The 27 club....

[Northland]

Amy Winehouse joins other notable musical artists who met their demise in their 27th year.
Brian Jones
Jimi Hendrix
Janis Joplin
Kurt Cobain
Amy Winehouse

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27_Club

[screenxpress]

Add to that list -

Pete Ham

Badfinger - Day After Day - Pete Ham

[squeezee]

I liked Billy Bragg's observation:
"What they had in common was not 27, but drug abuse"

[screenxpress]

I don't that's true for all of them.  Only 4

Brian Jones was found at the bottom of his pool and later a builder doing work on the house confessed to the murder.

Pete, despondent for being broke after the band broke up, hung himself.

[squeezee]

Brian Jones was seriously into substance abuse.

[Nation03]

Kind of a shame that Amy Winehouse is grouped with those artists. Nothing against her music, but she was no rock n' roll legend.

[Fresh Baked Printing]

Kind of a shame that Amy Winehouse is grouped with those artists. Nothing against her music, but she was no rock n' roll legend.

Were any of these artists legends when they died? Amy was a legend to probably millions of fans of her fans/peers too.

[mk162]

She is actually not being grouped into the "elite" of the 27 club.  On the wiki page, scroll dow, she is the last one listed.  Curt Kobain was the last of the "elites."  Winehouse had 1 good album, that hardly puts you in with Joplin and Hendrix.

And yes, all of the "elites" did have 1 thing in common, drug use, it might not have been what killed them, but you can bet it didn't help things out either.

[Fresh Baked Printing]

I think the elites are defined as elites by their peers. Amy is an elite too.
Look at the very legendary Sex Pistols. They made one album. You can't base elite/legendary status based on the number of albums.

[SkylinePrints]

only time and history will determine the elite status of Winehouse. 

Arguably, the list of 27 colleagues each have their own reason for being listed.  Each had a major impact to the music industry and the direction of music as a whole.  Even Sex Pistols that FBP referred to were game changers and they were the first punk band that really brought punk to the front of the music front in the mid 70's. 

I am not a fan of Winehouse's music but she did accomplish a lot for a young age.  Nominated for 6 Grammys with a win in 5 categories.  She also is credited with helping to revive the British music scene.  She had a very wide and varied fan base that were truly devoted to her.  However, will history see her as a game changer or an elite, only time will tell. 

For now, I hope she is at peace and rid of the demons that she sought to avoid with drugs and alcohol during her short life in this world.

[Sbrem]

Having been there and all, yes, Hendrix was a legend. There was nothing quite like him at the time. Such a shame that the talent is thrown away by the owner, apparently taking it for granted. Not shocked by her death, kind of surprised it took this long. Edit: after reading a bit more closely, you don't have to be particularly good to be a legend, just have a large following. My litmus test for music is, if it was food, would you eat it? Being mad at the world doesn't count, one has to be able to play very well, or sing very well. She could sing very well, cross generational, but what a mess.