“We only said goodbye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
And I go back to
Black”
-Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse can never be forgotten. It is no doubt that
Amy Winehouse was born with talent. She has a type of music that flows with
soul; they type of music to make the heart melt and to cause thinking. Society
remembers Amy for the good things, her soulful 60s music, her beehive
hairstyle, and her journey to becoming a star. However, listeners also reflect
on her failures and setbacks: her alcoholism, failed relationship, and drug
use.
Her boyfriend at the time, Blake Frieder-Civil had left
Amy, for his ex-girlfriend. This is not the first celebrity falling out story dealing with love. Amy and Blake's relationship is just one of the many where the one spouse introduces the other to a harmful outlet. Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown and Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love are just 2 celebrity couples that exposed one another to dangerous outlets, and both couples had one spouse that took the addiction too far, and died from it. Amy and Blake's relationship is no different.
The song itself implies a heart wrenching depression and her alcoholism that consumed her, after her lover leaves her. That is where the black comes into play. It's the dark hole that she falls into after the breakup. It’s the only relief that she finds. It seems like the common fix for every person after a break up. And it was the alcohol that killed her 4 years ago. She had succumbed to the only relief that she felt from the failed relationship.
The song itself implies a heart wrenching depression and her alcoholism that consumed her, after her lover leaves her. That is where the black comes into play. It's the dark hole that she falls into after the breakup. It’s the only relief that she finds. It seems like the common fix for every person after a break up. And it was the alcohol that killed her 4 years ago. She had succumbed to the only relief that she felt from the failed relationship.
“Back to
Black is about being in a relationship, that when it’s finished you go back
to what you know. Except I wasn’t working so I couldn’t go through myself back
into work. And with the guy that I was seeing, went back to his ex-girlfriend,
I didn’t really have anything to go back to.” –Amy Winehouse CNN Interview 2007
However,
there’s a secret. Civil had introduced Winehouse to a powerful drug: Heroin,
which is most likely the “black” that she refers to in her popular song. The
word “black” was no mistake; it’s a common street word for heroin, a drug that
Winehouse was addicted to and open about. She even had cancelled tours in the
UK and Europe back in 2007 due to a cocktail containing heroin, cocaine,
alcohol, ketamine, and ecstasy that was reported as an overdose. And at the
root of her addiction to “black”, was her ex-husband, and the man that Back to Black is about. He had
introduced her to the potent drug that controlled her.
At the root of her addiction to heroin sat him.
He was the reason behind the song, and so was the heroin. The audience knows that the heroin had taken
over Amy and didn’t let go until sometime before her untimely death at the age
of 27. However, what’s more addicting: a drug that ruins you, or a former lover
who destroys you until you resort to a destructive outlet? For Amy, it was
both.
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