"Amy" Winehouse Doc is Devastating, Joyful
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Still kind of reeling from watching "Amy" the Winehouse documentary last night, which left me absolutely mad with yearning for her "Back to Black" cd and her others, but especially to hear that one, in its entirety. Her singing is extremely strong heady stuff, like a drug and nobody else sounds like that. The British media, especially, nearly drove her crazy and it was reprehensible, their gloating and grinning while reporting each sign of her downfall, her descent into being totally overtaken by drinking and drugs. So awful to witness her "adored" father's enthusiastic exploitation of Amy's success and egging her on to tour when she wasn't healthy enough, urging her to be a complete workhorse, to her detriment. Her husband Blake too was depicted as "on the gravy train" mainly there, after awhile, for access to drugs and wealth. He had a terrible childhood, slashed his wrists at age nine, and praised combinations of the hardest of drugs for obliterating all "negative feelings." That hellion dragged her down with him. He sneaked heroin into her room at rehab. Fascinating to see Amy's creative music-making process and leap into being a songwriter of both lyrics and music from early years of writing lots of poems. Makes you want to write more songs yourself.
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She really was a huge, huge talent in a tiny fragile body. She was wracked with drug and alcohol addiction and simply could not overcome it. I saw her concert video and parts were brilliant and parts were just terrible. I don't think she could perform unless she was high. You kept wondering if she was going to make it through. Another one of the "27 Club". So damn sad!
