Mitch Winehouse's advice on child rearing rings hollow

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Amy Winehouse performs in Brazil in 2011. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Book review

Amy, My Daughter

• By Mitch Winehouse
• HarperCollins, 304 pages, $30

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If you are of generous spirit, this memoir is about the way a parent handles a drug-addicted child.

Although British soul singer Amy Winehouse became famous at age 20, she continued to act like a spoiled adolescent until her death at age 27 in London a year ago.

Separate the drug and alcohol abuse from the talent, however, and this is a repetitious story of a life gone badly off the rails, of repeated attempts to get clean, followed endlessly by relapse and the heartbreak of a chaotic life.

Mitch Winehouse, whose marriage broke up when Amy was nine, feels he did as much as he could for his troubled daughter. "My only advice is to keep your son or daughter close if they have a problem. They can recover. Not everyone does."

In another sense, it is hard to shake the nagging suspicion that there is little merit in Amy, My Daughter beyond a father cashing in on the musical success and tabloid fame of his daughter.

Mitch Winehouse, a self-described London cabbie, sometime window salesman and "semi-professional singer" in his earlier years, doesn't resolve our doubts in a convincing manner, if at all.

His book breezes through Amy's childhood. By page 37 we've learned she was a distracted child, somewhat precocious, certainly not interested in school and given to erratic behaviour.

It speedily sums up her early career and the two chart-topping albums that formed the entirety of her recorded output. By page 80 she is working very little and is world-famous for performing erratically or not performing at all because of her addictions.

Amy's major problem and the main villain of the piece, according to dad, is Amy's husband, Blake Fielder-Civil.

Mitch calls him a "low-life scumbag" and accuses of him of introducing Amy to crack cocaine and heroin. She successfully kicked hard drugs in 2008 but not before the lifestyle had taken a major toll and alcohol had emerged as her substance addiction of choice.

Mitch devotes little space to any serious analysis of Amy's musical talent. The entire Winehouse catalogue consists of just three albums. In 2003 at the age of 20 she debuted with Frank, a jazzy amalgam of rock/soul and hip hop featuring a brash new vocal style.

In 2007, Winehouse cemented her place with Back to Black, a uniquely soulful and more mature sound with sizzling vocals and the hit song Rehab. That was the year Winehouse won five Grammy Awards and her career trajectory could not have seemed brighter.

A third project, Lioness: Hidden Treasures, was released posthumously in 2011. It was an amalgam of rock, soul, hip hop and jazz that showed Winehouse appropriating a swath of the '60s pop "girl group" sound epitomized by the Ronettes.

To his credit, Mitch does not embellish the small part he played in his daughter's music. He was the guardian of her bank accounts and, to a frivolous degree based on photos in the book, her consort at awards shows, concerts and other public appearances.

As a parent, despite his rage at his daughter's addictions, at her druggie husband and at her hanger-on friends, he accomplished very little in slowing down her spiral toward tragedy.

In the wake of her death, the family, led by Mitch, quickly organized the Amy Winehouse Foundation to "provides help, support or care for young people in need." The foundation is the conduit for profits from projects like the posthumous album and the proceeds from the sale of Amy, My Daughter.

Jim Millican is a Winnipeg writer and music journalist.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 28, 2012 J9