Modern Music

As the news of Amy Winehouse’s death spread on Saturday, few were surprised to hear the troubled singer with the distinctive beehive hairdo met her untimely end. For years, she had been a Professional Mess, like Andy Dick or DMX, and the only news she made was of the “look how low she’s sunk now!” variety.

The British soul singer was just 27 years old, but had been a non-factor in pop music for several years. The last time she made news for her music was in 2008, when she dominated the Grammy Awards, winning five of six awards for which she was nominated, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year (for “Rehab”) and Best New Artist. She dropped the Album of the Year category to Herbie Hancock’s Joni Mitchell tribute album.

After that, it was downhill for Winehouse, who never released a follow-up to her 2006 breakthrough album, “Back to Black.” That album, which was energized by producer Mark Ronson’s throwback, Motown-style soul, established Winehouse as a bluesy, brassy diva with a dark bad girl streak. “Rehab,” her most famous hit, found her playfully thumbing her nose at the help she needed to overcome her obvious demons, while “You Know I’m No Good” found her regretfully admitting that she was deeply disturbed. “I cheated myself, like I knew I would,” she sang in her signature scratchy style. “I told you, I was trouble. You know that I’m no good.”

I appreciated Winehouse’s talent and thought she and Ronson made an excellent pair, but I never considered myself a Winehouse fan. Her image and her attitude were bothersome to me, and I never warmed to her messy, drug-addled persona. But it was clear she had chops, along with a dynamic rock star magnetism. Somewhere inside, I always hoped she’d pull herself together and make a believer out of me.

Sadly, it wasn’t to be. Earlier this summer video of her latest train-wreck performance — her umpteenth attempt at making a live comeback — was splashed across the Internet. She was booed off stage in Serbia after stumbling through a performance, and links to the video were shared with a catty, “look how low she’s sunk now!” nonchalance. Again, few were surprised, and the performance led to a series of canceled dates. Ho-hum, just another day in Wacky Winehouse Land.

Would she have been able to make the comeback her fans — and even her detractors — believed she had in her?

Now we’ll never know. But even if her life and subsequent death are being romanticized, it’s clear Winehouse is another in a long line of musicians who were gone too soon.

It may not have been surprising, but it doesn’t make it any less of a shame.

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