Amy Winehouse In Her Own Words

This programme contains some strong language.

Soul is guts, it's heart, I guess. That sounds so cheesy but it's true.

You know, it's something that...

something that controls you, definitely.

Something you can't ignore.

I'd say, to sing soul, I think you have to have grit,

you have to be able to see through people's shit sometimes,

you have to be able to see through the world.

You have to be able to be withdrawn sometimes.

And you have to be able to be your own best friend as well.

It's important. As well as your own worst enemy.

Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Amy Winehouse!

Hello. All right?

# You're just a little boy

# Underneath that hat

# You need your nerve to hide your ego

# Don't come with that

# You think everything

# Is given to you free

# But it's not that easy

# No

# I gotta know you now

# We may never meet again

# I gotta know you now

# And then

# My girl says I'm too sensitive

# To ride with you

# But I'm not listening to her

# Yes, I'm perceptive

# So when I'm done with you

# You'll whisk your head back

# The way you were

# As you were

# I gotta know you now

# We may never meet again

# I gotta know you now

# And then... #

I wouldn't say I draw from another tradition

but the music that speaks to me the most...

has always been jazz. Always.

It's always been, erm, jazz and that emotional connection to it,

you know, that so many of the great singers had.

You know, erm...that is my thing.

I don't think I'm... With my song-writing,

I think it is everything I've ever heard just coming out.

You know, I'm not restricted to jazz.

I love jazz. That was the first form of music I really learned from

and grew with and always will continue to grow with,

but I love a lot of hip-hop and R&B, so, you know, everything I write...

everything I listen to has come out in my writing

and I'm not conscious of trying to be jazz influenced, I just am.

So, erm, I don't know about all these new kids doing covers

and trying to write jazz.

You can't write a Gershwin song, you can't write a Cole Porter song.

Why bother trying to write like that?

Mentioning no names.

# Now, why you always put me in control?

# When all I need is for my man to live up to his role

# Always wanna talk it through

# Yeah, I'm OK

# I always have to comfort you every day

# Yeah, but that's what I need you to do

# Are you gay?

# When I've forgotten all of young love's joy

# And I feel like a lady

# And you my lady boy

# He said the respect I made you earn

# I thought you had so many lessons to learn

# I said you don't know what love is

# Get a grip

# It sounds as if you're reading from

# Some other tired script

# No, I'm not gonna meet your mother any time

# I just wanna grip your body over mine

# So, please tell me why you think that's a crime

# Oh

# I've forgotten all of young love's joy

# You know, I feel like a lady

# And you my lady boy

# You should be stronger than me

# Yeah, you should be stronger than me

# Oh, you should be

# Stronger than me

# You should be stronger than me. #

When I sit down to write a song, I don't think...

"..This will be good."

I don't think, "This sounds a bit like that,

"I should work that in and make that sound like that,

"and I don't think I should have that particular line in it."

I just sit down and let it come out, you know what I mean?

And that's what you have to do. You have to let a song grow.

You can't push a song out and you can't force it to be anything

when it's out, you've just got to let it grow,

which is why even though I did songs like You Sent Me Flying

or...

..erm, Take The Box, three, four years ago,

even though I did them then, they're different now,

they're still growing in the set.

# Your neighbours were screaming

# I don't have a key for downstairs

# So I punched all the buzzers

# Hoping you would be there

# So now my head's hurting

# And you say I always get my own way

# You were in the shower when I got there

# And I don't wanted to stay

# But I got nothing to say

# You were so beautiful

# Before today

# But then I heard what you had to say

# And, man, that was ugly

# The Moschino bra you bought me last Christmas

# Put it in the box

# Frank's in there, I don't care

# Put it in the box

# Just take it

# Take the box

# Take the box. #

I mean, it's important for me to represent myself...

..but I don't know about other girls.

I'm not a girls' girl.

Girls need to bring themselves forward, though, you know?

