Don't Judge Amy Winehouse by Her Demons
Later, before the release of second album Back To Black, I came face to face with a different Amy.
Noticeably thinner, she arrived very late for our interview (this time the venue was a coffee bar near her Camden home) but still turned heads with her long, raven black hair and Cleopatra eye-liner.
Her earlier, youthful sparkle had gone, though, and she seemed, initially at least, withdrawn and bored. Promotional interviews, I sensed, were now a chore rather than a joy.
However, aware that her tardiness had left us pushed for time, she suggested that I accompanied her in a cab to a radio station. En route, a little of the old Amy — generous of spirit, obsessed with music — resurfaced as we talked about our shared passion for The Specials.
She may have been a changed woman, but she still knew what she wanted. More aware of her own flaws than the last time I met her, she even retracted what she’d said three years earlier about her fellow females.
‘I lashed out a lot, but I won’t be saying anything negative now,’ she said. She was ready, she added, to let her music do the talking.
And Back To Black did just that. Rooted in emotional turmoil, it will go down as a classic British album. Even now, in an era where female pop rules the charts, nothing has come close to packing the same punch. A departure from her jazzy debut, it was stark, simple and stunningly direct.
Although clearly influenced by those famous demons, it was more commercial than her debut, its retro-soul feel harking back to the Sixties girl-group pop of The Supremes and The Shangri-Las.
In selling millions and winning Brit and Grammy awards, it established its maker as the pre-eminent soul girl of her age.Nobody makes records as enduring as Back To Black without an intimate knowledge of the essential ingredients of great pop. Amy had that — plus an ability to convey a sense of hurt — in abundance.
Producer Mark Ronson, giving some insight into her writing methods, once told me about her intuitive knack of coming up with an unusual melody. She was also an accomplished guitarist with a broad knowledge of jazz, something that helped enormously with her composing.
