leonardcohenforum.com

Singer Amy Winehouse has been found dead at her home in Camden, north London, at the age of 27, police have confirmed.

The London Ambulance Service was called to her flat just after 4pm but were unable to save her life.

"On arrival, officers found the body of a 27-year-old female who was pronounced dead at the scene," a police statement said.

Her death is being treated as unexplained and inquiries are continuing into the circumstances, it added.

The Back To Black artist had cancelled all tour dates and engagements last month
after a series of erratic public appearances.

She had been troubled by drink and drugs problems throughout her career.

I just saw this on Facebook. It's so very sad... she was so young.

Enormous loss for the future of popular music. Back to Black is one of my favourite CDs and let's not talk that she didn't know how to stop herself on the way to destruction. After I edited Croatian edition of Ira Nadel's Various Positions (A Life of Leonard Cohen), the publisher asked me to edit the translation of Amy's biography as well. Her music and voice and songwriting will be missed.

For you I was a flame
Love is a losing game
Five-story fire as you came
Love is a losing game

One I wish I never played
Oh what a mess we made
And now the final frame
Love is a losing game

Played out by the band
Love is a losing hand
More than I could stand
Love is a losing hand

Self professed... profound
Till the tips were down
... know you're a gambling man
Love is a losing hand

Though I'm rather blind
Love is a fate resigned
Memories mar my mind
Love is a fate resigned

Over futile odds
And laughed at by the gods
And now the final frame
Love is a losing game

27 years old... the same age as Morrison, Hendrix and Joplin. What a terrible disease, what a loss.

And Kurt Cobain and Brian Jones. So-called Club 27.

Rest in peace...

27 angels. Very sad about all of them.

m

A sad ending.

She had tremendous artistry and too much pain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L9-Avjs ... re=related

Very sad. Rest in Peace.

tony bennett rated her so highly that he's recorded a song with her on his new album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ7J_KQDUUg

i'm not sure it's wholly correct to say pop/creative people are especially drawn to self-destruction.

e.g. if chartered accountants had very flexible working schedules and a super-large disposable income, then i expect we'd see drug/drink problems becoming prevalent amongst that demographic.

ultimately she made the choice to continue taking drugs and drink - with her money she could have paid for the very best residential and ongoing psychiatric care.

although even rehab apparently has a high failure rate.

i've been reading the autobiography of steven tyler - - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Tyler - who says he's been through 8 rehabs and has spent $20million on illicit drugs.

he's lucky to have survived : amy wasn't lucky in that respect.

steve's book - does the noise in my head bother you? - http://www.steventyler.com/video/27851f ... other-you/

apparently some fans have been leaving bottles of vodka at amy's `shrine` - that strikes me as pretty poor taste in the circumstances.

Tonight, the BIOGRAPHY channel is showing two documentaries back to back:

Janis Joplin and Amy Winehouse

---Arlene

Back to Black has to be the most compelling popular (as in widely played) new song of recent years.
live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WBj_XQ43NM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlRF43-x ... re=related

Another compelling popular song of hers.

...‘I broke down and sobbed when I heard the news,’ Bennett admits. ‘I’ll tell you, of all the young people I’ve met over the past 50 years, she sang the right way. It’s funny to say that, because there’s a lot of singers that sound wonderful, but she sang for the moment, and that’s honest. She was ready to take a chance, right on the spot, right on the microphone, she’d try a different phrasing, she knew how to improvise, it was spontaneous and intimate. That’s what I loved about her. She was really herself.

Since Elvis Presley and the Beatles really changed the game, and into big stadiums, music became like a big football game and it lost the intimacy that really makes it interesting to me. But Amy had that, she was a true talent, and she was on her way to becoming a very, very important jazz singer. What a tragedy. Just 27 years old. It’s so regretful. It’s heartbreaking’...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/musi ... at-85.html