I’m counting down my 100 favourite songs of all time. To keep this
from becoming a Bob Dylan / Tom Waits love-in, only one track per
artist is allowed.
Go to 76: (Your Love Keep Lifting Me) Higher and Higher by Jackie Wilson
Go to 78: Body's in Trouble by Mary Margaret O'Hara
Zoe doesn’t idolise artists. Zoe is more interested in people she knows. But Zoe cried when Amy died.
Amy was a jazz singer. Zoe isn’t necessarily a fan of jazz singers, but she liked Amy a lot. Amy made Frank and Zoe loved it.
I didn’t love Frank. Amy could sing, but to me her songs were nothing special. Though I did like the acerbic and observant Fuck Me Pumps.
Zoe loved Amy so I paid attention to Amy. One day I heard a new song Amy has recorded and played it for Zoe. It was a soul song called Rehab.
Amy had become moderately famous after Frank. It set off a chain of events that would lead to her untimely death but also resulted in a very personal and brilliant record.
I had “discovered” a new side to Amy so now Zoe and I shared Amy. It gave me the personal connection to Amy that I need to really love a musician.
Zoe and I listened to Amy’s second album Back to Black relentlessly. It’s an astonishing record: emotionally raw but slickly produced, angry and sad but funny and reckless.
Amy became a superstar. The classic soul sound infused by producer Mark Ronson and backing band, The Dap-Kings, was more accessible than her jazz style and provided a more direct accompaniment to her candid lyrics.
Zoe and I saw a drunk Amy walking down a street in Camden. While it was exciting to see Amy in real life, it was also depressing. Her state, our rubberneck gawping, the surrounding paparazzi snapping every stumble.
Amy’s fame and behaviour made her a target for the tabloids. They and we lapped up Amy’s public outbursts and private heartaches. They and we laughed at Amy’s alcohol-fueled antics, believing them to be exemplary rock’n’roll behaviour.
Zoe and I went to see Amy sing at Koko in London. The band was good, the songs were great but Amy was not. Distracted, slurry, always looking for her next drink, this was a singer at peak of her fame but not her powers.
Amy became a drug addict. Now that feisty “No no no” on Rehab took on a tragic irony. Amy needed rehabilitation but no one around her seemed incentivised to say yes. Clips of a shambolic live performance in Belgrade where Amy sang “I’m back on crack” were seen around the world.
INTERLUDE: Who Killed….. ?
The Zutons are a Liverpool-based band, whose fellow Merseysiders The Coral helped persuade local label Deltasonic to give them a deal. The head of the record company, Alan Willis needed some arm-twisting. He had seen Zutons’ frontman Dave McCabe in other bands and “thought they were all rubbish”.
This change-of-heart proved worthwhile. The Zutons developed a style of indie music that was intriguingly leftfield of many of their contemporaries with the spare saxophone of Abi Harding adding a unique flavour to their sound.
The band’s debut album Who Killed…… The Zutons? kicks off with the jazzy assault of Zuton Fever followed by the intense single Pressure Point. A little later there’s the gorgeous Confusion, a delicate acoustic number beautifully accentuated by Harding’s breathy sax. And in Havana Gang Brawl, The Zutons have one of the great song titles.
While the singles didn’t register in the mainstream, Who Killed…… The Zutons? sold more than half a million copies, so expectations were raised for the follow-up. Tired of Hanging Around lacks some of the excitement and edge of The Zutons’ debut, but it did produce two top 10 singles, Why Won’t You Give Me Your Love and Valerie.
According to McCabe, he wrote Valerie in 20 minutes in a cab on the way to his mum’s house. It’s based on an American friend who had been charged with drink driving. Those details give it an extra intrigue: “Did you have to go to jail? Put your house up for sale?” But the heart of the song is a desperate, lovelorn appeal disguised as the supportive hand of friendship: “why won’t you come on over Valerie?”
Valerie is an excellent song. The music is upbeat but retains a slightly raw core. It’s the kind of song an indie band produces that gains mainstream attention. Big as this success was for the band, for the rest of the world Valerie by The Zutons was little more than a flimsy pop moment. Nothing that would live too long in the memory.
Except that the song ended up on hard rotation in a certain bar in Camden.
END INTERLUDE
Amy was asked by Mark Ronson to contribute vocals to his record of soul covers of rock songs. Ronson said that Amy had a hard time choosing a song because she didn’t listen to music recorded after 1967.
Valerie was one of the few modern records to get in Amy’s head so Amy suggested it to Ronson. He was unconvinced as he didn’t think the song was very good. But Ronson trusted Amy.
