Guest Number Two

Amy Winehouse

Not necessarily the person you would want at a dinner table.  The possibility that she would spend more time in the toilet pumping vast amounts of narcotics into her body than actually eating is very high.  Equally, if she did remain at the table she would inevitably drink everyone under it.  Given her life-long struggle with bulimia, she is probably not the most desirable of dinner guests.

Despite getting increasingly frustrated, angry and bored of her antics towards the end of her career, my love for her didn't wane, and, even increased after her sad and untimely death.  She had a soul that nobody of this era will ever be able to truly understand, she was, very possibly, born in the wrong time.

​I can relate to some of the hardships she went through as a child and young adult, but, unlike Amy, I had a very solid family.  My parents loved me and wanted me, and whilst I have suffered (and still do) my fair share of mental health problems, I at least, am still here.  Still surviving.

I hear new things in Amy's songs every time I hear them; nuances in the way she sings, hidden messages in her lyrics.  I feel that as I get a little older I understand her pain in different ways.

I would love to have Amy for dinner because I would like to talk to her about her life experiences and try to get her to open up about how it felt to be her.  This incredibly talented, unassuming young woman, who was used and abused by so many people in her life, her father included.  I would love to ask her what she planned to do next, would she have continued to make music if she hadn't left this mortal coil and joined the '27 club'?  Would she have married Reg Traviss?  Would she have ended up going back to Blake Fielder-Civil?  

​I want to believe that she would have got fully drug-free and found lasting love, but then again, I'm an old romantic.  I have to wonder if she had settled down, would any new music she produced be as emotive as the tracks we know and love?  There are so many questions I would like to ask her, but to be frank (see what I did there), I would just want to hear her sing.

So, what do you think?  Would you have Amy Winehouse over for dinner?

Stay Hep, Cats