And I tread a troubled track
My odds are stacked
I'll go back to black
Another talented voice has been taken away much too soon and again people try to understand why someone so talented squandered away their gifts. Her raspy voice evoked emotion and soul that only artists like Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald could brag about. She fought many addictions: alcohol, heroin, anorexia and unhealthy relationships with men which she channeled into two great albums. Her tortured art is why those of us that were her fans loved her because she had something to say. She didn't hop on stage with a bejazzled ice cream cone bra and auto tune the same line over a generic pop beat like the American clowns that call themselves artists. Amy didn't pretend to be a "bad ass", she actually lived it. The song "Rehab", was the result of an actual conversation she had with her management when they wanted to send her to rehab. If you remember, she accepted her Grammy via satellite because the US wouldn't accept her Visa. Again, this wasn't a pretend persona, that was Amy. Self destructive, defiant, willful, yet intelligent funny and charismatic.
Creativity comes with it's own set of demons, and yet again another creative life is cut short. She was a "real soul singer". To see her vast potential go unfulfilled while talentless hacks continue to enjoy success, fame, and further delude themselves that they have 1/10th of this woman's talent is a true injustice. I can see the pontificating by Dr. Drew now, diagnosing how the stressors of fame, enablers, and low self esteem destroyed this great voice. We will never know the entire story, but we have her music, real music to get us through the hard, dark times.
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