Amy Winehouse - At The BBC

There are those who never quite understood the Amy Winehouse phenomenon. Her high-as-a-kite latter life concert performances did her legend little favors. Nothing encourages head-scratching faster than to hear a breathless endorsement of an artist only to see them spectacularly bomb live. Yet, as many fans can attest, trained at the same school that produced Adele and Duffy, Winehouse wasn’t always as awful a live performer as she came to be thanks to the debilitating effects of drugs and alcohol. Luckily, there are two classic full-length albums in Frank and Back to Black and one uneven, but respectable posthumous release in Lioness: Hidden Treasures to illustrate her talent in better times. As for this latest in what will surely be several posthumous vault releases, At the BBC doesn’t do nearly as much as an ardent fan may hope in proving their case on Winehouse’s behalf. Still there are enough golden nuggets to make it worth adding to a Winehouse fan’s collection. 

Taken from several shows programs throughout the UK British Broadcasting Company roster from 2004-2009, the performances here are as all over the place as Winehouse herself. While the musical performances by the famed Dap Kings band and the highly engaging material are always Winehouse’s friends, her penchant for slurring her words on cuts like “F*ck Me Pumps,” “October Song” and “In My Bed” until they are an indecipherable patois rolling along the melody lines is not. And yet, sometimes the song is so strong, the melody so moving, her emotional truth so evident that even Winehouse’s disrespectful diction cannot ruin its elegance, as with “Love Is A Losing Game” performed Live at Jools Holland in 2009.

There are moments where Winehouse is in total control and lyrically clear if somewhat disinterested, as with her “Tears Dry On Their Own” on Jo Whiley’s Live Lounge in 2007 and an energy deprived “Rehab” on Pete Mitchell in 2006. She is more present, purposeful, and promise-filled during her Frank era on cuts like the rhythmic powerhouse, “Know You Now” (one of the most dynamic ever captured of Winehouse), but not yet at the fullness of her interpretive talents as “Best Friends, Right?” demonstrates. On an acoustic “Valerie,” a plaintive but flawless Winehouse is so on-point, you wonder what happened between the take for “Tears Dry On Their Own” and this performance, recorded on the same day.

Two songs recorded in 2004 Live at The Stables, do reveal the Winehouse that made people eager to hear where she’d go next. The elegiac “I Should Care” is given the total symphonic treatment and finds Winehouse in a thorough and lovely embrace of Billie Holliday in her phrasing and captivating in her passion. Making Louis Armstrong proud, Winehouse’s “Lullaby of Birdland” swings with zippy horns and flirty arpeggios, and finds her playful, completely in the pocket and vibrantly alive throughout the jazz standard. Her ovation at the song’s end is well deserved.

Winehouse’s blues cover of The Teddy Bears’ “To Know Him Is To Love Him” in 2006 on Pete Mitchell’s strikes just the right tone. Here, you can tell that her knowing him isn’t always a joyful thing. There is pain in that love, struggle in that love, and ultimately resignation in that love, here unrequited but just on the edge of hope. This was the secret that fans of Winehouse understood, her ability to see and express the irony of a situation, to understand the hopelessness built into the ill-fated circumstance and to meet it head-on with rueful, matter-of-fact wit. Even with all that knowing, Winehouse, like many a blues singer, like many of us, still willingly stepped into her storms with an indefatigable hope. It is tragic that for Winehouse, that hope was not enough to make it to the other side one last time. Recommended.

By L. Michael Gipson