Talking About...Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse was an outstanding talent. From her breakthrough album Frank to her world conquering second album Back to Black, she made music her way, crafting modern visceral lyrics with the classic sounds of Jazz, Soul and RnB.

On this episode we take a look at her life and her music, Gareth reminisces about working in HMV, we get sidetracked with our parents record collection and Sunday night tv, there's also our awesome A.I. V Artist lyrics game and we've got our regular 15 track playlist of our favourite cuts from her two studio albums.

Hope you enjoy!

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We're back. Yo yo yo. Last um Last of the Summer Wine. Last of the Summer Wine. Fucking hell, I feel like last. Who are we? I couldn't remember their names. Compounding Barry knows everything about old TV. Um Compo, Clegg, and what was the other one? Amy. Amy. Last of the Summer, Amy Winehouse. Did anyone actually watch Last of the Summer Wine? Or did anyone find it funny? I didn't watch The Last of the Summer Wine. I did find I did used to watch Hello Hello though. Hello Hello. Nah so I didn't watch that either. But Last of the Summer Wine movie. Last of Summer Wine always reminds me of Sundays. Yeah. It was always on tell, but I don't remember anyone like watching it or laughing at it. It was like the most it was just not funny at all. I think we're like two generations removed, don't we? Probably from that. But it was always on telly. Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. But I don't even remember my parents laughing at it or anything like that. And you think, why was it on telly? I just remember being on when I was around my nans. It was always a Sunday, wasn't it, as well? Yeah, but Sundays, like, let's be honest, you had Antiques Rose Show. Um Points of View. Points of View. Points of View. There was another real horror on a Sunday, wasn't there? Songs of Praise. Yeah, that always depressed me. Like, I always remember condensation on the windows. No, but right like in the church. Oh, at home. But that sort of like it's dark, it was we talk about last or something. No, talking about Sunday night TV. Yeah, yeah. You know, and you but you always had that dread of school the next day as well in your stomach. And then you heard do do do do and then you knew the evening was drawing near. That was the end, like you it was that yeah, that's horrible, wasn't it? And then all we dreaded was school, the easiest thing in the world. Didn't we? You think back now, you think we dreaded school. Someone said to me, go back to school now, I go, Yeah, all right, fucking fine. Sunday, bloody Sunday. And kids on the grass, you're like, oh Sunday, bloody Sunday. Maybe I will watch Last of the Summer Wine. Maybe I'll maybe I'll appreciate you know maybe we should do like a pastiche of Last of the Summer Summer Wine and get like a disused bathtub put on wheels and then we all go down it. Maybe Last of the Summer Wine was like a precursor for um Jackass. Yeah. Going down a steep hill in a bath. Yeah, there's an 80s version of it. Amy Winehouse. Yeah, Amy Winehouse. I guess we've done a lot of bands, haven't we? We haven't done many sort of artists. Artists. Um solo artists. But also we haven't done many sort of I guess away from a very standard theme of indie rock indie pine. Yeah, and there was a lot going on around the time that she came out, which I'm sure we'll discuss at some stage, but I just want and I I I felt that she was like in-between person to cross that sort of indie sleaze divide, pop divide. Her lyrics are very contemporary, pretty sleazy, pretty dirty, real gritty kind of stuff, but with this old school jazz, blues, funk, soul, aesthetic behind it. And that I've I find that quite interesting. Trying to bring the old school to the masses. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure there were jazz albums that came out at the time, jazz singers, but I suppose as you say, it's kind of brand new heavies. One of the kind of brand new heavies, yeah. They kind of crossed those boundaries, I guess. Yeah, between kind of like the indie and the and that kind of style. But I know I never really got into it when it came out. No, me neither. No, I'll be honest. I was always aware of her, and not just because the paparazzi went mental and she was in every single newspaper. Musically, I was aware of her. I mean, you you couldn't. Even with her debut, Frank. Yeah, vaguely. Yeah, so I don't know. It was obviously more back to black when she kind of hit her. Obviously, yeah, yeah. But that was when I kind of I don't think I knew her before then. Back to black definitely launched her into you know, millions of homes. Um, but it's not like that launched her. I think Frank did a very good job in setting the groundwork for her for her abilities. I remember the hype around Frank. I mean I was uh working working in HMV at the time still. She was on kind of like you know, we we used to have those uh like recommends. Yeah, yeah. And I remember like Frank being quite highly um recommended amongst people. So yeah, I remember hearing