Amy Winehouse had shuffled off her mortal coil and joined "The 27 Club," the rock 'n' roll pantheon of self-destructs who all managed to die three years before their third decade - Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain. (Cobain's mother, less kindly but with more cause, called it the "Stupid Club.") The club's founding member, bluesman Robert Johnson, died at 27 in 1938 of causes never made clear, possibly from strychnine poisoning or, more mythically and more appealing, from a deal he made with the devil. He was said to have surrendered his soul in return for mastery of the guitar. Thank gawd times have changed. Nowadays, people just take up Guitar Hero.
The devil that dogged Amy Winehouse was more mundane. So intertwined was her drug addiction with her art that it was impossible to think of one without the other, or to determine which informed the other more.
It likely killed her (the cause of death is still pending), but it was also the source of her peculiar talent.
She didn't want to go to rehab, and voila, she went platinum. No one had ever heard anything so refreshing, if that's the right word. Could she have been a singing sensation without that all-consuming streak of self-destructiveness? Maybe, but I bet she would not have enjoyed anywhere near the same cachet. Winehouse made addiction sound fun, and the gas that fuelled romance.
And when her music first hit the airwaves, I don't remember the listening public finding a song like Rehab upsetting. The public found it catchy, funny, a hummable ditty to ... what, one wonders now in retrospect? ... the right to drug-addled oblivion?
A post-mortem examination took place on Monday. No cause of death has yet been given.
Results of further toxicology tests could take up to four weeks.
According to a spokesman, the singer's funeral will be for family and close friends only.
It is understood the funeral will take place in north London.
An inquest into the singer's death was opened and adjourned until 26 October at London's St Pancras Coroner's Court on Monday.
During the two-minute hearing, an official read out the name, birth date and address of Winehouse, described as "a divorced lady living at Camden Square NW1".
"She was a singer-songwriter at the time of her death and was identified by her family here at St Pancras this morning," said coroner's officer Sharon Duff.
The scene of Winehouse's death, she said, "was investigated by police and determined non-suspicious."
The singer won widespread acclaim with her 2003 debut album Frank, which saw her nominated for the Mercury prize.
But it was 2006's Back to Black which brought her worldwide stardom, winning five Grammy Awards.
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