Guide to my really long posts about singers you may not care about or have the time to listen to = Only listen to what you can. Obviously I choose this stuff because I think it's good, but we all have different taste and tolerance for this stuff. If I had to choose only two things for you to listen to (so about 5 minutes of time) I'd say to listen to the link I did to "Rehab" live, and "Back to Black" recorded. If I've already emailed you "Back to Black" recorded (which is like 3 of you) then listen to "Valerie" :). And you should also read the lyrics for "Tears Dry On Their Own" at the end of this post (I did them myself! lol).
AMY WINEHOUSE
I'm not sure how much I've written about how much I like her. Sometimes she's quite average (mostly because of the choices she'll make in a song), and I don't think lyrically she rises to the level of a Fiona Apple (then again, most people don't), but she is VERY good. Congrats on her recent Brit Award :) I also think she *could* be really pretty. Sometimes it's like she just checks out in the song, but when she really sings her power is a little bit wow.
Two songs of hers not to miss are "Rehab" and "Back to Black."
You can see the video for "Rehab" here and a really good live performance (LOVE seeing live performances of my singers!) here. She is AMAZING in the live performance from 2:30 to 3:03. I love the lyrics about "I'd rather be at home with Ray...there's nothing you can teach me that I can't learn from Mr. Hathaway." Some of you know how much I love Donny Hathaway, and her reference to Ray Charles is great, too. One of my favourite parts of the recorded version (the non-acoustic version) are are the brass and bells; you can see that there are sort of three different themes going on (from 0:00 - 0:30, 0:30-0:57, and 0:57-1:10) that then get repeated, and it's the second one that has the bells that I love (hard to hear in the recording, and not in the live version at all). Really great :)
You can see "Back to Black" live from her US premiere at Joe's Pub here in NYC here. It's REALLY a bad quality recording, though (on someone's mobile) and there' s no video for the single, yet. You can hear the proper recorded version here, but there's no video with it (and the person who made posting called it "Back to Back" lol). THIS IS ONE OF MY CURRENT FAVOURITE SONGS.
I'd say that my top two singles so far are definitely "Rehab" and "Back to Black," but she has a lot of other great songs. In this cover of "Valerie" she really shows off her vocals...it's probably the best of all the live recordings I can find online -- love 1:18-1:23.
FINALLY, the reason I was going to make this post in the first place, before I got totally carried away, is that I really like the lyrics for another song of hers, "Tears Dry On Their Own." There's no video and no good live performance but this one (wouldn't Dr. Juicy look really good in that dress!?); here are the lyrics:
Once it felt so right, when we were at our high,
Waiting for you in the hotel at night.
I knew I hadn't met my match,
But every moment we could snatch,
I don't know why I got so attached.
It's my responsibility.
You don't owe nothing to me,
But to walk away I have no capacity.
I don't understand:
Why do I stress the man,
When there's so many bigger things at hand?
We could have never had it all.
We had to hit a wall,
So this is inevitable withdrawal.
Even if I stop wanting you,
And perspective pushes through,
I'll be some next man's other woman soon.
I'll cannot play myself again,
Should just be my own best friend,
And not fuck myself in the head with stupid men.
I wish I could sing no regrets, and no emotional debts,
'Cause as we kiss goodbye the sun sets.
So we are history.
Your shadow covers me, the sky above ablaze,
Only lovers see.
VC