it when it came out, but I guess they would have played it in HMV, right? Yeah, yeah. Like while you were working. Yeah, yeah. Well, some of it, yeah. Who got to choose what was played in the HMV store? Um, so the staff. We got there first, yeah. Basically, it used to be like a we had a um like a five disc rotating changer. No, so we kind of loved him, yeah. We were kind of doing the staff. It depends random. Depends when it was. Occasionally you could just like choose amongst yourselves, obviously, you have to be careful with the language. Um got quite good at um, I think it was a block party song. Um, I can't which one it is. Might be helicopter. Got quite good at getting over there and just dipping it when the swear word comes in. Uh self-censoring. It's a bit like the uh Adam Buxton scene where he's taking his kids to school. Well, it's uh the fuck the police song, isn't it? By uh NWA. But yeah, we all got very good at doing that. But yeah, I mean I remember when it came out, I remember it, and you know, there's a lot of people that worked there that were into it and enjoyed it, and obviously it was on all these kind of like you know, recommend fans as like a jazz kind of album recommend. And yeah, so you know, I remember it coming out and I remember listening to it, and I you know, I didn't dislike it, but it wasn't um really in my wheelhouse of stuff I was listening to around that time. You know, I was very much like kind of more the indie kind of you know, libertines, that sort of side of it. Which I guess, you know, as you say, there was that crossover because she was in in that scene, but not part of that scene, I guess, is kind of yeah. The tabloids kind of made her part of that scene, didn't they? Yeah, I think so. Well, yeah, I guess so. She had a kind of she was a claim she was hanging out with. No, I disagree with that. No, what one not not necessarily her music, what I'm saying she had a kind of rock style lifestyle, but I think she I th I think she was indicative of the time of a 20-year-old something living in London. You know, I I moved to London around 2006, so around the time of Back to Black, and that was a complete eye-opener for me. I mean, it was hedonistic, drugs were in vogue, you know, hair in chic was I think came back at around that time. You think everything but everything, everything was an offer, like like London was absolutely nuts at that time, but I think in 2002, 2003, I think like it was all kicking off. I think Camden was an amazing place to live, which is where she was staying with her friends at the time. Like there was a lot of pop shit, right? Over time. I don't know if you remember like X Factor and Fame Academy and all that sort of shit. They these kind of bands, these kind of acts, were all in the airways. Yeah, I suppose you had what Girls Allowed and Girls Allowed Around at that time. I suppose you would have done Gareth Gates, you know, Will Young, all that sort of stuff. And I think she was like, Well, the popular sort of stuff isn't doing it for me. She found a a midway. Yeah, yeah, no. I'm I'm yeah, I'm talking about just her, I think the tabloids, her lifestyle, they made her like this. I really do feel that that came after Back in Black. Yeah, or after her. I think you're right, yeah. Because I'd like to say I didn't know about it. But to be fair, I don't think I knew about her before until Back to Black. So yeah, I think you're right. You started to see her in all the papers and all the music mags, and she was always on the front cover, like just walking down the street absolutely off her face and stuff like that. This is the thing, right? You get a a 20 odd year old Jewish girl from North London who wins five Grammys out of the six that she's nominated for. The British press are gonna go for her, right? Mm-hmm. Because suddenly she's one of the most we love building people up and then knocking them down, aren't we? Yeah, okay. I mean it was a funny time, wasn't it? I suppose, because I mean we were kind of playing a lot in London when I was in that band around must have been around then. 2002. White girl. Yeah. Must have been around that sort of time. So yeah, it was, you know. I suppose you kind of like as we were saying in a previous one about like the social media, like that hadn't really kicked in at that point, so everyone had to kind of put themselves out there and do their thing. So yeah, I think you know. I don't really know much about which because she went to what was school, she went to a school, didn't she? Like a performing arts school. Well, she went to a few actually. She started off the street. Susie Earnshaw. Yeah. Oh no, Susie Earnshaw Theatre. Then she went to Sylvie Young Theatre at 15 and then she went to like Brit School. Oh, actually, Britt school as well, and then stuff right and various others. But then she dropped out at 16. She just left it and then got a job. Right. But then she got involved with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. Okay. Where she became like uh one of the sort of main singers. Right. Uh I think from there that's where it all sort of began to start. And I don't know this. I