Being "Frank" for 20 years
Graphic by Julia Norkus
By Gabriella Collin
On Oct. 20, 2003, Amy Winehouse released her debut album, Frank (2003). The album tends to fly under the radar in terms of streams and attention, likely due to its novice styling, and because Frank predates the beehive hairdo, tattoo sleeves, and heavy eyeliner that later made Winehouse identifiable. Produced by Salaam Remi, famous for his work with both Winehouse and rapper Nas, Frank served as a lyrical diary for a 19 year old Winehouse, as it detailed her encounters and relationships with men to a drum beat and musical flourishes similar to work by Janet Jackson. In 2004, during touring for the album, Winehouse appeared in an interview with Johnathon Ross, to discuss her intentions and ability as a jazz singer. Ross asks why Winehouse chose to “go to jazz”, noting the trend of “new jazz” that was becoming popular among rising artists. Winehouse responds,
“I wouldn’t call a lot of people that are doing jazz, jazz singers, you know what I mean? My albums are kind of a straight Jazz/Hip Hop cross, there is no blues or folk, you know what I mean? It’s just a straight, Jazz/Hip Hop album.”
All 15 songs on the album were written by Winehouse herself on the guitar, and she performs the album with her original jazz band, an eight piece ensemble of ten rotating artists, on bass, drums, trumpets, saxophone, piano, and backup vocals. In track two, the song “Cherry” details the relationship she has with her guitar, and Winehouse has said “Singing and writing go hand in hand for me, it comes from one place.” Despite lacking the person Winehouse would later adopt, Frank is essential in understanding her later work; Winehouse’s breakup ballads, songs detailing her substance problems are the the framework for some of her most famous pieces. Without the debut, Back to Black (2006) wouldn’t be possible. After its release, Winehouse was nominated for best British Urban Act and best British Female Solo Artist by the BRIT Awards, though she didn’t win any of her nominations until 2008. Frank is named after the late Frank Sinatra, legendary jazz singer and one of Amy’s early influences. In the song “Take The Box”, she refers to a Frank Sinatra CD her ex boyfriend bought for her, that she was returning to him during their breakup. In choosing Sinatra as the title for her album, Winehouse said,
“There’s a whole mess of people better than Sinatra [...] Sinatra had an emotional connection with music. That was his thing. He had the tone in his voice. But singers? I know a hundred singers that piss on Frank. [...] And just as a person: he was an arsehole. But he had an emotional connection to songs that touched everyone, women, men, soldiers.”
In this interview, she cuts herself off mid-sentence, to write out a song lyric she’s just thought of. Winehouse later expressed regret over the quality of Frank. In speaking with The Guardian, Winehouse listed many of the reasons she believed the album failed, from promotion and marketing, to tracks she wasn’t pleased with, and claiming she was only “80 percent” behind it, “Look ... I know it's a terrible thing for someone to come out and say they hate their own music. It's the worst thing you can do.” Despite this, the album received critical acclaim, during its release and after her untimely passing. Frank demonstrated Winehouse’s wit and gumption, with her on-the-nose lyrics and master blending of Jazz and Hip Hop stylings.
Track 1: Intro / Stronger Than Me ★★★★
This-two track piece opens with a brief skat section, to a plucked bass. It then transitions into “Stronger Than Me”, which discusses Winehouse’s ex-boyfriend, who she believed was struggling to “live up to his role”. She accuses him of being gay, calling him a “ladyboy”. The song, specifically the line about her ex-boyfriend’s sexuality, received criticism from her gay fans. Winehouse responded with “The guy says, “D’you think gay men are weak?” I says, “Yeah, some of you. And some straight men are fucking weak and all.” Word choice aside, this is a strong opening track, establishing Winehouse’s dry, sardonic tone that is present in a majority of the album.
