Russell Brand , The London Riots and The Death of Amy Winehouse

Update January 27th 2012. I was very crude and unfair in my assessment of Russell Brand in the previous version of this post. The Sun featured it on their blog home page and I had a few dozen comments. Truly, I am very sorry to have judged Brand just a tad too harshly because in retrospect I'm not qualified to make many of the assertions I did. He knows about addiction and I do not. My essay has been re-edited to reflect that lack of balance on my part. -Super Amanda


Brand definitely understands what addiction is and why it is like an incurable disease for so many.

Amy's Winehouse root problem was bi-polar depression and abandonment by men-drugs were an after effect. Take away the drugs she'd still have been on a death wish until love sorted her out. Male artists have women who will do anything for them, walk around like preprogrammed puppets in their football kit, and be there till the end and NEVER walk away or leave etc etc. Female artists don't get that luxury as most men are too selfish or too sensible to live in the shadow of a tortured genius and care for them when they malfunction-which in her case was sometimes daily. That's why George Jones, the legendary country and western star is still going strong today despite nearly dying from alcoholism at one point and yet his ex-wife, the near mythic Tammy Wynette, died young under very suspicious circumstances, used for her money and exploited. Russell Brand misses that but then most people do. His mentally vacuous wife's border line intelligible opinion on Amy Winehouse rang of self aggrandizement. Amy wasn't even buried yet and there's Katy Perry smothered in slap on Good Morning America, grinning away about how ''grateful'' she is Brand is sober with her vacant eyes.

Alex James wrote a lovely piece which veered away from the "look at me" failings of Brand but sadly men simply do not stand by talented female artists. I'm sure as Blur's bassist, James could have had many a few great women who truly loved him caring for him, helping him get clean and sober and then still stick around and love him for life. Amy and nearly all woman artists do not get that same kind of devotion from men and they die alone. Gay men might be there to love them perhaps but rarely straight men. Amy wanted a loving partnership, a best friend and a protector to stand by her through all of it. All women do and few get it. That's why women AND men loved her music. Amy Winehouse was brave enough to sing about all things that embarrass all of us, trouble us and stick in our minds when we are in love and alone. London and the world will never forget her. Don't think for a second that the London riots were not just a little bit about her death.

"We eat up artists like there's going to be a famine at the end."
-Nikki Giovanni