Rehab by Amy Winehouse

I’ve never done drugs.

I’ve never smoked marijuana, I’ve never snorted anything or injected anything into my body. I’ve never smoked or cigarette or a hookah. Unbelievably, I was never offered any drugs even though the drug prevention education of my youth convinced me that I would. All that “just say no” practice was kind of a waste of time.

I feel blessed that none of my friends and family has had drugs significantly damage their lives, except for one. I wasn’t in contact in her when she went to rehab; I knew her before things that got that bad. We became friends in high school and I’ll never forget one night sitting outside on her back porch as she smoked a cigarette. She told me about her world, her dreams, her boyfriends and the drugs that were part of her life. I realized then that what I had been taught in elementary school that people who do drugs are “bad” people was a lie.

When I first heard “Rehab” by Amy Winehouse what floored me was the Motown sound that producer Mark Ronson had perfectly replicated. The energetic drum beat, the 1960s style back-up singers, the baritone saxophone used to punctuated the bass line and the overall arrangement of the instruments that allowed every instrument to be heard in the texture while they worked together as a singular groove made me musically “geek-out.”

What is amazing about this song is also what is difficult about this song. In front a musical sound brings us back to the great feelings of 1960s idealized love we have Amy Winehouse singing about how she doesn’t want to go to rehab. Juxtaposing such a serious subject against a lighthearted background reminds us that people in the 1960s had drug problems while expressing such a personal and emotional plea in a way we don't expect.

My wife and I recently watched an episode of Intervention on A&E and let me tell, there is no wink in the eye or playful expression when someone saying that will not go to rehab.



Amy Winehouse almost has us fooled. When she sings “I’m gonna, I’m gonna lose my baby” it’s beautifully bluesy, we feel the pain of losing one’s love but then we are reminded on how unbalanced she is when she says “I always keep a bottle near” immediately after.

This song is surreal, it’s like a dark comedic musical version of Intervention. What is difficult is that this song speaks directly to the desperation of an addict going from “I don’t ever want to drink again” to refusing to go to rehab. The fact that Winehouse who is only 25 years old has had drug and alcohol issues herself and early-stage emphysema which her father claims is a result of her drug use only makes this song more disturbing.

“Rehab” is sometimes how we see drug use as something we can make a light of. Some celebrity checks into rehab, it makes tabloid news, people joke about it and many of us judge. Maybe it’s a defense mechanism, maybe it’s the only way we can deal with this kind of news. Maybe the only way we can really deal with the true darkness of going to rehab is not by watching the reality of it on Intervention but by turning it into a farce.

I don’t know a lot about drugs, rehab or addiction. What I do is that it’s not a problem that relegated "stupid" or "weak" people. Every time I hear someone make that conclusion, I think of my friend, how beautiful her heart is and how much I love her.