lazypadawan | OT: RIP Amy Winehouse

There are Beatles and Stones people; one of my gags is that I'm neither...I gravitate toward everyone who died from a heroin overdose in 1970: Jim Morrison of The Doors (true fact: I visited Morrison's grave at Pere Lachaise in Paris), Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin. (I'll throw in The Velvet Underground too.) All were unbelievably talented and way ahead of their time. But they lived the dark side of the '60s. At first, the happy hippies smoked weed. Then they sought enlightenment though psychedelics. The rich rockers then got their hands on the drug of kings, cocaine. By the time everyone was rolling around in the mud at Woodstock though, they were killing their pain with heroin.

1970 seemed to be the watershed year for a parade of rockers and counterculture figures to die from drugs. Just the year before, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones died at 27 from a drowning while drunk/high. (Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol's muse/fashion icon, died of a drug overdose the following year at age 28.)

In 1994, Kurt Cobain, a long-time heroin addict, blew his brains out at his Seattle home...at the age of 27.

So, as I've followed the career of singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse the past few years, I knew deep in my gut she wouldn't make it past that age. No matter what she or her family tried to do to get back on track, she'd fall of the wagon and get herself into trouble again. If you're a hardcore drug addict who's failing again and again at recovery, and you're all of 25, you're not going to hang around much longer. Winehouse was rumored to have been using meth and crack among other drugs. She had been recently attempting a comeback but was booed off the stage at one show and had to cancel several others. She hasn't been doing much in the studio since 2007. Her recent career consisted of getting arrested and getting photographed looking way too thin and snookered out of her mind.

Her 2006 album "Back To Black" now comes across like a suicide note, the last coherent thing she was able to say before descending into a long slide into the grave. Even the remix of "Rehab" with Jay Z features the prophetic line: "Ima o.d. til I'm at peace like Anna Nicole," referring to Anna Nicole Smith's death (drug-related) in 2007. Here was someone who ought to be at the top of her game but drugs and marriage to a grade-A loser destroyed whatever momentum she had. Granted, she was a troubled person for pretty much her whole life. Family problems and impulsive/destructive behavior were intertwined with her talent. Her legacy now are "Back To Black," 2004's "Frank," and several singles. But as you know and as I know, nothing helps your legacy in rock and roll more than a death in youth.

It's a shame. Winehouse didn't have an easy life and she leaves behind family and friends who I'm sure are devastated. So here's the Jewish mourner's prayer, the Kaddish in Amy's honor:

Glorified and sanctified be God’s great name throughout the world which He has created according to His will. May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and during your days, and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon; and say, Amen.

May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.

Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored, adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, beyond all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that are ever spoken in the world; and say, Amen.

May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us

and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

He who creates peace in His celestial heights, may He create peace for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.