Track 2: You Sent Me Flying / Cherry ★★★★★
The second of three, two-track songs on the album, “You Sent Me Flying” utilizes the art of anticipation, Winehouse sings accompanied by short piano interludes. Her scandalous lyrics draw listeners in, waiting for the beat to drop. The band slowly accompanies her, a guitar plays alongside, until the rest joins in, after two entire verses and one chorus. The beat kicks in on an iconic line, “A simple attraction that reflects right back to me / So I'm not as into you as I appear to be” This song is a great example of why Winehouse calls this a Jazz/Hip Hop album, it’s catchy beat and honest lyrics even serve as an homage to Salt ‘n Pepa, one of Winehouse’s inspirations.
Cherry is an acoustic piece about the relationship Winehouse has with her guitar, Cherry. She says, “She understands me after eighteen years / And you still don't see me like you ought to do” Winehouse personifies her guitar, claiming that even though she’s just bought Cherry, the ex-boyfriend she speaks of will never know her as well.
Track 3: Know You Now ★★★
‘Know You Now” utilizes more of Winehouse’s skills as a jazz singer, with a skat interlude, as she calls out the character of a man she believes to be “just a little boy”. Because the man Winehouse is involved with is duplicitous, she swears that “when I'm done with you / You'll wish your head back the way it were”.
Track 4: Fuck Me Pumps ★★★★
This tongue-in-cheek song pokes fun at groupie culture in London, and the promiscuous acts many women find themselves participating in. It was later revealed that producer Salaam Remi wrote a majority of the song, saying in a 2017 interview, “That’s probably the only song that she just took from somebody and wrote. But she thought it was funny and that was part of our bonding as well – we had a similar sense of humor.” In the song, Winehouse says, “Without girls like you, there's no night life / All those men just go home to their wives”.
Track 5: I Heard Love Is Blind ★★★
Mimicking some of the acoustic nature of “Cherry”, “I Heard Love Is Blind” is about pretending the person you’re with is someone else. Winehouse touches on her drinking problem in this, by saying “I drank so much and needed your touch” She then speaks on whether or not what she’s done is cheating, despite being outspoken about casual sex, Winehouse claims that this is not cheating, because love is blind.
Track 6: Moody’s Mood For Love / Teo Licks ★
The final of the two-track songs, neither “Moody’s Mood For Love” nor “Teo Licks” are particularly impressive when held up against the rest of the album. The first song is a cover of a 1952 song by James Moody of the same name, but Winehouse’s version features a short musical outro by her band.
Track 7: (There Is) No Greater Love ★★★
In content alone, this song is a blend of Sinatra-esque storytelling, and reminiscent of “Ex-Factor” by Ms. Lauryn Hill. It even features similar chimes. In a 2004 interview, Winehouse said “I always said I never wanted to write about love, and then I went and did that anyway.” This intimate love song deviates from Winehouse’s usual musings about cheating, sex, and drinking. Formatted like a poem, Winehouse sings, “You're the sweetest thing / That I've ever known / And to think that you are mine, you are mine alone / There is no greater love”
Track 8: In My Bed ★★★★★
“In My Bed” is easily the strongest song on this album and was featured on double A-Side prior to Frank’s release. I don’t advise this, since this is an album review, but if you only listen to one song, let it be this one. Continuing the theme of Winehouse not being as interested in her partners as they are in her, “In My Bed” is about an ex-boyfriend who believes he’s the only person Winehouse is seeing. This is in fact, untrue, as she says in the chorus, “You'll never get my mind right / Like two ships passing in the night” as well as “Oh, it's you again / Listen, this isn't a reunion / So sorry if I turn my head / Yours is a familiar face / But that don't make your place safe / In my bed” Winehouse makes it clear that she holds the power in this dynamic, the strength of the band and the beat, produced by Remi only furthers this. “In My Bed” is sexy, dramatic, and one of Winehouse’s best, across both albums.
Track 9: Take The Box ★★★★
The ballad-esque nature of this song makes it easy to identify as the “breakup song”. Similar to “Butterfly” by Mariah Carey, “Take The Box” details just how difficult leaving her ex-boyfriend has been. Winehouse details the items she’s returning, such as a “Moschino bra”, and a Frank Sinatra CD, specifically In The Wee Small Hours (1955), which she calls “one of the classic heartbreak albums of all time.” The background singers echo “put it in the box, put it in the box” as she rattles off these items, and the outro flows like an R&B piece. Winehouse would say the following year, “If someone has so much of something already, there’s so little you can add.”
