Monday, February 9, 2009
Amy, Amy, Amy
About two years ago, a colleague of mine let me hear a piece of music that opened a whole new musical world to me. It may sound strange that I didn't know her before, but that is because I don't listen much to radio. The reason for that is my iPod, which is great to listen to the music you already know.
Anyway, the song I heard then, and listened to over and over again, was You know I'm no good
, of course from Amy Winehouse. The song had such a drive, and the woman had such a voice, that I had to listen to it as much as I could. Two years later, it still is one of my favorite Amy songs.
Later I of course got to know the rest of the CD (Back to Black
) as well, but You know I'm no good
still is the best song of the CD for me. Sure, Rehab
is not too bad. It has a catchy rythm, and easy to remember parts to sing along (who can forget the No, no, no
). Also Back to Black
and Tears dry on their own
are songs that are more than the average.
Since discovering the song and the CD, Amy mainly has been in the news because of the negative aspects. She was drunk all the time, was on drugs, and even when performing she could be so far out that it wasn't always easy to understand her. Even during the television interview after her performance in Werchter, she appeared very drunk. It was even so bad, that you could bet on the exact date of her death, which seemed to be coming soon. Luckily it is not that bad yet, and there are signs of her getting better.
Because of the fact that the only news was not related to her music, and also because usually people only get better, I assumed that Frank
, her first album and predecessor of Back ...
, was perhaps interesting at best, but not worth investiging. Boy, was I wrong! Some weeks ago, I bought the recently released Luxe edition of both albums. It is a hard cover booklet with room for 4 CDs. There are the two regular editions, Frank
(named both after her example Sinatra and after the adjective) and Back in Black
(yes, I admit I only had a digital copy), and for each of the CDs the Bonus CD.Frank
contains only great songs. The best known probably is F*ck me pumps
, which has a very catchy, albeit perhaps a bit too simple, melody. Also In my bed
, Stronger than me
, Know you now
are more than worth listening too, some also for their excellent lyrics.
As for the bonus CDs, they could have been a risk, as they are for a lot of artists, but these truely contain gems. The demo versions are usually easily as good as the final versions, and show that Amy is not only a good songwriter, but also plays the guitar well. It also shows of course that she knows to pick excellent musicians, since the final versions are musically developed very well. But furthermore you'll also find excellent live versions of her songs.
I know some people (you know who you are!) that already know and appreciate Amy. But I also know some others that think Amy doesn't write her own songs, and therefore don't like her. A strange way of thinking, but in this case it's even not true. She truely is a great singer/songwriter, and may her bluesy, jazzy voice keep on singing for a great while.
Labels: Music
posted by Vince | 9:18 PM
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