STACK #187 May 2020

MUSIC FEATURE

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of work, and she fittingly had his first name tattooed – like a monogram over a pocket flap – directly over her heart. “When I started writing the first song about Blake, the other songs just wrote themselves; I really was on a roll, ‘cause I had these feelings – I had these words – floatin’ around in me,” Winehouse revealed. “When you write a song you have to remember how you felt; you’re gonna have to remember what the weather was like, you’re gonna have to

AMY WINEHOUSE

remember what his neck smelt like, you have to remember all of it.” (Um, pretty sure Blake’s neck would’ve smelt like old sweat, but moving right along...) Ronson achieved legend status when he recruited The Dap-Kings (Sharon Jones’ band) – who slathered their special brand of swag and texture all over Back

Back To Black

Bryget Chrisfield explores a favourite record which spelled the lift-off to cultural stardom for an important act.This month: AmyWinehouse’s BackTo Black (200 6 ).

Year 2006

H ave you ever fallen asleep while binge- watching a TV series only to wake up, startled, once the DVD finishes and a looped snippet of the show’s theme song blasts from the speakers? Recently, a mate loaned me Secret Diary Of A Call Girl (thoroughly recommended, BTW) and after nodding off in the wee hours I was roused by the sound of irresistibly ebullient brass, strutting like a RuPaul-calibre diva owning the

Back To Black . Of working with Remi – who co-wrote and produced the lion’s share of the tracks on Winehouse’s less accessible, more jazz-inflected debut album, Frank – Amy enthused, “He has that unique skill of not only having the most appropriate beat but also drawing the artistry out.” Remi rhapsodised: “She had the stylings of a 65-year-old jazz singer who knew the ropes up and down.” During an early Back To Black songwriting

To Black , and also became Winehouse’s backing band for her Stateside tour – but he insists it’s

actually Tom Elmhirst’s mixing that “defines” Winehouse’s landmark album (even though Ronson admits he initially hated these mixes). Elmhirst reckons that Winehouse’s raw vocals contained frequencies he needed to “manage” so he added some reverb and, voila! Nostalgia has never sounded so authentic. During an interview with Jeff Mao, Ronson reflects, “Amy’s voice always brought out the best in me as a producer and arranger. Her vocals and her material gave me license to create a sound that I never would have found without her. The spring day that she came to my little studio on Mercer Street in Manhattan changed my life forever, and I will probably never again be able to create something as singularly magical as the stuff we made on Back To Black .” On that spring day when Ronson asked

catwalk. I couldn’t quite place the song – kinda like Beyoncé’s Crazy In Love , but not – and, rather than resorting to Google, chose to embrace this name- that-tune challenge. Then, bingo! It’s You Know I’m No Good by the incomparable Amy Winehouse! (FYI: A remix of You

session at Remi’s house in Miami, Amy explained: “I write songs because I’m f-cked up in the head and I need to put it on paper and then write a song to it and just feel better about it – have something good out of something bad.” It’s no secret that Amy’s tempestuous relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil inspired this entire body

Know I’m No Good feat. Ghostface Killah appears on The Wu-Tang Clan member’s More Fish album - wrap your ears around that, stat!) After sulking for ages over the fact that Amy’s no longer with us, I revisited her multiple-award-winning Back To Black LP and, wowee! Although this record only runs for 35 minutes, Winehouse certainly demonstrates a level of artistry, songwriting chops and phrasing nous way beyond her years. And this was only her second record, ferchrissakes! Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson’s production oozes lustre throughout

Amy what kind of record she wanted to make, she played him songs by ‘60s girl groups such as The Shangri- Las and The Crystals, which Ronson describes as “jukebox pop music... selling heartbreak on this giant scale.” Feeling inspired, Ronson composed the piano idea for Back To Black before adding a simple drum beat and applying plenty of reverb to the tambourine. Amy loved what she heard and immediately scrawled down some accompanying words. When she showed these to Ronson, he questioned the fact that the chorus lyrics didn’t rhyme. Winehouse looked at him, dumbfounded: “I just sit

AmyWinehouse

Amy and Mark Ronson

94 MAY 2020

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