Amy Winehouse documentary gets UK release date

I thought some of you would be interested in this:

Amy Winehouse documentary gets UK release date

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/19/entertainment/feat-amy-winehouse-documentary/index.html

 

Trailer:

 

Such a sad story. I will be looking out for this doc when it becomes available in these parts.

 

"I don't think I'm gonna be at all famous. I don't think I could handle it. I would probably go mad...you know what I mean? I would go mad."

 

Here's the full trailer:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/71585

 

The doc was featured as part of the NXNE Festival in Toronto last month.
Mr. Winehouse isn't too thrilled about it and has vowed to make his own film about the life of his daughter.

 

This documentary has been hugely successful. Even if the Winehouse family doesn't like it, everyone else does. But I wonder why there has been no accompanying soundtrack album? This seems to me like a no brainer. Successful movie = successful album. Surely they could have cobbled together a collection of Amy's hits, perhaps with a couple of unreleased demos to sweeten the package - oh, hang on, those were shredded weren't they. Doh! Talk about lost opportunities.

 

I realized one day that Amy might be my favorite artist based on so few songs. Don't like frank, or the ska songs or other b sides post back to black she tended to over sing (live or something like Its My Party), but those 6 or 7 amazing songs in Back to Black plus Valerie are songs I never tire of and still play all the time.

 

Back To Black is probably my favorite record since the '80s. I never get tired of it. Ever. Her cover of "Valerie" on Ronson's Version is also legend.

It might end up my all-time-favorite record. Call back in 30 years and see...

I wanna see the documentary, but I also dread it. Here's a clip from it, of the actual recording session for "Back To Black":

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat...ack_with_mark_ronson_a_clip_from_the_amy.html

 

I'm looking forward to seeing the movie this coming weekend, though I know it will be difficult viewing in places. I still feel pretty fortunate that I got to see her during her short US club tour in spring 2007, just as Back to Black was starting to get attention here. Her plans to return later that autumn to play bigger venues got cancelled and sadly it all spiraled downwards after that.

 

I wanted to see her so badly, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

I got turned onto her online, when someone in a forum mentioned there was this UK girl who sounded like a cross between Ronnie Spector and Dusty Springfield and they didn't know what to think of her. Was she the real deal? And I thought, "Ronnie Spector and Dusty Springfield? I've gotta check this out."

So I Googled "Amy Winehouse" and came across some live tracks she'd recorded for AOL. Might have been this one I played first:



And then I spun this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu7uPHtTJ4o

And then I saw the video for "Rehab".

And then, once I picked my jaw up off the floor, I decided I couldn't wait any longer and grabbed Back To Black off iTunes.

After a decade-long flood of artless autotuned twits coming from the music business, I could scarcely believe somebody had written and recorded a classic Motown-quality pop album, but that's exactly what Amy, the Dap-Kings and her producers managed to achieve.

She really opened the floodgates for Adele, Gaga and a bunch of other post-Britney acts that aren't afraid to be more than a Barbie doll that lip syncs.

 

I listened to a great interview on NPR yesterday.

http://www.npr.org/2015/07/05/420237516/amy-is-a-portrait-of-an-artist-whose-life-goes-very-wrong

 

Just saw this today and really enjoyed it. The best singer of her generation, IMO.

Playing at 4 theaters here in south Florida--3 AMC's and 1 indie.

 

Saw it last night at it was great. My wife and I were moved to tears several times.

We weren't familiar with Amy Winehouse other than the hits, but we love documentaries.

It was amazing how many people in her life failed her - the scumbag husband, her avaricious and absent father, the concert promoter who she elevated to manager (BIG mistake). The only people who comes across well are her original manager (who was admittedly out of his depth), producer Salaam Remi, her old roommates who couldn't do anything to save her,and Tony Bennett who, as always, was the epitome of class.

In some ways, the film was like seeing a terrible multi-car road accident in slow motion. She had so much talent, and could have done so much. I'll have to explore her music, but will do it with a heavy heart.

By the way, for those us you who have seen it, during the first scene at Salaam Remi's island house, there is an amazing song playing that I've never heard before and I'd like to find it.

Mods! Perhaps this thread should get a better title now that it is playing in the US?

 

It's interesting, a bunch of people caught this over the weekend. Annie Lennox posted a pic of her morning espresso and a note on Facebook this morning, "In a sombre mood after seeing "Amy" last night..."

Back To Black is probably my favorite album of the past 20 years. Amy wrote like a foul-mouthed Carole King and sang like an impossible cross between Ronnie Spector, Sarah Vaughan and Dusty Springfield. Few singers have her ability to just haul off and let it rip so naturally and so honestly. And her lyrics saw right thru people and situations as if they were made of glass, holographically. Joni Mitchell meets Smokey Robinson.

She came at a time when the charts had been ruled for years by Autotuned twits, synthetic fembots and oversoulers with no souls and no brains. And then there she was - a representative of the new generation who was all soul and all brains.

But being a smart, insightful addict is a double-edged sword. You know you've got to stop, but you also know exactly how to get that next fix you crave. Her talent was pop's salvation, but it was also her demise. The tabloids smacked their lips and we rubbernecked the inevitable implosion. As a society, we really aren't worthy of such gifts.

Still, she left us her music, which is really a mixed blessing because it leaves us wanting more of something we can never have. And she undoubtedly helped end the reign of pop mannequins - there are still plenty out there, but she kicked the door off its hinges and your Gagas, Adeles and St. Vincents have all walked through behind her.

I wanted to close with some clever or poignant phrase, wrap these thoughts up in a nice bow. But ultimately that's what's so unsettling about Amy's life and her death - you can't wrap it up. It just hangs out there, like one of Joni's unsettling chords of inquiry, beautiful, disquieting, and unresolved.

 

It was already spiraling downwards. I too saw her during the 2007 club run at 330 Ritch in San Francisco, right around her Coachella appearance. She sounded great, but she was fairly wasted on stage.

 

She was gonna play Bimbo's in San Francisco in I think '08 or '09, but backed out. That would have been the perfect venue to see her in...

 

The record company tried to get her clean on occasion, but that idiot Blaine was there at every step to thwart her. It was like she was doomed to join the 27 Club from the moment she entered music.

 

I was at sxsw 2007. Definitely wanted to see her, but I went 'cash at door' instead of badge or wristband, so there was no hope of getting in to her showcase.

 

I just saw it. An incredible film. The access to footage is astounding. The scene with Tony Bennett in the studio is touching and heartbreaking. Two amazing talents on different trajectories but bonding over music.

 

Yeah, he came across as a real mensch. If only there had been a few more like him in her life.

 

Watched it at the weekend- a very good documentary indeed, although watching Amy's trajectory from fun loving teenager to drug casualty was heartbreaking. Has got me spinning her albums again and am amazed afresh at her talent.

 

One of the most interesting bits of the film was near the end, a phone message Amy left for one of her producers (I think) saying that the lyrics she was writing at that moment sounded like rap battles. Had she lived, she could have done some really amazing things tying pop, jazz, rap and hip-hop together.