RIP Amy Winehouse

Sad news, indeed. Watch lazy journos add her into the pile of dead rockstars who also died at age 27, and focus on her drug use instead of talking about her music.

Her breakthrough album Back to Black came about when her producer Mark Ronson hired the Dapkings and their studio. Her subsequent success off that record created an audience for Sharon Jones and the Dapkings... Dapkings member Neal Sugarman talks about that time, with the BBC.

"I was in the studio for Back To Black sessions and a couple of other things with Amy, and then on her first US tour. When I first met her, she came over to do some vocals and she hadn't broken out in the States.

"I arranged some of the rehearsals. She was a great musician and really open. She was really into collaborating with the band and never came off as being bull-headed in any way.

"All she wanted to do was get everyone's impression of where the music was going and for everyone to put their creative aspects into the music.

"Every time we were with her, it was never as if we were with this star. I think that might have been one of the things that haunted her -she really liked being with people one-to-one, especially with musicians.

"I think she used to like coming to New York in her early days because we would all go out to dinner together and she wasn't being recognised the same way as she was in the UK.

"It seemed as though the best times were when we were able to be casual and just get into music.
Sugarman says the last time he saw Winehouse, it was "not a pretty sight"

"The tour was right when Back To Black came out. One of the things she used to do was play really good mixes before we'd go on stage. We'd always be listening to The Supremes or some doo-wop or girl group stuff. It wasn't as if she had her own dressing room - we were all together getting ready for the shows.

"I feel really lucky to be part of what was obviously a great record that touched a lot of people. It was a true crossover record, which is rare in these times. What great art does is touch a lot of people and that's what her record did.

"When we were doing these gigs, there were black people, white people, gay people, straight people. She really was able to touch a nerve and it was uncompromised...."


Amy Winehouse, live in session with Dapkings' Binky Griptite on guitar...





ADDED July 26: From MTV News "... England's Daily Telegraph reported that Winehouse was visited at home by her doctor on Friday night, 24 hours before her body was discovered at 4 p.m. on Saturday. Police sources told the paper that no drugs were found in the house and that the security detail had last spoken to her around 10 a.m. on Saturday, when she said she was going to take a rest in her room.

The doctor had reportedly been visiting Winehouse regularly to help her combat the ill effects of her years of drinking and drugging. In 2008, Mitch Winehouse revealed that Amy was suffering from the early stages of the incurable pulmonary ailment emphysema, including scarring in her lungs."

From ABC: Winehouse Autopsy Inconclusive; Funeral Tuesday