Amy went into a studio with Ronson and recorded a dreamy, jazz-infused version of Valerie. You can hear it on Lioness: Hidden Treasures. It’s Ronson’s preferred version of the song. But Amy also did a more uptempo vocal that would appear on Ronson’s album, Version.
Valerie appears midway through Version and is easily the best song on the record. Ronson bases the beat on The Jam’s A Town Called Malice. Questlove provides percussion. The Dap-Kings tear up the brass.
Amy’s vocals on Valerie are very different to most of her other performances. Especially with hindsight. Listen to Back to Black today and every little thing she does is tragic. Amy’s songs are prophecies of her sad demise.
Valerie is outside of Amy’s world. Those are someone else’s words, someone else’s experience. Away from her own life, Amy sounds at peace for a few short minutes.
Amy shared everything. Her heart, her fame, her money, her soul. Amy shared herself with people who for the most part seemed happy to take but not give back. Her Blake, her family, her fans, her paparazzi.
Valerie was one for herself. It was her favourite song and Amy insisted on singing it despite Ronson’s doubts. Amy’s personal moment became her ultimate gift: the song where we are free to enjoy Amy’s majesty without contemplating our role in its end.
Zoe loves to dance. It is a freedom, a compulsion, a flagrant response, a subtle oblivion. Joy flows through Zoe’s hips and limbs when she’s moving to music.
Amy rarely did much more than a shimmy. On stage, Amy’s two backing dancers overcompensated with wild coordination. When Zoe danced to Amy’s records, she danced for the both of them.
Valerie is a song that more than any other is guaranteed to get Zoe on the dancefloor. Watching Zoe dance to Amy’s Valerie is life-affirming. It is also infectious.
I am not a dancer. But I have danced to Amy's Valerie with Zoe and caught a little of that sweet freedom, that beautiful oblivion. It’s an incomparable feeling.
Amy died on July 23rd, 2011. Zoe cried for a person she never met. Then we danced to Valerie.
Follow me on Twitter
If you like this, try:
Valerie (acoustic version) - Amy Winehouse
Fuck Me Pumps - Amy Winehouse
Rehab - Amy Winehouse
You Know That I'm No Good - Amy Winehouse
Back to Black - Amy Winehouse
Valerie - The Zutons
Confusion - The Zutons
Go to 76: (Your Love Keep Lifting Me) Higher and Higher by Jackie Wilson
Go to 78: Body's in Trouble by Mary Margaret O'Hara
Go to 76: (Your Love Keep Lifting Me) Higher and Higher by Jackie Wilson
Go to 78: Body's in Trouble by Mary Margaret O'Hara
Zoe doesn’t idolise artists. Zoe is more interested in people she knows. But Zoe cried when Amy died.
Amy was a jazz singer. Zoe isn’t necessarily a fan of jazz singers, but she liked Amy a lot. Amy made Frank and Zoe loved it.
I didn’t love Frank. Amy could sing, but to me her songs were nothing special. Though I did like the acerbic and observant Fuck Me Pumps.
Zoe loved Amy so I paid attention to Amy. One day I heard a new song Amy has recorded and played it for Zoe. It was a soul song called Rehab.
Amy had become moderately famous after Frank. It set off a chain of events that would lead to her untimely death but also resulted in a very personal and brilliant record.
I had “discovered” a new side to Amy so now Zoe and I shared Amy. It gave me the personal connection to Amy that I need to really love a musician.
Zoe and I listened to Amy’s second album Back to Black relentlessly. It’s an astonishing record: emotionally raw but slickly produced, angry and sad but funny and reckless.
Amy became a superstar. The classic soul sound infused by producer Mark Ronson and backing band, The Dap-Kings, was more accessible than her jazz style and provided a more direct accompaniment to her candid lyrics.
Zoe and I saw a drunk Amy walking down a street in Camden. While it was exciting to see Amy in real life, it was also depressing. Her state, our rubberneck gawping, the surrounding paparazzi snapping every stumble.
Amy’s fame and behaviour made her a target for the tabloids. They and we lapped up Amy’s public outbursts and private heartaches. They and we laughed at Amy’s alcohol-fueled antics, believing them to be exemplary rock’n’roll behaviour.
Zoe and I went to see Amy sing at Koko in London. The band was good, the songs were great but Amy was not. Distracted, slurry, always looking for her next drink, this was a singer at peak of her fame but not her powers.
Amy became a drug addict. Now that feisty “No no no” on Rehab took on a tragic irony. Amy needed rehabilitation but no one around her seemed incentivised to say yes. Clips of a shambolic live performance in Belgrade where Amy sang “I’m back on crack” were seen around the world.
INTERLUDE: Who Killed….. ?
