‘Back to Black’ and the lyric that defined Amy Winehouse
Every now and then, a voice comes along that shakes you to your very core. The music industry is big, and there are a lot of good singers that prop it up, but none have ever been more prolific than the untouchable Amy Winehouse. She had a voice that was equal parts sweet and pained, something that you can turn to in comfort and crisis. It’s a middle ground that should be impossible, but she made it work.
Winehouse passed away before her time, and it was a blow to the entire music industry. Her career had been one full of ups and downs; she was praised for her unique vocals but also frequently attacked by the press because of her overindulgence of drink and drugs. To say she had an easy life would be a lie; it was one filled with struggles, some of which were self-inflicted, but the majority of which were a repercussion of the pressure she was put under by the media and fame.
During her short time as a mainstream artist, she dabbled in a few different genres, but she really found a home in the jazzy style of music. With a brass band backing her and a smooth melody for her to sing on top of, there was really nothing better to listen to.
Meeting Mark Ronson was a big turning point for her career as it allowed her to really lean into this unique style. While there have been plenty of people credited with making this kind of music in the past, there were very few doing so in the noughties. It made Winehouse one of a kind, and when she started really embracing that style with Ronson, people nationwide couldn’t stop listening.
How Amy Winehouse found her sound
One of the best examples of this kind of music can be heard on the track ‘Back to Black’. This was the first cut that she and Ronson would write together, and it proved to be one of her most famous, as it is still considered a classic by many people today.
“She said she liked to go out to bars and clubs and play snooker with her boyfriend and listen to the Shangri-Las. So she played me some of those records, which turned into a crash course in girl group productions,” said Ronson, reflecting on when he first met Winehouse. “She was staying at the Soho Grand around the corner, and I told her that I had nothing to play her right now, but if she let me work on something overnight, she could come back tomorrow. So I came up with this little piano riff, which became the verse chords to ‘Black in Black’. Behind it, I just put a kick drum and a tambourine and tons of reverb,” he recalled.
The next day, Winehouse returned to the studio and the two of them worked on the song. The style of the track was perfect for her, and the instrumentation personifies her style wonderfully. However, the main lyric in the chorus is also something that defines Winehouse; it’s not just the music it’s delivered over, but the words themselves.
As mentioned earlier, Winehouse was a legendary musician but also somebody plagued by trouble. This came because of how the media treated her, as well as because of problems she had in her personal life. She addresses these issues in the line, “You go back to her, and I go back to black”. It’s haunting to hear now, but it is an accurate reflection of her life and how she coped with things.
“’Back to Black’ is when you’ve finished a relationship and you go back to what’s comfortable,” she said when explaining the song, “My ex went back to his girlfriend, and I went back to drinking and dark times”.
The track defines Winehouse, for the good and the bad. On the good side, it’s her favourite style of music and a song that allows her to celebrate her iconic voice. However, the honest lyricism is also a good reflection of the pains she went through in her life. This is not only the popular Amy Winehouse track; it’s also the quintessential one.
