outside her home after her death, laying flowers, comforting each other and taking in the police tape and ambulance that marked the end of her journey. How do you have time to go to rehab when you are dancing with the devil? Yes Robert Johnson died at 27 years old as well. Also dead at 27 with a long history of Blues in their music; Brian Jones the co-founder of the Rolling Stones and Kurt Cobain the King of the Grunge Rock era. The relationship between musicians and the the blues is haunting. Songs like; Roadhouse Blues, Wind Cries Mary, Piece Of My Heart or Rehab come straight from the heart and soul of the Blues. You don’t reinvent the blues and make it your own. You just sing other people who never made a dime songs. WATCH Tomorrow Pictures.TV and see Amy Winehouse in all her Blues, soul and R&B glory.
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