Amy Winehouse

This isn’t the first time I’ve started a post stating that this isn’t a music site. And it isn’t.

I was saddened to hear of Amy Winehouse’s passing on Saturday.

I’m not a music connoisseur. I have a broad and jumbled musical taste that transcends style or indeed, reason. But I enjoy listening to Amy Winehouse.

There is something about her music that presses the same buttons with me as classic 1960s female artists like Helen Shapiro or Sandie Shaw. It’s timeless, or harks back to a halcyon time that I’ve only read about (being a child of the 70s).

Whilst Amy may have been troubled and her death inevitable, the girl could sing. I’d go as far as to say that she was the best female vocalist of the last two decades.

Her music was a shot in the arm for a music industry that is rapidly becoming no more than a popularity contest fuelled by cheesy TV talent shows designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator. I hope that she is remembered for her success as a singer/songwriter rather than the way her muddled private life spilled into the public eye.

Amy was 27 years old. She joins the exclusive 27 Club that includes the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain; all shining lights in modern music that were extinguished in their 27th year.

RIP Amy Winehouse 14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMO5Ko_77Hk?rel=0]