I didn't know this. Um there was a guy who was a famous singer at the time. Uh Tyler James. Oh well, Tyler James. Tyler James, you know Tyler James? Yeah, yeah. Apparently he sent her demo tape into some sort of AR person. It finds its found its way to Simon Fuller. Wasn't it him who went on the X Factor later on? Tyler James? Yeah, one of her mates. I don't know. Yeah, so then later on, after I think it was after she had passed away, he auditioned for the X Factor, I think. I think he got I think he got quite far. I don't know. I didn't watch it, but that's interesting because he was quite he he was quite successful at that time. Well, so he's already a singer before him with X Factor, yeah. Yeah. He's not allowed to be a little bit more. Yeah, Tyler Jones, there you go. On the uh English musician 1982. Yeah. There you go. Signed to Ireland Records. Yeah. So her demo tape m found its way to Simon Fuller, who sort of started a lot of boy bands and girl bands back in the Northeast, didn't he? Mm-hmm. Pop idol guy, weren't he, as well? Was he when he started pop idols? Yeah, he was, yeah. I think he got hold of um Spice Girls. Yeah. No, but like to manage him, not in a sexual sense, dirty bugger. Yeah, he was definitely he was definitely linked to Pop Idol. Okay. Yeah, that's alright. And then she got but then so apparently there's this big sort of hype about her, and they kept her sort of hush-hush while they were sort of developing her. Right. But she was still singing like covers at a club in London somewhere. And then the head of Island Records, Darkus Bees, heard her and he was like, Yep, let's have her, but he didn't know who she was, and nobody would tell her. Right. And then in the meantime, she'd recorded some music with EMI, but eventually she signed with Ireland. Okay. And then from there she started to uh make Frank. Yeah, I've seen a lot of like comes on YouTube songs like the early stuff where she's just playing her guitar and singing some of the songs she'd written, Frank. Yeah, really good. It's a roar power. Yeah, and you know, that voice is very um like old kind of jazz at that time, wasn't it? Yeah. Which was a bit different to a lot of the stuff that was around. She sounded way older than what she was. Yeah, yeah. And that all comes from her family, right? Yeah, they were well, they were big Franks and Arch fans, weren't they? Well, her dad was, but they were all jazz musici like her uncles were jazz musicians. Okay, yeah. So I think she was surrounded by that kind of dare we say oldy worldy kind of sixties, fifties jazz numbers, sep maybe seventies even. Yeah, and she liked a lot of the the girl sixties girl bands as well, didn't she? Yeah, as well. That was Shangri-Lars, that sort of thing. Yeah, I mean that's interesting, right? For a someone who was born in 83 to be into that sort of stuff, right? Yeah, yeah. Because a lot of people of that age probably wouldn't be into that sort of stuff. Yeah, true. I think everyone is kind of brought up with their parents' music, it's just whether you run with it. Do you know what I mean? Some a lot of us just go, we grow out of it and we go, Oh, yeah, we listen and know it, and then we're just like, that's not for me, and then you find your own way, but she's obviously it's been so installed into her that she's gone with it and made her own version of it and a bit more than the um jungle book creature. Oh, I was gonna listen to it. What was in your parents' record collection? Uh so yeah, what I remember, it would have been like Abba. Your dad or your mum? No, it'd have been my mum. My dad was more like um Billy Joel. The song always reminds me my dad is like rubber ball. Who sang that? Rubber ball. Yeah, it's like a rubber ball I can bounce back to you. That one. It's like um what's his name? Um, it's like Buddy, is it Buddy Holly? Bobby Valance or something. Yeah, kind of that. So Bobby V. Bobby V ball. So yeah, that's what I that's kind of what I remember. I'm not surprised you uh didn't stick. Yeah, exactly. I mean I'd done mind a bit Biddy Joel's to be fair. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, piano man, what a song. You've never thought about what you're uh because they didn't really have any musical uh chops, really. No, they didn't they no they had Sergeant Peppers, which I used to listen to, Rub Soul, but then they'd have that those sort of you know those sort of vinyl albums that you only find at the very very back of a second hand shop? Right, yeah, with Giorgio Hingley, yes, with his blah blah blah blah. Oh yeah, so that was another one though. My mum, that sort of stuff. My mum liked um what's his name? It's um Englesia, what's his name? Julia Julia, she's a lover. I always remember that vinyl, just used to have a picture of him in the eye. Sort of really cheesy picture of him on the front, wasn't it? Yeah, I do remember that. My influences came from my friends' dads. Okay. Like they would have got like police and dire straits off of their dad, right? And then I would take it from there, like Regetta de Blanc and making movies and all that sort of stuff. But it does go down the chain, right? Like my my nephew, who is Ben, who is 14, like last time I saw him, he couldn't stop talking about Pink Floyd. Right. And I'm thinking, like, it was pretty daggy for me to be talking about Pink Floyd in '95 or whatever, but in 2025, like it's still carrying on, you know? Yeah, yeah. Timeless. Timeless. Yeah, exactly. I do find it strange that someone of that age would be so heavily into that sort of something that wasn't popular at the time. Well, not not necessarily I mean, Tony Beditt's always gonna be popular. I mean, they're always gonna be popular, but I don't think listening to that sort of stuff would have been first and foremost in your mind. Or what if I'm gonna be a musician, what shall I make? Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. It's not I don't think it's more that you'd be into that kind of music. It's more that you kind of decide to emulate that sort of music when when it's not, you know, like kind of the mainstream or very popular at the time. Yeah, I think that's that's quite interesting. Yeah. But if that's all you know though, it's like it's like it's like writing a book, like write what you know, isn't it? If she if she's if they're saying you've got a great voice, you're gonna make it in the music industry, and she's just like, Well, I've grown up in jazz, I love jazz, I want to do jazz. It would have been stupid to make her into a grumbling artist or uh pop artist or something like that. But I think they it could have quite they could have quite easily done that with a voice like that. You if they probably could have done, but I reckon it's probably more her characters. I reckon she was probably more like they probably did try and do that, but she was probably more no, I love this, I want to do this. From everything that I've read and seen about her, she was like, This is what I'm gonna do. She was fierce for a w and I uh like and again, this is you know, 2000s, early 2000s, this is a woman who's just going, fuck this, I do what I fucking want. But like we had the conversation with Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, and we was like, There's a lot of similarities where he's only done two, three albums at between them. Yeah. And we was always what route do we think Kurt Cobain or Nirvana would have gone down? Do you think she would have stayed on this route, or do you think she would have had to have changed? I honestly think she'll be tied to the greats like Billy Holiday and Blossom Deerie and all that sort of stuff. You know, I do think she would have gone on to do better things. I think at the end she seemed like she'd really got her head on, and I think she could have done some really great stuff, like even better than Frank and Back to Black. I don't think she'd be as cool. Yeah, but no one is no one can no one goes 20 years of being the top of the game, no one does. No, no, but what I'm saying is like maybe she'd be a bit more like a Michael Bublet, but with an edge. Do you know what I mean? What I mean is like a great Michael Buble with a flick knife. No, but what I'm saying is like great voice, appeals to the masses, right? Old school sound, but I think the difference between her and you know the other crooners, shall we say, would be that she'd still be writing her own stuff. Yeah, yeah. And what's great about Frank and what's great about Back to Black is it's all self-referential, right? It's so steeped within her own experiences. And I don't think I've ever listened to two albums which has been so explicitly obvious that it's about their experiences. Yeah, I mean they're all heavily like there's a lot of relationship-based stuff. But don't you think that's the problem though? And this is again, I what do you mean the problem? Not the problem, this is what called this was their downfall. Because I think her lyrics are so good and like you say, so relatable because they're dark, because she's going through so much pain, she's living in so much pain. It's exactly like Kurt Cobain and Navarra, his lyrics are good because they're just doing they're they're just hurt, they're pain, and they can't go on, they can't sustain that. They're like lyrics where it's lightning to the bottle, it's like fucking brilliant. You can't sustain that with life because it all of that is is pain and hurt, and no, but but I think that there's a difference. I think she was an addictive personality, she had addictive qualities which led her down certain paths, but I think overall, I think she had a better outlook on life than maybe Kirk Cobain did. I think they both as well didn't have great partners because she's obsessed, she's obsessed with her fellow who was who's who's cheating on her, going back to his ex and do you think Courtney was that bad for Kurt? Yes, she was. But she wasn't good for him, was she? You know. I mean, I don't think she was bad with everybody, but yeah, she it wasn't. There was not really helping him, was there? It wasn't like she knew what he was going through, there wasn't didn't seem much like trying to get him off of it or help him in any way, did it? And like I say, Amy's part I don't know much about it, but what you hear is you know, he's