Amy Winehouse

[Adan]

And now, to bring this thread to closure, Hammonddave will list all the clean and sober musicians in his album collection. (Drum roll, please . . .)

[Adan]

My closing thought (and then I am done with this thread, really) is that all through history great music (and, more generally, great art) has been made by people with tortured souls. Not exclusively by them, but, certainly in large proportion. And people with tortured souls often turn to drugs. Their art takes on great meaning for us. I can't look at a Van Gogh without wanting to weep. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just sit these artists down and say "ok, keep on with the great art, but lose the drug habit." Yes, that is the world I want to live in someday. As someone else pointed out above, a major difference between now and even just 20 years ago is that everything is recorded and instantly available. So we don't just know artists by their greatest achievements, we also know them by their worst, most embarrassing moments.

 

edit: In fairness, perhaps it should be noted that Van Gogh did a self-portrait with his ear bandaged.