THE GAME IN FASHION, LIKE IT OR NOT ; ... It was a sad ending to what could have been a long and luminous career. Just a few years prior Amy had lifted herself out of near obscurity to become what Jay-Z called a “Nirvana moment” for British artists. Her musical output, considering that it spans just five years, is simply stunning in terms of quality. It takes some artists a lifetime to record a track as freeing as “Valerie” or as poignant as “Love Is A Losing Game” – but Winehouse managed to do it while going through hell, in public, and with demons on her back.
2007 was a rocky year for Ms. Winehouse. “I really thought that it was over for me then,” she remarked after an near fatal overdose in the summer from not just one substance but six at the same time: heroin, ketamine, alcohol, cocaine, and ecstasy. In December, she was photographed smoking crack cocaine and wandering around London dressed in only a bra and jeans with cuts on her arms and legs. The leering lenses of the British paparazzi documented nearly every move of this tumultuous year.
I’m trying to think of another profession besides “popular entertainer” that would incur such intense media coverage. Politician, perhaps, but then again nobody is camping outside of John Boehner’s house morning noon and night to get a snapshot of him walking his dog out to the lawn for a crap. The fact that Amy had to go through such scrutiny in public with a legendarily voracious British tabloid system famously documenting a stray cigarette could only impede things for Amy. ...CONT /-
THE GAME IN FASHION, LIKE IT OR NOT ; ... It was a sad ending to what could have been a long and luminous career. Just a few years prior Amy had lifted herself out of near obscurity to become what Jay-Z called a “Nirvana moment” for British artists. Her musical output, considering that it spans just five years, is simply stunning in terms of quality. It takes some artists a lifetime to record a track as freeing as “Valerie” or as poignant as “Love Is A Losing Game” – but Winehouse managed to do it while going through hell, in public, and with demons on her back.
ReplyDelete2007 was a rocky year for Ms. Winehouse. “I really thought that it was over for me then,” she remarked after an near fatal overdose in the summer from not just one substance but six at the same time: heroin, ketamine, alcohol, cocaine, and ecstasy. In December, she was photographed smoking crack cocaine and wandering around London dressed in only a bra and jeans with cuts on her arms and legs. The leering lenses of the British paparazzi documented nearly every move of this tumultuous year.
I’m trying to think of another profession besides “popular entertainer” that would incur such intense media coverage. Politician, perhaps, but then again nobody is camping outside of John Boehner’s house morning noon and night to get a snapshot of him walking his dog out to the lawn for a crap. The fact that Amy had to go through such scrutiny in public with a legendarily voracious British tabloid system famously documenting a stray cigarette could only impede things for Amy.
...CONT /-