You know, I was never part of a scene where I was the leader

of a bunch of Jewish girls that sung jazz, you know what I mean?

I don't know anyone like myself, you know what I mean, so...

Erm...

So, yeah.

But I know that if I'm honest about myself and I'm honest about my time

and...

what I do with my life, you know, I know...

I know there's girls that will hear that in my album

-and be, like, "Yeah,

-I

-felt that and I'm NOT a dickhead.

"I felt that and it's cool. Other people feel this."

That's what I'm here for.

Because I've been through times when I've been so fucked-up

about a situation that I've have to just be, like...

write everything down, you know?

Even feelings that I don't want to acknowledge.

ESPECIALLY feelings I don't want to acknowledge

and things that I wish were not true and they are.

And, you know, it's just...

good because someone else might hear that and be, like...

"I'm not an idiot for feeling them things, or I'm not weak

"for feeling them things, or I'm not a mug for feeling them things

"about this man," you know what I mean?

# Every thing is slowing down

# A river of no return

# You recognise my every sound

# There's nothing new to learn

# You'll never get my mind right

# Like two ships passing in the night in the night

# In the night

# In the night

# Want the same thing where we lay

# Otherwise mine's a different way

# It's a different way

# From where you're going

# Oh, it's you again

# Listen, this isn't a reunion

# So sorry if I turn my head

# Yours is a familiar face

# But that don't make your place safe

# In my bed

# My bed, my be-e-e-ed

# Be-e-e-ed

# Be-e-e-ed. #

Amy Winehouse.

-Welcome to our show, Amy.

-Thanks for having me.

Well, I suppose the public displays of affection,

-do you approve or disapprove?

-I approve wholeheartedly.

Now, your writing on this record is fantastic,

it's really great. Some great songs that you've written on here.

The first one you played, Rehab, when did you write that one?

I wrote that in February or March in New York with Mark Ronson.

And, erm, we were just walking down the street and I sang the hook

and he burst out laughing and said, "Who's that?"

"I just made it up." He was, like, "That would be really cool."

I said, "Let's go to the studio now and knock it out now."

-You went straight there and did it just like that?

-Yeah, literally.

# They tried to make me go to rehab I said, no, no, no

# Yes, I been black

# But when I come back You'll know, know, know

# I ain't got the time

# And if my daddy thinks I'm fine

# He's tried to make me go to rehab I won't go, go, go

# I'd rather be at home with Ray

# I ain't got seventy days

# Cause there's nothing There's nothing you can teach me

# I can't learn

# From Mr Hathaway

# I didn't get a lot in class

# But I know we don't come

# In a shot glass

# They tried to make me go to rehab I said, no, no, no

# Yes, I been black

# But when I come back You'll know, know, know

# I ain't got the time

# And if my daddy thinks I'm fine

# He's tried to make me go to rehab I won't go, go, go... #

I think I'm an anachronism. I think I should have been born...

you know...30, 35 years ago.

I should be in the same generation as or the same age group as,

you know, Omar and...and Misha.

And I think...if there's anything in my voice that they've warmed to,

it's probably cause I grew up listening to the same records

they would have done.

Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan and Minnie Riperton.

And, like I said, a lot of new music just goes over my head.

I'm like a little old man.

I'm, like, "Is this cool? Do kids like it?

"All right. I'm not going to play it, but cool."

All right, you know. So...

# So we can hear that call

# To follow your heart

# Go follow your heart

# I know

# I've been through it all

# Yeah, I'm an old hand

# So I understand

# I under, I under, I understand

# If you have to go-o-o-oh

# So make your mark

# For your friends to see

# Baby, but when you need

# When you need

# When you need company

# Don't go to strangers

# My darling

# Come to me

# Come to me

# Yeah. #

I think all the stuff I was listening to, a lot of doo-wop,

a lot of '60s soul, Motown, girl groups, they'd make a song

cinematic almost, because there wasn't a lot going on then.

