Time for a mid-week break. I’m halfway through this mix and coincidentally today we have “Half Time”, a track from Amy’s posthumous 2011 compilation Lioness: Hidden Treasures. “Half Time” was never a single and it wasn’t released during Amy’s lifetime. It was produced by Salaam Remi and – according to his liner notes – was actually written early in the development of her 2003 debut album Frank, but obviously didn’t make the cut.
Two things stand out to me about “Half Time”. The first was the list of performers. Amy Winehouse wrote the song and played guitar. James Poyser (of The Roots and Erykah Badu fame) is credited with synths and flutes. Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (of way too many things to list here) plays the drums. This track confirms that the stories and whispers that I heard for years late in her life were true: Amy was working on a “jazz album” with Questlove. It doesn’t take much online research to confirm it, but my recollection of the late-2000s was that it was always a rumor. Turns out, Questlove and Amy were friends in frequent contact.
As a massive fan of both artists, hearing “Half Time” leaves me with the same feeling I get listening to “Valerie“. I love it, but I ache thinking about the unrealized potential. I’ve heard numerous versions of a “supergroup” that Amy wanted to form. The names I hear most consistently are Amy (of course), Questlove, Raphael Saadiq, and Mos Def (now known as Yasiin Bey). A couple other names I’ve seen occasionally heard in that mix are Q-Tip and British saxophonist/rapper Soweto Kinch. Any combination of these people had the potential to be amazing and would’ve been a dream album for me.
The other characteristic of “Half Time” that stands out to me is her love of music. I’ve been trying to figure out for months why I’ve been transfixed by Amy’s music for so long and the answer may lie in “Half Time”. Amy’s 2003 album Frank was filled with teenage bravado. Amy’s voice came out of the 1940s, but her music was 2000s. With Back To Black in 2006 she (along with Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson) found the perfect sound to mix with her voice, but the album was pretty much exclusively about love and heartbreak. With “Half Time” we get her first (and only, as far as I can tell) song dedicated to her love of music. The second verse speaks to me and, likely, anyone else who loves music:
Rhythm floods my heart
The melody, it feeds my soul
The tune tears me apart
And it swallows me whole
You should thank your lucky stars
‘Cause the music is a gift
And it’s stronger than all else
Provides me with uplift
When you strip away all of the shit happening in Amy’s life she was a music nerd at heart. She name drops Frank Sinatra in “Half Time” and Salaam Remi reveals in the liner notes that her album was titled Frank partly as a tribute to him. She frequently schooled Questlove – known the world over as a walking encyclopedia of music – on jazz. She famously wouldn’t budge from her artistic vision. She wrote and released her music on her terms. She’s the kind of artist I’d want to be if I possessed one iota of the courage and talent that she had. “Half Time” is Amy’s lovely ode to the art form that she loved above all else and it’s a pleasant departure from the chaos that dominated her life and career.
I can’t find a live version of “Half Time” to share with you, I’m assuming because one doesn’t exist. Instead I’ll share a video courtesy of MTV UK that has nothing to do with the song, but further illustrates Amy’s love of good music. In the video Amy isn’t even trying to hide her boredom as she sits through yet another interview that she couldn’t care less about. Then about 1:25 into the video it’s revealed that Prince is coming to London for a series of shows and that he’d like to work with her while he’s there. Amy immediately lights up. While the interviewer continues giving her details she gets out of her chair and announces, “I’m going to Minneapolis, see you later.” Of course, it was a joke and she sits back down and declares, “I hope I can do it. I’ll drop every thing to do that.” She was able to do it, but more on that coming in a later post.
I don’t think you’ll find anyone who believes that “Half Time” is essential Amy Winehouse, but I do believe it speaks to the spiritual connection I feel with her more than maybe any other song in her catalog. She loved music above all else. She collaborated with many of my favorites. We gravitated toward the same styles. Maybe this at least begins to explain why I’m still mesmerized by an artist who passed away 13 years ago.
That’s it for “Half Time”. Tomorrow we’re digging even deeper into Amy’s catalog and jazz background. No more spoilers. Enjoy your Wednesday.
mookiefantana 