Track 10: October Song ★★★★
With every breakup song comes a song about rebirth. While “October Song” is about loss, specifically the death of Winehouse’s pet bird, Ava, the song is more upbeat and cheerful. The lyrics describe Amy’s process burying the bird, and how she almost envies how free Ava is now, “With dread, I woke in my bed / To shooting pains up in my head / Lovebird, my beautiful bird / Spoke until, one day, she couldn't be heard” as well as “In the sanctuary she has found / Birds surround her sweet sound”. Since breakups often serve as the resting place for old habits and personalities, the death of Ava shows how memory lives on when you truly love someone, even a bird.
Track 11: What Is It About Men ★★
Despite being only 17 when writing the album, Winehouse demonstrated her insight even from a young age. Rather than being an ex-boyfriend or a hookup, “What Is It About Men” is about Winehouse’s father, as revealed in the line “Emulate all the shit my mother hates / I can't help but demonstrate my Freudian fate”. Winehouse’s father was adulterous, just as she became known for, which she copes with by saying “History repeats itself”, calling herself destructive and asking why men act this way. This mellow ballad provides a lot of context to the environment Winehouse is writing in, but falls flat in memorability. Considering the established style of “Cherry”, “What Is It About Men” sounds like a less impressive recreation with R&B mixing.
Track 12: Amy Amy Amy ★★★
After struggling with her breakup and ultimately reconciling with what took place, “Amy Amy Amy” sounds the most like Winehouse. The first song on Frank is about how she struggles with finding a “real” man who can fulfill the walk and talk, and “Amy Amy Amy” is the resolution to this, as Winehouse becomes attracted to her science teacher. In this song, she claims her attraction to the teacher makes it harder to write about, because his masculinity acts as a spell, “It takes me half an hour to write a verse / He makes me imagine it from bad to worse / My weakness for the other sex / Every time his shoulders flex / The way the shirt hangs off his back / My train of thought spins right off track” Winehouse then calls for her “moral parallel”.
Track 14: Brother ★★★
“Brother” is about Winehouse’s lesser-known, older brother, Alex. In this song, she tells him that he has a responsibility to be a good man, for the sake of their mother. With the absence of their father, Winehouse sings, “(Now you must look out for her the way she did for you) / Ooh, your priority, it must be her” she admits that things will never be the same, but if Alex steps up as man of the house, the family will stay together.
Track 15: Mr Magic (Through The Smoke) ★★★★
In many ways, “Mr Magic” is a clearing of the smoke. This is one of Winehouse’s first songs detailing her relationship with substance abuse, as the song predates “Addicted”, from 2006. The “Mr Magic” in this song is weed, the “one man” Winehouse will always reach for. This is another example of the tongue-in-cheek nature Winehouse often wrote with, the double entendre of this song makes for an upbeat final piece, and allows for listeners to take a deep breath as Winehouse repeats “I’m waiting for the smoke to clear” as the band plays her out.
In the days I spent researching Frank, through interviews and old performances, I was suddenly sucked into the world of Amy Winehouse. When looking for information on her original band, I found myself on a website called Forever Amy Live, with the tagline, “A celebration of her music, life, and legacy, performed by Amy’s original band.” The hardest part of writing this article wasn’t the research or the reviews, but writing about her in the past tense. With websites like Forever Amy, and the countless comments I would read on Youtube, I struggled with remembering that she’s no longer with us. The older fanbase, who can attest to the performances they were able to see in the 2000s, as well as newer fans who mourn never being able to meet her, work so hard to keep her name in circulation. In order to keep her legacy alive, to honor her music, Frank deserves the same pomp and circumstance as Back to Black. In the twenty years since its release, Frank has served as the backdrop for Winehouse’s later success, without her 60s persona. Frank is a masterpiece, as far as debut albums are concerned. For an artist like Winehouse, who has talent and skill coursing through every inch of her body, Frank was the best way she could have demonstrated that to the world.
They say you die twice, once when you stop breathing, and again when people stop saying your name. As far as Amy Winehouse is concerned, it seems like she’ll live forever.