Today’s track is unique for Amy Winehouse. As much as she loved hip hop, this is the only track I can find in her catalog that’s crafted like it. Her love of jazz is showcased on the majority of her tracks (including this one), but – correct me if I’m wrong – this is Amy’s one hip hop track. “In My Bed” is the third single from Amy’s 2003 debut album Frank and peaked at #60 on the UK singles chart in April of 2004 while sharing A-side credit with “You Sent Me Flying”. Two great songs on that single and it peaked at 60? Come on, UK. Do better.
“In My Bed” was written by Amy Winehouse and Salaam Remi, who was also the producer on the track. This is key, because Salaam Remi also worked with one of Amy’s favorite rappers, Nas. In 2002 Remi produced the first single from Nas’s God’s Son album titled “Made You Look”. I’m surprised to look back and see that “Made You Look” only peaked at #32 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart because I believe this to be a certified hip hop classic. Nas is as good as ever on the track, but it’s Salaam Remi’s sick beat that makes it what it is. He took a sample from the legendary “Apache” by Incredible Bongo Band – a song that’s been sampled nearly 800 times according to Who Sampled and is typically used for fun party tracks – and transformed it into a hard hip hop beat for Nas. Less than two years later – in a practice not uncommon in the hip hop/R&B community – Amy Winehouse released “In My Bed” with her singing over essentially the exact same beat Nas used for “Made You Look”. Occasionally samples can be difficult to identify. I often hear a song and think, “I know I’ve heard this before. Where was that from?” There’s none of that with “In My Bed”. If you heard “Made You Look” first there’s no mistaking it. It’s not even a sample. The songs sound nearly identical.
This is not a complaint. Amy is so heavily influenced by jazz and her voice is a throwback to mid-20th century vocalists. Combine that with a songwriting ability that was mature beyond her years and it’s easy to forget how young she was when she wrote and recorded her music. On “In My Bed” the hip hop beat allows her to sound like the 20-year-old she was when it was released. There aren’t too many Amy Winehouse songs that could rock a house party or club, but this is one. Even with the heavy hip hop influence the track still features a full horn section and improvised solos on both flute and saxophone. How many hip hop bangers take a flute break after the first chorus?
Then there’s the lyrical content and accompanying video. Let’s start with the video. I actually hadn’t seen the video until somewhat recently. Most of Amy’s work avoids crossing the line into overtly sexual but she’s going strong to the hoop in the “In My Bed” video. She spends three-and-a-half minutes walking the viewer up to the her hotel room and when she isn’t attempting to seduce you through the screen the camera is focusing on either a few specific body parts in a skin tight dress or her hands sliding across various surfaces. It’s not as over the top as the Kissable commercial from the movie Boomerang, but it’s near the same neighborhood.
I try not to overthink the lyrics to a song like this. Take “In My Bed” completely out of context and it’s just a cool song about a girl telling a guy, “I’m not interested in being your girlfriend and never will be, but the sex is good, so if you promise to stop being so needy we can keep doing that.” Amy actually sings the phrase, “The only time I hold your hand is to get the angle right,” which is both the funniest and coldest shit in her entire catalog, and that’s saying a lot. However, if you take “In My Bed” combined with her later work it becomes a fascinating juxtaposition. If I hadn’t heard her album Back To Black first I would’ve never thought in a million years an album like that could come so quickly on the heels of Frank. A lot can happen in three years – and it obviously did – but I wouldn’t have thought the songwriter behind classics like “In My Bed” and “I Heard Love Is Blind” would follow it up with one of the greatest albums about heartbreak ever recorded. I wonder if she realized when she was writing it that “Wake Up Alone” is basically “In My Bed” told from the other person’s perspective. In “In My Bed” she sings, “It’s something I know you can’t do, separate sex with emotion. I sleep alone, the sun comes up, and you’re still clinging to that notion.” On “Wake Up Alone” she sings, “It gets fierce in my dreams, seizing my guts. He floods me with dread. Soaked in sorrow he swims in my eyes by the bed. Pour myself over him, moon spilling in. And I wake up alone.” Two sides of the same coin. Imagine what a third album from Amy could’ve delivered after the experiences she had in the aftermath of Back To Black.
The choice for my favorite live version of “In My Bed” is easy. I just wish I could find a video of it. Amy performed “In My Bed” at Scottish music festival T In The Park in 2004 and the audio is part of her At The BBC compilation that was released in 2012. It’s difficult to recreate the Salaam Remi beat in a live band, but they do a hell of a job making it funky. The further into this live version you get the more comfortable Amy and band get. By the second chorus it’s just drummer Nathan Allen and bassist Dale Davis killing it while Amy and the horns improvise. I’d love to see video of this performance if it exists, but I’m starting to believe that it either doesn’t, or it’s buried in a storage room somewhere because I can’t find it.
To sum up, “In My Bed” is an early Amy Winehouse track unlike any other. This is as hip hop as Amy gets and the results are fantastic. I wish there was more like it. Of course, every thought I have about Amy Winehouse’s music concludes with “I wish there was more.” It’s cool to just have a fun track with a dope beat and Amy talking a lot of shit to help offset the pain in her later music. Actually, speaking of fun tracks with dope beats, we’ll just keep that feeling going tomorrow. Enjoy what’s left of your Monday. I’ll be back tomorrow with more.
mookiefantana 