going back to his ex, he was cheating on her, and you know, and she was obsessed with him by the sounds of it, and but actually if you listen to a lot of the lyrics and especially on Frank as well, Frank is is primarily written about like a boyfriend at the time who she was actually beginning to fall out of love with, and there's references to her cheating on him, and even in Back to Black, like whilst predominantly it's written about the breakup between her and Blake and him going back to his ex-girlfriend, there are times where she is talking about the fact that she is doing stuff that she isn't proud of. Yeah, so I don't think either party is particularly innocent in that situation. I do think I completely agree with you. I think Blake civil lively, I'm not sure he's second. Uh he does seem to come across as a bit of a prick and an enabler. But then she could have been very easy to live with, probably as well. No, I think she she's an addictive, she's she's willful, she's powerful, she knows what she wants, and she ain't gonna take any shit, right? And that's not gonna be very easy to deal with. No, exactly. In a relationship. But I just think the original point of the lyrics is yeah, it's uh it's it's from a place of pain and hurt, isn't it? Yeah. Majority of it. The majority of it, yeah. But then, you know, she divorced him, what, two years later? Hmm. If it was a year later, I think. A year later, yeah. I mean, it didn't last very long. And She basically kicked the drugs and and found someone new, but unfortunately she found another addiction to replace the drugs, which was the alcohol. Was that what killed her in the end? The alcohol, was it? Yeah. A Tox report said she basically had five times the limit of alcohol in her body. She was bulimic. She had problems with her weight, you know, and her body was frail and it just couldn't handle it anymore. Joined the 27 Club. And joined the 27 Club. Uh I'm glad we're getting this out of the way early, actually, because I didn't I didn't I didn't really want to talk about the PAP side of it too much. Because I feel that music actually outplays all the fucking drama that went along with it. But when it was announced on the news, it was a bit, dare I say, a bit Diana. Um do you know what I mean? There was this there was a real shock within the country that someone as big as her had passed away. Yeah, I think you're right, and I think because you know Back to Black was so big and so popular. And it was one of those albums that kind of like spanned generations. It wasn't just like a certain age group that was listening to it. It was for your grandma and it was for your so yeah, I think you're right. It was it did um it was fucking huge. Quite sad, really, yeah. But yeah, like just sorry, go off subject slightly, kind of within subject, but going off it slightly. Yeah, can you name me the most notable members of the 27 club? And and also, just for life just to boost it up a bit, had I died. Hendrix choked on his own vomit. He did after taking sleeping pills. Yeah, do you know he died in like he died in London? Yeah, it was like stuck in Newington or something like that. Yeah, there's a plaque in there at the flat or something. Anyway, yeah, Jimi Hendrix. Jim Morrison? Jim Morrison, how'd he die? I don't know. Uh Uber Eats driver knocked him over. Oh, it's class. Found dead in a Paris bathtub. Likely heart failure. Obviously, we've got Amy Winehouse, we know who I know. Yep. Another female. Janice Chopin. Janice Joplin. Oh Janice Choppin. Yeah. Drugs. Heroin overdose, yeah. Okay. Uh so Frank was released in October of 2003 on Island Records. Part recorded in the US and the UK. It was in the US as well. Yeah, okay. Definitely jazzy, bit of RB, bit of rap. A bit of hip hop in there as well. Yeah, a bit of hip hop in there. Yeah. Producers Salam Remy. Yeah. Uh, who had worked with Nas Fuji's, etc. He stays on for the second one as well. He does stay on for the second one with Mark Ronson. Um, uh, I love this name, Commissioner Gordon. Yeah, he's from that's from Dark Knight, isn't it? Well, he's like the Batman chief, yeah. Um, so his name's actually Gordon Williams, but KRS1 had given him the nickname of Commissioner, right? And he'd worked with on um the Miss Education of Lauren Hill album, which is a great album. That is a good one. But he'd also work with like Diana Ross, Quincy Jones, Noel Rogers, you know. So there's definitely like a an understanding of where this album was gonna go, right? With that sort of those sorts of people involved. Yeah, some big players, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. Some big players, yeah. Sold over a million? Alright. Three times platinum in the UK. Yes. I think the title uh references um the openness of the lyrics. I think that and the uh Frank's an arch for influence, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. Or not influence, maybe reference. What what did you think of it? So the Frank, I didn't really get on board with. I couldn't really get on board with her. I I appreciate it. She's got a great voice. I I'm not a very jazzy. I don't I do appreciate jazz if I'm watching it