Anyone that knows me knows how much of a music nerd I am. It’s WHO I AM. It’s why up until very recently (and not by my choice) my career of the last 20 years or so was spent in the music industry. The second half of that was spent as an Artist Development Rep for EMI. That had me promoting and exposing our releases in anyway I could. Usually in record stores (back when there were some), but we’d just started to get into this whole new “social media” thing when Myspace got on the scene. I digress.
I’d started hearing about Amy Winehouse somewhere around 2003, when people whose musical taste I respect immensely like ?uestlove would not shut up talking about her. Somewhere I stumbled onto a link of Amy doing “Stronger Than Me” and that was it.
Usually with me and artists I love, it’s instant. First time I heard Prince? Done. Me and the Jackson 5/Michael was from childhood and even then, I got Jackson 5’s “Third Album” as a gift and never looked back. It even became a running joke at meetings at EMI. If I had an immediate reaction, they knew sales for that artist were going to increase in my market. Van Hunt and Nikka Costa both got that treatment. So did Amy Winehouse.
“Frank” wasn’t even available in the States at that point, so I went into one of the stores that I serviced (Jazz N Jams on Telegraph) and convinced them that it would be worth their time to bring in the import as i would pay whatever it cost ($35) and to bring in more, because they would be selling more. Even at that price they couldn’t keep it on the shelf.
Now let me point out, Amy Winehouse was NOT on EMI. I worked that record as if she were. To the point I had friends that worked at Universal that called to thank me for the job i was doing with her.
I’d also started Dj-ing around that time as well. I’d launched my night Groovelounge, which was specifically designed to expose the public to music that I thought needed exposure. Of course, Amy got a LOT of shine from me. I’d spin her all the time. In those early days i’d usually spin “You Send Me Flying” because it kind of snuck up on you and then there you were going “wait a minute, what the fuck am I listening to?” Which usually brought at least 3-5 people a night up to the dj booth asking “who is this?” I’d beam and tell them, usually write her name down on a bar napkin and then tell them to go to Jazz N Jams and buy it. ”Fuck Me Pumps” also got a pretty immediate reaction.
My friends got clubbed over the head with her, by me. One of my best friends reminded me just yesterday about the fact that I got her hooked on Amy and then refused to burn the album for her. I insisted she buy it, because Amy deserved the money. My girlfriend at the time was with me in the car when i got “Frank”. She got it too. I think she loved Amy for the strong lyrics more than anything. I loved her for her honesty. And that voice. That voice. I’ll admit i even had a bit of a crush. I do on all my favorite female singers, usually. My girlfriend knew it too. She didn’t mind. She was ours.
This was all before “Back To Black”. When this was the Amy i adored.
I’d started hearing rumblings about a new album and me being me, I went nuts. I started telling anyone that would listen and by this point most people that I knew were Amy fans. I’d heard that unlike last time, this album was going to be available domestically. However that was going to be a couple of months and it was available as an import on Amazon now. For $40. I didn’t even think twice. (put in credit card number, order, expedited shipping hells yeah, click, order, wait by the door)
Back to Black showed up and listening to that album my head hurt I was smiling so much. Such GENIUS. ”Frank” hit you with a jazz/hip hop feel and those trademark biting honest Amy lyrics. This was a whole other animal. The sound was this Motown-ish horn driven monster. I couldn’t believe my ears. Even physically, she transformed for this new record. She’d lost a TON of weight (which I wasn’t happy about), the hair, more ink, she’d become something different because this album was something different. I thought she was a genius.
By this time I realized the world was starting to catch on. Everyone was talking about Amy now. Me and my friends were like “duh. where have YOU been?” It was so fun. She showed up at the Grammy’s and killed and left with 5. I didn’t know her but I felt like I did. We’d spent some serious time together, her and I. That was when everyone started paying attention to everything she did. And when I started to worry.
The occasional “Amy was too drunk to finish a show” video wasn’t so occasional anymore. The stories about drug use were weekly. At one point I think her and Lindsay Lohan were in the news every other day for something. It started to dawn on me that she was in real trouble.
Anyone that’s dealt with addiction knows how helpless you feel watching someone else lose a battle with their demons. I’ve gone through it on a very personal level. This of course didn’t feel that way, but I still was affected in a very personal way because Amy had become personal for me.
She was one of mine. She was Groovelounge. She was an artist that I personally loved and adored in more than a passing way. When Michael Jackson died, I was a mess for a couple of weeks. When Prince dies, I will be inconsolable. The fact that I may not hear anymore music from Amy scared me but it started to dawn on me that we could lose her altogether. I talked to people that i’d turned her onto about just that fact. And i’d argue that if we only had those 2 albums, that they would go down in history as 2 of the best of her generation, if not ever.
I was pissed at her record company for putting her out on the road to promote the album, when she was obviously in no shape to do so. Setting someone up to fail isn’t good business.
Amy became reduced to tabloid fodder and the world for the most part stopped caring. I didn’t. Occasionally, i’d see an article about her going to rehab and i’d be like “YES!” Then i’d see Mark Ronson post something about trying to work with Amy on a track and him having to admit she wasn’t ready, and it would make me sad.
Then you started to see the music world try to fill the void left by Amy’s musical absence. Lily Allen, Duffy, Adele, Eliza Dolittle, etc etc etc. Don’t get me wrong, i love some of those artists as well (i adore Adele), but they weren’t Amy.
Recently there was the footage of Amy’s recent concert attempt which made me wonder if she would ever make it all the way back. She didn’t.
My best friend sent me a text message at 12:50 pm on Saturday telling me of the news at the same time my CNN alert on my phone sent the exact same message. Amy Winehouse was gone.
I said one word. ”No.” Stood up and went to the computer to read it for myself. I did and went to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of Maker’s 46 and poured a glass. Grabbed my headphones, plugged them into my phone and pressed play. And cried. Hard. And laughed. And smiled. Cried some more.
I didn’t know Amy Winehouse personally, but I personally loved and adored her. She brought a lot to my life and I will miss her. Her music will of course live on and in time (as it usually is with true genius artists) her art will go down in history as one of the true innovators of a generation.
Damn.
Amy, Amy, Amy.
The AT&T iPhone’s average download speed was 1,769 Kbps. The Verizon iPhone’s average download speed was 848 Kbps.STORY HIGHLIGHTS
