Fans hoping to someday hear the demo sketches of what was to become Amy Winehouse's third LP must brace themselves: the recordings are gone. Forever. In a new interview with Billboard, Winehouse's former boss and current chairman of Universal Music UKDavid Joseph professes to have wrecked the early makings of what might have become a 14 track album. "Taking a stem or a vocal is not something that would ever happen on my watch," Joseph told the magazine. "It now can't happen on anyone else's."
The interview doesn't specify exactly which form of media the demos were in (tape? digital files?) when Joseph destroyed them, but Winehouse's longtime musical colleague, producer Salaam Remi specifies that Winehouse "probably finished the writing process a few weeks before she passed." Both Remi and Winehouse's long-time collaborator Mark Ronson had booked studio time to work on her Back to Black follow-up in late 2011--sessions that would tragically go unused.
“As far as I could see, we had 14 songs," Remi said. "Whatever needed to happen, it was right there.”
Throughout the Billboard story, which diligently addresses both Amy Winehouse's fraught legacy and the new feature-length biopic, Amy, dedicated to her chaotic life, the singer appears as tortured soul surrounded by those in awe of her talent (“We have this stereotype of young Mozart,” Ronson tells Billboard at one moment, “Lightning strikes his head and then he furiously scribbles for two hours and has a concerto. She’s the only person I saw who was actually like that”)--and in fear of her worst demons. Tales of stage fright, relentless eating disorders and a deadly dependence on alcohol surround Winehouse and her music (indeed in some cases they served as the very lifeblood of her art), and yet,
In summing up Amy, Billboard's Dorian Lynskey describes it as "a riveting collage of audio interviews and mostly unseen footage. It took the filmmakers two years to win the trust of Winehouse’s friends, many of whom hadn’t spoken publicly since her death." The film will debut in theaters across the U.S. on July 3rd and is being screened ahead of its official UK release date at a night club near her London home. Watch the extended trailer for the film here.