live, I think, but so if you own Ronnie Scott's Yeah, I would like it. You got like a highball. Yeah, I'd like I would like that. I think it would just be it's it's live, it's a bit like off the cuff. I'm just so I appreciate that side of it, but when it's the actual sound of the music itself in a studio and that, like I don't know, just it's not my kind of thing, but yeah, okay. I appreciate I like Kalut. I mean, I didn't mind like fuck me pumps. Yeah, I think that was quite good. I thought it was a good one. I find that that's really scary, right? It is like a real kind of judgment on certain types of people. Yeah, take the box. I love Take the Box, uh it's one of my favourite songs. Um there's a contrast, like the second album I will get on to, but yeah, you can note there's a massive gulf in quality, personally to me. I was anyway. I was just like I don't know if it's just more accessible, the second album, probably, yeah, yeah. And I think that was what to my ears, just yeah. Yeah, yeah. But you like Mark, you like Mart Ronson, is that what you're saying? No, I don't know. Yeah, we'll get on to that. We're getting on to that. Yeah, there was a couple of highlights to it. To be fair, maybe I need to give it more of a listen. This is apparently dedicated to her ex Chris Taylor at the time, you know. So it is about a girl breaking up with a woman. And that's what you say when you say she's I think she's addicted to just anything and everything, isn't she? That personality, she's just addicted to stuff. She can't just let something go. It's just like she goes deep on everything, yeah. Yeah, she's fully in on everything, isn't she? But and that's why I say that was her that was also her downfall in the end, unfortunately. Yeah, it's just her addictions, isn't it? It's just you go in on everything, it's just no matter what it is. But back to Frank, charted at 13, it did quite well, and then after she died, it went back into uh number five. She was nominated for British uh Best British Solo Artist and Best Urban Act at the Brit Awards, and she was also nominated for Mercury, so clearly it was well respected as an album. She got an Ivan Ivan Novello for it as well, wasn't it? She did, yeah, for um Stronger Than Me, which is a great track, actually. Yeah, it sets the tone of the album as well. I think kind of the in little intro, and that kind of sets the kind of jazzy tone of the album. It's really playful, it's like a live in a club, isn't it? At the beginning bit, isn't it? Uh when it first starts, yeah, because they do an intro and natural and he's like, get out of here, yeah. Yeah, but it's funny you're saying earlier about like you know, you'd probably enjoy it more if it was in a kind of like a jazz club, but I kind of felt listening to the album was like being transported to that jazz club and kind of like you're sitting there kind of listening to it live. That's what it felt like. Yeah, definitely. You feel like you're not like a smoky kind of one of the Scots. I kind of feel like this is an album where you kind of either listen to it late at night when you're having a few drinks, you know, you got some couple of friends around, you're just having a little chat out with a dinner, or like it's a Sunday morning and you're having a chill out. It like it really felt like a really relaxed, lovely, kind of chilled album. Anyway, back to Black Lynn. No, no, no, I haven't finished fuck off. I haven't finished with Frank yet. Shut up. There are a couple of covers on there. Is there? Yeah, and I was really gutted to find out that Mood is Mood for Love is a cover, and I would have put that at the top of my list if it wasn't for the fact that it was a cover, and then track seven is a cover as well. There is no greater love, which is great. And In My Bed uses uh Naz Made You Look beat, yeah. Hip hop one of them. So she wasn't telling it so she's fucking just stealing songs, fucking magpie, yeah, yeah, yeah. But who doesn't, right? I really like Amy Emmy Emmy, yeah. It was a great album. I really like I really like this album. No, it's great, it is good. It's you know I listened when it came out, it didn't really sit with me, but revisiting it. And actually, going through uh talking the other day, like secret tracks, yes, two secret tracks on the album. That's it tracks. That's too greedy, two secret tracks. Brother and Mr. Magic. I've not got the CD. Well, those do you know if those two hidden tracks were 20 minutes, one hidden track? I don't know, I'm sorry. And then what happened after that? Reads the Back to Black, right? Yeah, three years. Three years, three years, it's a good time. Too long. Oh too long. Too long. I would love to go back to that time of like an album every six months or a year. Six months. In the eighties they used to do that, didn't they? Yeah. Like Smiths, four years, four albums. Bosh. So yeah. Back to Black. Back to Black. Written after breaking up with Blake. What did they meet? Do we know? Do we know all of that? Music Sets. Yeah, he was an assistant music set assistant. Oh, yeah. Double assistant. The double agent. And so I think they were together for a while and then she he broke up with her and went back to his ex-girlfriend. Right. And then off the back of that, she was like, I'm gonna write an album about breaking up with you. Before Taylor Swift, this was. That's all she does, doesn't it? Doesn't Taylor Swift just write albums about hexes she's broken up with and stuff like that? Hasn't Taylor Swift had like 10 albums? I think it's more than that, like 12 and it's like. 30 something, isn't she? Yeah, it's ridiculous, isn't it? She's like going into directing films. She directs a lot of her music videos, apparently. Would you say back to black it's a complete departure from Frank? I would say it's a complete departure, it's it's a different styling. Yeah. But within the same sort of tone. I think it's more funky. