Amy Winehouse

Anyone's death at a young age is very sad - Amy Winehouse seems to have been a very talented person who couldn't cope very well with her life or with the access she had to alcohol and drugs - and it's very likely that the same vulnerabilities that allowed her to write some amazing songs were the same vulnerabilities that led her down this road. That is actually very close to the original Greek definition of tragedy.

You can say she was a self-indulgent idiot and she probably was that as well - many addicts are - but it is always a loss when someone dies before their time, for whatever reason. And that's the same if they are Amy Winehouse, or a drug addict shooting up in a towerblock somewhere, or that poor child in Killarney.

You know the lines from Donne's Devotions?: 'No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.'

That's why it's sad. She happens to be better known than most but we shouldn't tear her to pieces on here because of that.
 
As I get older I have come to realise that talent such as AW's is a rare thing, and I regret that I won't be hearing her sing again. Full stop.
 
it's above the Somalia and on a par with Norway on the BBC site!

For me, it's an extension of the importance given to celebrity culture in the UK
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But its ok if its the lead story in le Monde.

that they are not part of the celebrity's life. It is delusional in the extreme, with what is going in the world (I would suggest the oxfam comment is the patronising one), to suggest this is in any way a tragedy.
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Cant let this go. if you like an artist a lot, of course you are affected. I was affected by lucien freuds death last week too (although he was 88) because he was someone whos work i loved. He wasnt just some "celebrity"

Either way, a debate on the semantics surrounding her death is not in great taste. So im off

Colin...Only really popped in to pay a tribute to the very talented Amy, although warblers old post nicely put up by Marble was very nicely written.

From the musical point of view, its hard to think of many artists who have bewitched such a varied audience. Not many cross the boundaries like she did. There was so much more to come i always felt too
 
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What I find to be " bordering on the insane " is someone on an internet forum seeking to judge the relative quality of a person's life and suggesting an early death is not a tragedy. It has nothing to do with celebrity culture .

I think spaceegg has it just about right.
 
Ardross said:
What I find to be " bordering on the insane " is someone on an internet forum seeking to judge the relative quality of a person's life and suggesting an early death is not a tragedy. It has nothing to do with celebrity culture .

I think spaceegg has it just about right.
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Who is judging the quality of her life?

If you are going to preface your comment with 'on an internet forum' then it is best to exit all discussion on here, and go speak to someone in person.
 
There is no side right or wrong on this thread. We're all entitled to our opinion. I've no problem with how people perceive her passing but I also have no problem clearly outlining my own stance on it.



.
 
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Clivex, stick around mate your input is appreciated from these quarters at least.

Diversity in opinion shouldn't be exclusive to one side of the political equation or spectrum. Sometimes when we are expressing ourselves in modern society some people come across a certain way, basically due to a external forces beyond everyone's control. When I was on The Racing Forum I felt a bit of a lone wolf at times, basically for being totally against the New Labour project, rather than any particular liking for right wing politics. That's modern day life.
 
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clivex said:
That post is patronising in the extreme. You are lecturing like a 3rd former who has just joined oxfam.

I also want to know why this would be reported any differently elsewhere?

oh here we go

http://www.lemonde.fr/

Top story in the leading paper in celebrity obsessed fucked up France
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Ps, this is the 7th listed story on Le Monde, not the top story. Again, another difference from this side of the water...
 
what are you saying?

That i posted the link without looking at it? That it was a figment of my imagination this morning?

Cheers Marble but when getting sucked into stuff like this.....
 
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I'm just stating a fact - it's not the top story; you said it was. Nothing else.

Seriously though, you're getting into EC territory now - I'm never posting again but... :)
 
Is that supposed to be funny Grey from Brussels?

Keep your inteeligent quips to yourself.
 
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Nothing better to do today?

It's yourself you're making look like an estranged person not me.
 
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... oh, come on back, Clivex, old bean. There's absolutely no-one else on here I can have a good old go-round with about the Saudis, Israel, Dubai, western Ethiopia, eastern Sudan, northern Iraq... I miss you...

All voices, all opinions, are valid (or should be) in this society. That's why however hard Euronymous tries to batter home 'Britain is a fucked-up society' - thanks, I'll take it over pretty much anywhere else other than living on £10m a year in Barbados.

Sure this young woman's death is a tragedy - it certainly will be to her family and close friends, and to those who appreciated her talents, it'll be a great loss, just like the other artistes (and artists) who've died. There won't be any more from her now - the tantalizing hope of rehabilitation and getting clean for the rest of her time is now shot, gone, dashed. I am always saddened to hear of the loss of any young person or child, talented or tone deaf, docile or dingbat, wilful or willing. It's the loss of the 'what might have been' that's mourned - the early death of the future. And that goes for HIV-infected African babies, starvelings in Somalia, or the suddenly and dreadfully cut short lives in Norway.
 
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I find it very sad that somebody so young has died. The fact that she brought it on herself makes it more tragic in a way.

It is particularly difficult to be flippant about the addictions she faced when I have hardly been able to face my children today as I have been smashing it at York, Thirsk and Donny for the past few days.

She was very talented, too.
 
As Russell Brand wrote in today's Guardian (which was an excellent piece, he can be quite eloquent when not twatting around), drug addicts should be treated like sick people who need help, not like criminals the way that the mainstream media and general public seem to.

It is an absolute tragedy, a young woman's life has been taken from her through addiction. Regardless of her exceptional talent, social status or wealth, nobody aged 27 should be dying alone in that way.

Any person's death that could have been prevented is a tragedy be it from a terrorist attack, cancer, on the battlefield, a car accident or drug abuse.
 
Gamla Stan said:
Any person's death that could have been prevented is a tragedy be it from a terrorist attack, cancer, on the battlefield, a car accident or drug abuse.
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I'd quite like to see Mad Old Margaret Thatcher get cancer, become hooked on morphine, accidentally get driven into a battlefield by Mark and then get blown up by a terrorist bomb actually. I don't think that would be tragic at all. And I'm not joking either.
 
simmo said:
I'd quite like to see Mad Old Margaret Thatcher get cancer, become hooked on morphine, accidentally get driven into a battlefield by Mark and then get blown up by a terrorist bomb actually. I don't think that would be tragic at all. And I'm not joking either.
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I wouldn't boast about having feelings like that. I loathe Gordon Brown in much the same way you obviously do Mrs T, but I wouldn't wish him, or anyone else, murderers excepted, physical harm.

Pretty sick, really.
 
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