Amy Winehouse / Back to Black

BACK TO BLACK
by Amy Winehouse

BIOGRAPHY

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 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
I’ll go back to black

We only said good-bye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
and I go back to.....

I go back to us

I love you much
It’s not enough
you love blow and I love puff
and life is like a pipe
and I’m a tiny penny rolling up the walls inside

We only said goodbye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
and I go back to

Black, black, black, black, black, black, black,
I go back to
I go back to

We only said good-bye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
and I go back to

We only said good-bye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
and I go back to black

Amy Winehouse, Back to Black

The gifted singer's penchant for four-letter words only adds to her essential Britishness, claims Stuart Nicholson

Watching Amy Winehouse live is a confusing experience. There's this skinny, slightly gawky teenager (well, she still looks like a teenager) on stage and yet, via an amazing feat of lip-synching, the voice of a 40-year-old black woman from Brooklyn is coming over the PA.

It is nothing short of mesmerising, as you might expect of an artist whose quirky, eccentric and fearless lyrics explore avenues alien to most songwriters. Witness 2003's debut album Frank, which, thanks to risque tracks like 'Fuck Me Pumps', 'Stronger Than Me' and 'In My Bed', was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize and earned Winehouse nominations for two Brit awards.

What was particularly intriguing about the 22-year-old was how she managed to sound like a Fifties jazz club singer while singing outre lyrics about life in contemporary London. This compelling duality is continued with a deft change of backdrop on Back to Black, wherein she assumes the role of an Aretha Franklin-style soul singer complete with doo-wop backing groups while again singing of her contemporary urban experiences. It should keep popular culture students busy for the next 20 years in the way that Mick Jagger in the mid-Sixties prompted countless theses on the subliminal black person within. None the less it works - even though this area of pop culture has been mined remorselessly for the past 50 years - by dint of its clever melody lines and smart lyrics.

As if to emphasise just how wise she is, Winehouse has kept each track to around the length of a 45 (remember those?), enabling her to make her point and move on without running the risk of outstaying her welcome. So whether it's the rousing, churchy 'Rehab', in which Winehouse describes how her father tries to wean her off alcohol ('Try to make me go to rehab/ I say no, no, no'), or the serious soul of 'Love is a Losing Game', Back to Black isn't shy of betraying its debt to pop.

What the American market will make of it, though, is anybody's guess. Indeed during 'Me and Mr Jones (Fuckery)' I had this crazy fantasy in which I pictured the effect of this song being pushed on the American FM pop stations. Given the uproar in middle America a couple of years ago when Justin Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson's left nipple at the SuperBowl, trying to imagine what our Stateside friends would make of Amy Winehouse and the word 'fuckery' was worth the price of the record alone. The medium may be American but the message is very British, which is why if Amy Winehouse continues in this fashion she could end up being a national treasure.

Recommended: 'Rehab'; 'Me and Mrs Jones (Fuckery)'; 'Love is a Losing Game'; 'Tears Dry on Their Own'

THE GUARDIAN