Night Music: Amy Winehouse and Paul Weller, “Heard It Through the Grapevine”

This is a clip from Jools Holland’s show, with a giant band and a ton of backup singers and fans wearing masks, but two things are notable.

Amy Winehouse is as great as you can possibly describe. Not only the sound of her voice, but her restraint! She uses one note where others might use four. It is lovely.

Paul Weller really does get the most he can from his limited instrument, and that ain’t bad.

I’m not sure this was necessary, but it is very nicely done.

10 thoughts on “Night Music: Amy Winehouse and Paul Weller, “Heard It Through the Grapevine”

  1. The Pips video is so good it doesn’t exist! Just imagine how good it is!

    You know what I liked about Amy Winehouse? She was fucking dangerous. You knew there was a lot of bad stuff going on inside that too-skinny, recklessly tattooed girl with not-perfect teeth in the falling down Pebbles dress. And she could sing like hell too. That made her mysterious and sexy.

    Everything that twinky-dinks like Ariana Grande and Lorde and Beyonce and Taylor Swift aren’t. And yes, they are all the same. To be dismissed.

  2. i think you are right, Steve. Elivs was dangerous. LR was dangerous. The Stones were dangerous. The Sex Pistols were, too.

    amy is jewish, too. how many dangerous jews do you know of? hank greenberg and paul westerberg?

      • This is a great version, the first one we heard. Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye both recorded versions that were not released. Then Gladys and the Pips had a hit with this hard funk version. Gaye recorded it again as an album track, more mournful and atmospheric, which was released as a single only after heavy airplay. It went No. 1 for many weeks. The big surprise was when Credence followed up with their hit version of another album cut (nearly 11 minutes long).

        http://youtu.be/hajBdDM2qdg

  3. My friend Eric Steinberg is a Jew who was in the Marines, so I suspect he can be a pretty badass motherfucker.

    But really, Steve, Inglorius Basterds? that is like in “Stand By Me” where one kid asks another “who is stronger, Mighty Mouse or Superman?” and the other kid says, ”
    that’s stupid, Superman was a real guy and Mighty Mouse is a cartoon.”

    Yep, the Dolls were dangerous. And Alice Cooper. push where it ain’t gone before and look out.

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