So, Amy Winehouse died on the same day a crazy man decided to kill a hundred people to start a revolution. There's absolutely no connection of course. Maybe not. But as metaphors of the razor edge of collective lunacy we all teeter on - they are.
Amy was musically gifted. She had the vocal range of an angel, and she was just, god she was just so completely musical. I mean - that woman felt things coming through the ether from the place where music comes from. She was clearly on a higher level than most of us - artistically. The power of her genius just burned so bright. And however much the people closest to her tried to care for her - it was like she was too - too sensitive for this world.
Drugs are not the enemy in this case, they never are. It's the void inside people. That void or existential angst or whatever is especially highly tuned in creative people. They feel stuff we can't even begin to understand. The only reason anyone tries to alter their mental state to the exreme - it means they're covering deep emotional pain. Not the kind that comes from the past. Often it's just the pain of living in such a weird place as planet earth.
A man who cold-bloodiedly massacress a load of young people on a holiday island gets the main headline in the news tonight. What did he do to deserve that? Why does Amy's tradgedy come as an add-on to the main show. Mass murder is so much more interesting. We feed on it - our aggression and anger growing. It fascinates.
I turned on the radio today hoping to hear a great deal of Amy's voice. I wanted to remember the places I was, the people I was with when I first had her album. But there was nothing. Not on Radio 2 at any rate.
Just loads of news about Norway, sad news too of course. Overwhelming. And maybe that's what it is at the heart of it, the metaphor, the connection. It's about extremes. Extreme distress expressed inwards in the case of Amy - and outwards in Norway. There's so much wrong, so much thet does need revolutionising. But not the shoot-everybody kind of revolution. A gentle one - a turnaround that means anyone who is sensitive to a bigger picture, feels at home in thier skin. A world where women, especially artistic women - don't feel so weighed down by the darkness.
And then I get to thinking about Mikey. He's in a prisoner of conscience. He refused to kill. Which way are we all going to tip? More guns? Or more music?
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