I don't ever wanna drink again
I just, ooh, I just need a friend
I'm not gonna spend ten weeks
Have everyone think I'm on the mend
And it's not just my pride
It's just 'til these tears have dried.
I just, ooh, I just need a friend
I'm not gonna spend ten weeks
Have everyone think I'm on the mend
And it's not just my pride
It's just 'til these tears have dried.
Amy Winehouse, Rehab
The shockingly unsurprising demise of Amy Winehouse is producing the predictable outpouring of hypocrisy and hyperbole that accompany celebrity death in the Information Age.
Pressed into service of the music industry at 17, Winehouse's ten-year career was good for only two albums before she was found dead in her north London home.
Her debut album Frank, released in 2003, brought her acclaim but it was her second release three years later, Back to Black, that became a worldwide hit and won her five Grammys including Record of the Year for Rehab.
The chaotic drug and alcohol-fuelled life she subsequently shared with her then-husband Blake Fielder-Civil derailed her recording career. She last appeared in Belgrade in June but was booed off stage after an incoherent and slurred performance.
Who's sorry now?
Early reports indicate an increase of approximately 1 800 per cent in digital downloads of her songs in the days since her death.
At Universal Republic, they barely had a spare moment to issue the standard 'deeply saddened' statement before pulling out all stops to get the commemorative CDs into the stores before the toxicology results are released.
Pressed into service of the music industry at 17, Winehouse's ten-year career was good for only two albums before she was found dead in her north London home.
Her debut album Frank, released in 2003, brought her acclaim but it was her second release three years later, Back to Black, that became a worldwide hit and won her five Grammys including Record of the Year for Rehab.
The chaotic drug and alcohol-fuelled life she subsequently shared with her then-husband Blake Fielder-Civil derailed her recording career. She last appeared in Belgrade in June but was booed off stage after an incoherent and slurred performance.
Who's sorry now?
Early reports indicate an increase of approximately 1 800 per cent in digital downloads of her songs in the days since her death.
At Universal Republic, they barely had a spare moment to issue the standard 'deeply saddened' statement before pulling out all stops to get the commemorative CDs into the stores before the toxicology results are released.
Sick shrine: Cigarettes, alcohol and photos are left with flowers and messages near the house where the pop star's body was found on 23 July 2011.
The death of any young person is unquestionably a personal tragedy.
Yet I suspect Winehouse's demise may be only a foretaste of something even more unpalitable as the phenomonon of premature death among 27-year-old artists transcends the stereotypical to become monotonous and even wearisome.
Without question, the success of popular music for at least the last 60 years has stemmed in large part from a dangerous mix of substance abuse and mental illness.
As producers, distributers and consumers of music, we might reflect upon the extent to which we 'look the other way' while deriving profit, comfort and enjoyment from the emotional distress of those we call 'stars'.
Like all those in the 27 Club, Winehouse lived a miserable existence in the last few years of her adult life and ultimately died alone.
Her lyrics were not an anthem to the recklessness of youth; they spoke instead of the fear of an inescapable despair.
I'd rather be at home with Ray
I ain't got seventy days
'Cause there's nothing, there's nothing you can teach me
That I can't learn from Mr Hathaway.
I ain't got seventy days
'Cause there's nothing, there's nothing you can teach me
That I can't learn from Mr Hathaway.
Arrested on a narcotics charge in Indiana on 14 November 1961, the then-31 year old Ray Charles told police he had been a drug addict since the age of 16.
Following another arrest three years later, Charles checked himself into 'rehab' before releasing the songs I Don't Need No Doctor and Let's Go Get Stoned.
Following another arrest three years later, Charles checked himself into 'rehab' before releasing the songs I Don't Need No Doctor and Let's Go Get Stoned.
One of the 'lucky' ones, Charles died of lung cancer on 10 June 2004 at his home in Beverly Hills, California, aged 73 years.
Donny Hathaway, a paranoid schizophrenic, was found dead on the sidewalk below the window of his 15th-floor room in New York's Essex House hotel on 13 January 1979.
Hathaway was aged only 33.
As moral and spiritual beings, each of us bears a responsibility for every other life on the planet. By condemning singers and musicians to a trajectory of hopelessness, we undervalue our humanity and cheapen our collective creativity.
Life imitating art imitating life: Winehouse publicity shot for Back to Black
Vale Amy Winehouse.
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