The Zutons are a Liverpool-based band, whose fellow Merseysiders The Coral helped persuade local label Deltasonic to give them a deal. The head of the record company, Alan Willis needed some arm-twisting. He had seen Zutons’ frontman Dave McCabe in other bands and “thought they were all rubbish”.
This change-of-heart proved worthwhile. The Zutons developed a style of indie music that was intriguingly leftfield of many of their contemporaries with the spare saxophone of Abi Harding adding a unique flavour to their sound.
The band’s debut album Who Killed…… The Zutons? kicks off with the jazzy assault of Zuton Fever followed by the intense single Pressure Point. A little later there’s the gorgeous Confusion, a delicate acoustic number beautifully accentuated by Harding’s breathy sax. And in Havana Gang Brawl, The Zutons have one of the great song titles.
While the singles didn’t register in the mainstream, Who Killed…… The Zutons? sold more than half a million copies, so expectations were raised for the follow-up. Tired of Hanging Around lacks some of the excitement and edge of The Zutons’ debut, but it did produce two top 10 singles, Why Won’t You Give Me Your Love and Valerie.
According to McCabe, he wrote Valerie in 20 minutes in a cab on the way to his mum’s house. It’s based on an American friend who had been charged with drink driving. Those details give it an extra intrigue: “Did you have to go to jail? Put your house up for sale?” But the heart of the song is a desperate, lovelorn appeal disguised as the supportive hand of friendship: “why won’t you come on over Valerie?”
Valerie is an excellent song. The music is upbeat but retains a slightly raw core. It’s the kind of song an indie band produces that gains mainstream attention. Big as this success was for the band, for the rest of the world Valerie by The Zutons was little more than a flimsy pop moment. Nothing that would live too long in the memory.
Except that the song ended up on hard rotation in a certain bar in Camden.
END INTERLUDE
Amy was asked by Mark Ronson to contribute vocals to his record of soul covers of rock songs. Ronson said that Amy had a hard time choosing a song because she didn’t listen to music recorded after 1967.
Valerie was one of the few modern records to get in Amy’s head so Amy suggested it to Ronson. He was unconvinced as he didn’t think the song was very good. But Ronson trusted Amy.
Amy went into a studio with Ronson and recorded a dreamy, jazz-infused version of Valerie. You can hear it on Lioness: Hidden Treasures. It’s Ronson’s preferred version of the song. But Amy also did a more uptempo vocal that would appear on Ronson’s album, Version.
Valerie appears midway through Version and is easily the best song on the record. Ronson bases the beat on The Jam’s A Town Called Malice. Questlove provides percussion. The Dap-Kings tear up the brass.
Amy’s vocals on Valerie are very different to most of her other performances. Especially with hindsight. Listen to Back to Black today and every little thing she does is tragic. Amy’s songs are prophecies of her sad demise.
Valerie is outside of Amy’s world. Those are someone else’s words, someone else’s experience. Away from her own life, Amy sounds at peace for a few short minutes.
Amy shared everything. Her heart, her fame, her money, her soul. Amy shared herself with people who for the most part seemed happy to take but not give back. Her Blake, her family, her fans, her paparazzi.
Valerie was one for herself. It was her favourite song and Amy insisted on singing it despite Ronson’s doubts. Amy’s personal moment became her ultimate gift: the song where we are free to enjoy Amy’s majesty without contemplating our role in its end.
Zoe loves to dance. It is a freedom, a compulsion, a flagrant response, a subtle oblivion. Joy flows through Zoe’s hips and limbs when she’s moving to music.
Amy rarely did much more than a shimmy. On stage, Amy’s two backing dancers overcompensated with wild coordination. When Zoe danced to Amy’s records, she danced for the both of them.
Valerie is a song that more than any other is guaranteed to get Zoe on the dancefloor. Watching Zoe dance to Amy’s Valerie is life-affirming. It is also infectious.
I am not a dancer. But I have danced to Amy's Valerie with Zoe and caught a little of that sweet freedom, that beautiful oblivion. It’s an incomparable feeling.
Amy died on July 23rd, 2011. Zoe cried for a person she never met. Then we danced to Valerie.
Follow me on Twitter
If you like this, try:
Valerie (acoustic version) - Amy Winehouse
Fuck Me Pumps - Amy Winehouse
Rehab - Amy Winehouse
You Know That I'm No Good - Amy Winehouse
Back to Black - Amy Winehouse
Valerie - The Zutons
Confusion - The Zutons
Go to 76: (Your Love Keep Lifting Me) Higher and Higher by Jackie Wilson
Go to 78: Body's in Trouble by Mary Margaret O'Hara
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