Yet ANOTHER Top 100 (or so) Songs I Absolutely Must Have With Me on 1/48/50

#295) "Back to Black" by Amy Winehouse - I have a confession to make here: I am a posthumous Amy Winehouse fan. It wasn't until her tragic (though not entirely surprising) demise in 2011 that I realized how good she was. I had heard of her when she was alive, as much about her tumultuous life as her big talent. Praise for her work and concern for her well-being came from all sorts of places and voices, and repeatedly impelled me to check out her music. But when I did, for some reason, it was never what I was hoping for, or expecting. I always lost interest pretty quickly.

Then, in the months following her death, after the chatter had settled down a bit, I listened to "Back to Black" (for the umpteenth time, but first time post-mortem), and it just came to me, was kind of delivered actually: the recognition that what Elton John had said about Winehouse was completely true. Distilled down to a single word: "Seminal".

I don't know why it only happened after her death, but so powerfully did it hit me, it almost didn't seem like the same song I was listening to. I couldn't believe I had been so dismissive.

Bob Dylan reportedly referred to Winehouse as the "last individualist around", and while I know what he meant, I think through a certain lens, the London-born singer/songwriter's music and legacy are too universally appealing to be individual, and I don't mean that in a negative way. Quite the contrary. Beyond the gorgeous instrumentation, there is something seminal about "Back to Black", particularly as it speaks to or about women. There's a kind of potent sullenness to the emotions being expressed here that is an accurate portrayal, I think, of the female psyche in all manner of personal relationship. Yes, I know that's a generalization, but it's how the vast majority of the women I've known in my life (romantically or otherwise) cope with them: contained, composed, somewhat veiled, but simmering just the same, and all too internal. The lyrics are the thoughts floating through a woman's mind after you have excused yourself from the room, or the conversation. The things she can't or won't say out loud, because if she does, things will get really ugly.

Of course, sometimes she does.

I mean no disrespect to any woman, or women in general, just mad respect for the artistry of a song that incisively taps into something so truthful. It's the reason, at least in part, that Winehouse built such a sturdy legacy in her all-too-short career.

NOTE: This live version doesn't really capture the "gorgeous instrumentation" of the album version, but it does showcase her captivating stage presence, which I guess at the end of the day proves Bob Dylan right: who else could this be but Amy Winehouse?

"You go back to her and I go back to black..."

#296) "Somebody Save Me" by Cinderella - I've always considered Cinderella to be among the best of the "hair metal" bands that contributed heavily to the soundtrack of my teenage years. Although their hair was ratted up and they wore the same kind of spandex-y hodge podge of grungy-ish clothing, they nevertheless seemed the least glammy and androgynous of the litter (which included Poison, White Lion, Slaughter, Skid Row, etc.), and therefore the most legitimate (although by what rubric I arrived at that conclusion I don't remember, and perhaps never knew). I get that the whole androgynous thing was (and doubtless still is) a good way to attract women in the audience, but none of it ever resonated too clearly with a skinny, fish belly kid from northern Wisconsin. Back then, I never viewed the hair metal/glam rock scene as anything more than a glimpse into a world I was painfully aware I could not possibly gain access to, and more to the point, didn't really want to. So therefore, I could never relate. And at ages 15, 16, 17, 18, I really needed to be able to relate to music. I had to be able to plug it into my own life in some way, or invariably I came to not care all that much.

Cinderella struck me as relatively down to Earth, a kind of roots rock outlet for hair metal, if such a thing could ever exist. And "Somebody Save Me" could be considered confirmation of this: a working class anthem that has little or nothing to do with nights in the Hollywood Hills or on the Sunset Strip, more to do with the shit storm that can erupt (and does) in an average, everyday life in an average, everyday home. I felt that at 17, and definitely believe it to be true now after Googling the lyrics.

That Bon Jovi, another band that always seemed a little different, a little more legitimate, a little more real to me, show up at the end of the video would seem to suggest maybe I was onto something.

If nothing else, "Somebody Save Me" is among the best straightforward hard rock songs to come out of the late 1980s. Great great noise for a cross-country drive. ;-)


"I'm going down for the last time..."