5 Things We Learned From Amy Winehouse's Rolling Stone Bio Excerpt
Rolling Stone just published an excerpt of Amy, My Daughter, a new bio by Mitch Winehouse about the life and death of soul singer Amy Winehouse to be released on June 28. The whole thing is worth a read for insight on Amy's creative process and personality, but some highlights include:
1. The hook for "Rehab" was born with an offhand comment to Mark Ronson
While walking back to Ronson's New York studio, Winehouse told him "You know they tried to make me go to rehab, and I told them, no, no, no." "That's quite gimmicky," Mark replied. "It sounds hooky. You should go back to the studio and we should turn that into a song."
2. She based her look on "Hispanic women she'd seen in Miami"
Winehouse wanted to "blend their look–thick eyebrows, heavy eye-liner, bright red lipstick–with her passion for the Sixties 'beehive.'"
3. She thought Ronson would be a "older Jewish guy with a big beard."
"That meeting was a bit like an awkward first date," Mitch writes about the beardless Ronson's introduction to Amy
4. She played her demos in a taxi
"When she wanted to listen to what she'd sung, she'd get them to put it on a CD, then play it in my taxi outside, because she wanted to know how most people would hear her music, which would not be through professional studio systems."
5. "Rehab" started as a "slow blues shuffle"
It was Ronson who suggested the "Sixties girl-group sound," inserting Beatles-style chords to "give it a jangly feel."
Amy, My Daughter is out June 28 via It Books.
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