It was hard to miss the losses of Tina Turner, Tony Bennett, Sinead O’Connor, Robbie Robertson, Gordon Lightfoot, Shane McGowan, David Crosby and so many other notables this year. But what about Terry Kirkman, Mars Williams, Jane Birkin, Trugoy The Dove, Emahoy Guebrou, Cynthia Weil, Magoo ….?
NPR has a long list HERE
Who will you miss the most and why? Listicals are ok if you prefer.
The 'Spill 
So many of these artists influenced my tastes. All are huge losses for us all, but if I had to single out a couple I go with Vivian Trimble & Jimmy Buffett. Trimble (and Luscious Jackson) exuded an effortless cool while making a sound unlike anyone else in the 90s.
Buffett represents the sort of escapist fantasy that so many people up here in the upper Midwest cling to to get through the long winters. In Buffett’s world, it’s always sunny and it’s always 5 o’clock.
lol @ escapist fantasy. I lived even further north and used to live for The Masters – not because I liked golf particularly or wanted to support a racist, sexist Southern institution …. it was the lush greenery and flowers. Outside my window was a glacial landscape, but spring had to be in sight once they teed off in Augusta.
Sinead. That’s it. My crush for half of my life. More explanation would be hugely inappropriate.
Thank you for sparing us 🙂
Carla Bley for me. A constantly inventive, mischievous, irreverent talent whose music I can lose myself in for hours.
Shane (unsurprising, but still sad) & Sinead (particularly sad). Loss of Geordie hit hard too.
Mark Stewart leaves a big hole behind him.
Jeff Beck died back in January which was quite a shock but perhaps long enough ago for us to forget that it was actually this year. We also lost Tina Turner and David Crosby. Their music wasn’t a fixture on my turntable or in my Spotify library but very sad nonetheless.
I agree that Sinead was the one whose loss I felt the most deeply and, although he was 96 years old, I also mourned Tony Bennett as his renaissance had been (for me) a joy to behold.
Geordie Walker from Killing Joke the obvious loss for me. The best (and loudest) live band I’ve ever seen, he would just stand there seemingly barely doing anything but making a huge noise. Seeing as he was the one person other than Jaz who was in every line up of Killing Joke , I guess that is the end of the band now, I could be wrong but I can’t see Jaz choosing to go on without him.
On a more personal note Marcus Howells , singer of Welsh streetpunk band Foreign Legion, I first met him when I put them on at a gig in 2000, after that one fairly brief meeting he always greeted me like an old mate , and seemingly that’s how he treated everyone he ever met on the scene. I never heard a bad word about him from anyone. Much missed.
I have always taken a fatalistic approach to people dying when they are old, even musicians whose work I love. Their time has come, as it will come to us all. David Crosby was a huge part of my teenage years, as was Robbie Robertson. The music they made then is still a fixture in my life.
The thing that has always caused me a sense of loss are those who, for whatever reason have gone while they were still in their artistic prime, people like Hendrix, Janis etc.
As long as the music exists, then those who are gone will still matter. The sad thing, for me is that when the people like me who grew up with their music are no more, who will care about the music we loved?
Many of the older famous ones (and Shane) were not unexpected. But Sinead was, to me, as I imagined she would keep coming back with some new music or challenging statement.
My Deadhead friend’s rapid decline and exit back in February is still the most difficult departure of 2023 to take.
(C)
So many 😦
Tina Turner. Simply the best!!
Ryuichi Sakamoto is someone whose influence was wide and whose music has been significant to me, I was sorry to hear he has gone.