British singer Amy Winehouse has been found dead in her London apartment. Full coverage may be found here. Like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones and others, she joins a long list of musicians who died at age 27.
Just because this is not a surprise doesn’t mean it’s not a tragedy. Much of the world knew of Winehouse’s drug and alcohol struggles because of copious publicity given them and songs like Rehab (below). Indeed the public display by Winehouse of her appetite for destruction had almost reached the visibility level of an ongoing publicity stunt. Then the angle changed. As of a few months ago the public was told she was cleaning up, readying a new album and preparing for a tour. But the tour came to an end in Belgrade with the confused singer forgetting lyrics and stumbling aimlessly on stage as the crowd booed vehemently. Whether stemming from booze or drugs, her former troubles appeared to have returned.
While most of Winehouse’s fans are grieving her premature passing, some are angry, with at least one Facebook fan blaming greed on the part of the singer’s management for her death. “Winehouse died from the same thing that killed Cobain, Joplin, and many others,” declares an outraged male fan. “[It was] management forcing her to tour when she should have been hospitalized. Dylan would probably not survived had he continued the 1966 world tour rather than retreat to Woodstock for some rehab.”
The latest to weigh in on Winehouse’s sad story is Perez Hilton, who is claiming that drugs had nothing to do with her passing.
The New Zealand Herald is reporting that she died after an ecstasy binge and a “dodgy pill.”
MTV is asserting that no drugs were found in Winehouse’s apartment.
Though musicians dying at 27 is a familiar story, said to have been first lived out by bluesman Robert Johnson, it is nonetheless always sad, always a waste. The first half of the 1970s would have been much more interesting if Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison (three charter members of the 27 Club) were in the picture and making music, and the last half of the 1990s in Seattle would have been much more awesome with Cobain and Nirvana around.
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http://youtu.be/IlRF43-xaYc
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