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Still got jazz, still got jazz elements, and um BB's just it's as I said earlier, it's definitely more accessible. Yeah, it's more it's more soul kind of Motown vibes, but I think that's to do with bringing Mark Ronson on board. And obviously he brought he brought in the Dap Kings who kind of had that vintage sound. But I think a lot of it's it was obviously Mark Ronson kind of production on there. I think I think her voice sounded a bit more grown up to me. Yeah. I suppose she changed it stylistically to suit the suit the music. But I kind of felt with Frank, while you know, there was some great jazz kind of vocals on there and that, there was a lot of like jazz runs and stuff, which just felt a bit I struggled a bit with. I think it felt a bit too much scat, not too much scat, it felt like some sort of like bad habits. Like she'd heard like these jazz greats doing these kind of runs, and she she was kind of emulating that, which is fine, but if I found it a bit too much for myself. I guess they they kind of disappeared in back to black and it was more kind of that kind of soul motown-y kind of sound rather than the jazz kind of runs and scatting. She's less coherent on back to black than she was on Frank. Frank's a very clear album, it's quite but Frank's quite quiet, isn't it? Compared to Back to Black, like you know, a lot of the jazz stuff, there's a lot of like, you know, drums with brushes and like there's not an awful lot going on. I think obviously when you get to back to black, it's more there's there's just more going on, like musically. I think there's kind of like a bit more like you said, but it's not like a feel space. More production, but there's more, yeah, there's more kind of that's interesting. I've I found it less varied than Frank. It's definitely less varied. It's there's like the whole kind of theme is more soul and motown, but yeah, it just feels like there's more more noise, you know, in the background rather than whereas Frank felt like there was more kind of space where kind of a vocals kind of sat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd agree with that. Did anyone look up where Valerie comes into this? No, it was on Deluxe, wasn't it? Wasn't it a deluxe version of the album? Was it like a single or anything like that? Or I think it was, wasn't it? Yeah. I remember it being a single. I don't know, was it? Yeah, it must have been. Because it was originally by uh Zootons. Yeah, Zootons, yeah. I liked this album, Bats Black. No, yeah, it's a great album. Yeah, absolutely. I think it had a good like narrative arc. I find there's too many ballads on there though. I think that's my issue with them. And I'll you're gonna laugh at me, saying it. I'm never gonna laugh at me. There you are. All the songs were good length. They were good length, they weren't too long. It's definitely good length because Frankie's what 48 minutes or something like that. Yeah, it was a good length. I was I was surprised how quickly the show like just a bit all I had to work. No, but like, you know, when you get the I don't know, I've obviously I know a lot of these songs, and I've just always thought they were much longer, and then I'd be surprised when it's coming to an end, I'd be like, Really? It's only a free I don't know, I just thought they were gonna be longer. I was surprised. How how does Claire feel about um Amy Winehouse? I don't know. I think she likes Back to Black. I don't know if she's ever heard Frank, I'm not sure. Hannah? Don't know how many likes her, how many's got Back to Black on vinyl? Who I don't think who wouldn't? I mean I think it's Back to Black. It was huge, wouldn't it? So huge and you can't not like both the albums. I don't I don't think they're that far apart. Yeah, but a lot of people not a lot of people don't probably listen to lyrics, do they just like the music? So but I can also see like I mean I love her vocals on the first album, but they do sound a bit more nasally than on the second album, and I can see why people wouldn't like that as much. There's a little bit of immaturity in the voice, yeah. I think she grew up a lot when she got to Back to Black, and I think the first album, I mean, I don't know, I'm not I'm not a singer, but it felt like as I said earlier, that like some of those ones. I don't know if she'd learned some bad habits, you