We can all agree Amy Winehouse’s career, her life, was way too short. She was a powerhouse vocalist in a vague time of pop hits sounding one like the other. Suddenly we’re gifted with this unique retro-sounding singer, a slight little thing with an old soul, damaged as it was. She burst into the pop scene with Rehab, indisputably her greatest hit, but I fell in love with her sound when I first saw the opening credits for the Showtime series Secret Diary of a Call Girl. The song was You Know I’m No Good. I thought to myself, who the fuck is this singer? Then I heard Back To Black and that was it. It prompted me to start listening to Amy’s song list, and I was blown away. The marriage of her smoky voice with the elegant sounds of her band, I could not get enough. I don’t even care about any of the lyrics; I could listen to her voice inside this retro soul sound for days. And then like that, she left us because she was a tortured artist who just didn’t know how else to make her pain go away. So sad.
From the historical writing archive. Original date: November 23, 2017. Recovered from local source material; editorial review is still in progress.