Amy Winehouse and the Romantic view of the artist

That sad news about Amy Winehouse has reminded me of the sadder side of discovering the career of Steve Winwood. It was realising how many of his collaborators of the sixties and seventies, from Jimi Hendrix down, died ridiculously young.

It makes you wonder if the idea, which goes back to the Romantics, that an artist should be an alienated and self-destructive figure has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.