know, along the way, but I feel in Back to Black it it felt far more mature and like some of the I don't know if she's vocal coaching or whatever, I don't know. A bit nasally the first one, a bit like Carly Minogue. Can I just say uh me and Mr. Jones? Fucking Mr. Jones. Me and Mr. Jones, do you know about that song? Yeah, do you know what it's about? What is it about? It's about uh missing a Nas gig. I thought it was trying to make someone jealous or something like that, wasn't it? No, so what kind of fuckery is this? What that is this is the best line of music I've ever heard. So you know she says in that song, you made me Miss Slick Rick. Slickrick. Yeah, like the whole song is called Me and Miss Jones, right? So Nas's surname is Jones, and she was good mates with Nas at the time, and that whole song is all about her not missing the Nas gig at Brixton. There you go. I didn't know that. No, I didn't know that. That was a good album. I think that album will live on, right? Yeah, it was yeah, a legacy, yeah. Yeah, you know, as I say, you know, yeah, for a long time, on it. It's just the the style of it and everything. I think it will kind of stick around forever. And I think Frank will as well, you know, but I just don't think it's it's had the exposure like back to back as him? Yeah, lyric game, you ready? Yeah, two sets of lyrics one the original written by Amy Winehouse, as we know, or are they lyrics written by uh our favourite Julie with an in-house vineyard? A Amy Waynehouse. Okay, so and that's how you gotta say the answers well if you want to. Hey, Amy Waynehouse. Repeat it for me, please. Hey, Amy Waynehouse. Okay, that's our Geordie who's just got an indoor vineyard. Okay, right, first lyric then. All I need is for my man to live up to his role. Always want to talk it through. I'm okay. Always have to comfort you every day. Amy Winehouse. Amy Winehouse. Amy Winehouse. It is Amy Winehouse. Do we know the song? Stronger. Stronger in me. Well done. Stronger than me. You don't get any extra points to that, by the way. Okay, next limit. You wear that guilt like a tailor-made suit. Sing me your blues with your Sunday truth. I ain't your sermon, I'm your sin on the run. When you're done with light, I'm your son. That's it. Ay Amy Waynehouse. Aye, man. It is. A Amy Waynehouse. Okay. Next Lewitt. We could have never had it all. We've had to hit a wall, so this is inevitable withdrawal. Amy V AI one. Why Amy Waynehouse. It was Amy Winehouse. Oh, you got it wrong. Tears dry on their own. I don't know about just coffee, Jake. That's my favourite song. Tears dry on my own. On their own. Keep your record on the player. It skips where you said goodbye. Guests even vinyl's tired of liars, and I'm too drunk to cry. Amy Winehouse. Yeah, I'm gonna go Amy Winehouse. A Amy Winehouse. Was it really? Mother Pass Puckets. Spoogie! Spoogie! No, you ain't worth guest list, plus one of them girls you get. Okay, we did another one. Yeah, yeah. Alright, okay. You can't keep lying to yourself like this. Can't believe you played yourself. Amy Winehouse. Amy Winehouse. Wolf. It's a fuck me pumps. Fuck me pumps? No, it's me and Mr. Jones. Uh you're winning. You won that one. You won that one? I won. Yeah. I only I only went different just to mix it up a bit. Oh, so you let me win? Yeah. Okay, thanks. Well done. Well done, Jimmy. Uh so albums? Back to black number one, yeah. Easy. Back to black. I'll go for uh Frank. I'm gonna do Frank number one and then uh back to black number two. Tracks top five. Top five. I'll go first, no particular order. I'm gonna go fuck my pumps, back to black, tears dry on their own. I quite liked, I think I remember liking Wake Up Alone as well. And Love is a losing game. I like that one as well. Love is a losing game. So I can't sing it. I kind of get bored of rehab. Yeah, no, I can't I can't do the singles. Yeah, overplayed though, innit? It's like we said before, and I was just like, you know. Mind you, back to black is good though. I know that was a big single, but I I like I do like that one. Yeah. Uh Tears Dry on Their Own, Just Friends, Stronger Than Me, set free, In My Bed, and Amy, Amy, Amy. Nice. And uh, what is it about men as well? I love that. I like that one as well. Yeah, I like the fact that we've all agreed that in our top fives, Tears Dry on their own is in there because that is my favourite. Yeah, it's good. Uh, me and Mr. Jones, fuck me, pumps, take the box, and it's a cross between uh number five, Amy, Amy, Amy, or Stronger Than Me. Amy, Amy, because I like the jungle book beat of Amy Amy Amy. But I like the fact that Stronger Than Me is like a really cool song. Talented, she was, right? No, yeah, yeah. Like, this is the first time with an artist where I've actually just really looked at the lyrics and realized what great lyric writing there is out there. Black and great. That's high praise. Let's finish there. Finish there. No no greater no greater praise than fucking great. Oh, yeah. This has been uh Kiss a Curb production produced by Barry at Backwater Channel Studios, music by Ben Bailey. Talking about is presented by Gareth Norman, James Gentle, and Philip Reynolds.