And I really like that drama.

I really like that.

And I loved the sentiment. I mean, erm...

songs like My Boyfriend's Back, you know?

That's a great song.

There's also really, like, really...

I just like the sentiment of that time

where it's, like, erm...

where it's, like...

When you're in love.

So much music nowadays is so, like,

"You don't know me. I don't need you."

All the music then was, like,

"I don't care if you don't love me, I will lie down in the road,

"pull my heart out and show it to you," do you know what I mean?

I love all that. I love that kind of drama.

# It's OK in the day

# I'm staying busy

# Tied up enough so I don't have to wonder

# Where is he?

# I got so sick of crying

# So just lately

# When I catch myself

# I do a one-eighty

# I stay up, clean the house

# At least I'm not drinking

# Run around just so I don't have to think about

# Thinking

# That silent sense of content

# That everyone gets

# Just disappears

# As soon as the sun sets

# He's fierce in my dreams Sees in my guts

# He fills me with dread

# Yeah, so consumed

# He swims in my eyes by the bed

# Pour myself over him

# Room spinning

# And I wake up alone... #

I was in a relationship, you know, I fell bang in love with someone

and it didn't really, it didn't really...

You know, it didn't do me any favours.

I mean, it did in the long run, I suppose.

But it was just funny because, you know...

I really want to be careful about...

You've got to choose your words very carefully, haven't you?

And I'm the least guarded person I know, you know. Erm...

I think when I wrote Back To Black I was left in a situation

where I wasn't working, and when I split up with this fella

I had to go...

I didn't have anything to go back to.

When you pick up the pieces after a relationship, you go back to what

you know, you try and throw yourself into something. I had nothing.

I wasn't working so I was playing pool every day for four hours,

just getting drunk...

you know, having to be...

..carried home in a wheelbarrow, other silliness.

Not literally.

But, erm...

You know, it was about back to a black mood, I guess.

# He left no time

# To regret

# Kept his dick wet

# With his same old safe bet

# Me

# And my head high

# And my tears dry

# I get, I get on without my guy

# You went

# Back to what you knew

# So far removed

# From all that we went through

# And I tread

# A troubled track

# My odds are stacked

# Yeah, Blakey, I'll go back to black

# Ye-e-e-ah

# We only said goodbye with words

# I died a hundred times

# You go back to her

# And I go back to

# I go back to us

# Yeah, baby, it's out of your mind

# Yeah, Blakey, I love you

# But you love blow and I love puff

# And life

# Life, life is like a pipe

# And I'm a tiny penny

# Rolling up the walls inside

# Oh-o-o-oh

# We only said goodbye with words

# I died a hundred times

# You go back to her

# And I go back to

# We only said goodbye with words

# I died a hundred times

# You go back to her

# And I go back to... #

I think, at times, you do have to suffer for your art.

I'm quite eager to be, like, "No, of course not,

"you can sing soul about other things,"

but I think you do have to suffer for your art. I know I have.

I know the reason it took me three years to write another...

Not to write it but to get that big chunk of my life,

I could then go back and write about.

The reason it took me that long is because I have to have some

peaks and troughs, definitely.

My boyfriend says to me, "You're addicted to heartache."

I'm, like, "That's nice.

"What's coming around the corner?

"What are you about to do to me?"

# Like you I was a flame

# Love is a losing game

# Five storey fire

# You came

# Love is a losing game

# One I wished I never played

# Oh, what a mess we made

# And now the final frame

# Love is a losing game

# Played out by the band

# Love is a losing hand

# It was more than I could stand

# Love is a losing hand

# Self-professed

# Profound

# Till the chips were down

# Know you're a gambling man

# Love is a losing hand

# Though I battle blind

# Love is a fate resigned

# The memories, they mar my mind

# Love

# Over a few tiles

# And laughter by the docks

# And now the final frame

# Love is a losing game. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE