Amy Winehouse: Dead at 27

Winehouse, a voice in control of her art, but little else


By Gene Seymour, Special to CNN
July 23, 2011 7:45 p.m. EDT

Amy Winehouse enchanted people with her sunny rhythm-and-blues music, Gene Seymour writes.​

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Amy Winehouse was found dead at the age of 27
• Gene Seymour says whatever her personal demons, her art was special
• He says her music was sunny and buoyant

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Editor's note: Gene Seymour has written about music, movies and culture for The New York Times, Newsday, Entertainment Weekly and The Washington Post.
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(CNN) -- Sad? Unbearably so. Shocking? Unfortunately, no.​

As this is being written, no one is saying for certain how or why Amy Winehouse died Saturday. British authorities used the word "unexplained" to characterize the circumstances. Those with even casual knowledge of who she was, what she did and how she lived have their suspicions. The multitudes who loved her music are devastated, but the guess here is that precious few of them are surprised. Their worst fears have been affirmed.​

Winehouse's death, at 27, climaxes a near-decade of meteoric success and willful self-destruction. There was always a vexing contradiction between the sunny, buoyant rhythm-and-blues music that enchanted millions and the dismal, exasperating public spectacle she made of herself in tabloids and onstage.​

How can someone so talented be so self destructive? Tune in to Dr. Drew Monday night at 9 ET.​

At times, these two strains would intersect; most notably, on the platinum-selling single, "Rehab," with its catchy refrain: "They tried to make me go to rehab/ I said, no, no, no..." It became, for better and worse, a signature tune, crystallizing her approach-avoidance relationship with relieving her drug and alcohol addictions.​

Amy Winehouse dead at 27​

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HLN's Dr. Drew on Amy Winehouse​

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Amy Winehouse found dead​

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She seemed so much in command of her art that it made one wonder even more why she seemed to have so little control of her life.
--Gene Seymour​

RELATED TOPICS

• Amy Winehouse
• Entertainment
• Grammy Awards

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It hasn't taken long for reporters to point out that Winehouse's death comes at the same age as those of Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones and Jimi Hendrix, all of whom remain iconic martyrs on the altar of self-destruction. Even those wishing to believe she could still escape such a fate tended to avert their gaze, especially in the last couple of years, from what seemed an inevitable collision.​

But in the absence of hard facts (at least for the moment), there seems little point in dwelling or speculating on what killed Winehouse. And even less point in getting mired in maudlin or righteous recrimination. There are more than enough sob sisters lining up to bend our ears sideways with reprisals and cautionary lessons.​

However the facts play out, I'd still rather talk about the music -- which, as with all the other young casualties cited earlier, will be all that really matters when assessing Amy Winehouse's long-term value to the world-at-large.​

Her music was, as I noted earlier, sunny and buoyant. The songs could be mordantly funny and cheekily self-aware. "Rehab" was the most conspicuous example, but it was no less infectious or winning than the other tunes on 2006's "Back to Black" the multiple-Grammy-winning album that we must now -- alas -- acknowledge as her masterwork.​

To listen to "Black," especially now, is to revel in a talent that seemed as enthralled with its own potential as its audience was. Winehouse's voice put forth a big sound, but it was also agile enough to evoke not only the African-American soul divas of the 1960s and 1970s, but also the jazz and cabaret singers of the 1940s and 1950s who grounded their ingenuity in bending or stretching notes rather than in multiplying or subdividing them. She seemed so much in command of her art that it made one wonder even more why she seemed to have so little control of her life.​

Even that enrapturing voice couldn't overpower the sardonic, perhaps even ghoulish demons lurking within the lyrics. One thinks of the chorus to "You Know I'm No Good": "I cheated myself/ Like I knew I would..." There were on-line postings Saturday that made reference to this line from "Tears Dry on Their Own": "You walk away/and the sun goes down..."​

No way anybody's going to stop the deconstructionists from having their ironic way with such lyrics -- and I'm kind of sorry I brought it up. Right now, I'd rather think about how she made me smile. Demons -- hers and everyone else's -- be damned.​

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Gene Seymour.​

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I really enjoy her music. All I could think when I heard this was: what a waste.

We poured one out for her at a bbq on Saturday.

 

I remember hearing her for the first time as a music bed for Grey's Anatomy. I wasn't watching it but heard it as aloha OSS was watching it. I paused because I was so taken by it. A shame she died a true waste of talent.

 

No, I think a lot of us felt it was just a matter of time, unless she got herself truly clean. Since she seemed uninterested in sobriety...well, here we are.

 

The one thing I think is important about all of this is that it raises the profile on mental disorders such as depression and eating disorders. The risk is that all of that gets either shoved aside or undermined by thinking such as, "She had it coming," "I'm not surprised," and, "I'm surprised it took this long."

What's more, it gets further lost under a tide of irrelevance. Of course a high-profile and well-loved recording artist is going to get a lot of media attention. Do you expect it to get ignored or placed in a sidebar? Why compare it to other high-profile events? What's the point besides some kind of moral righteousness? It's irrelevant.

It's also unsuitable to see the events in Norway and pshaw because fifty times more children likely died that same day in Africa from largely preventible circumstances. We don't do these things because it's both inappropriate and irrelevant. What do children in Africa have to do with a terrorist attack in Norway? What does a terrorist attack in Norway have to do with the premature death of a mentally ill artist?

If we all were to open our hearts more and look at situations for what they are, maybe we'd have a better chance of understanding the devastation wrought by mental health problems, especially those that descend into substance abuse.

I, for one, have nothing short of sympathy for Amy Winehouse. She clearly had health issues that crossed over between the mental and the physical. And rather than think she was going to die from it sooner rather than later, a part of me secretly hoped that she would clean herself up and make a few more decades' worth of beautiful music.

But she died well before her time, likely because of her health issues. So there will be no more music from her. Therein lies the tragedy.

 

Agreed BG. An author told me once that the most tragic thing for the world is dying before the story comes out. I'd think the same applies for music.