Artists We've Lost in 2023
David Crosby, Tina Turner, Justin Townes Earle, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and the Irish we've lost
How's it going to be
When you don't know me anymore
How's it going to be
How's it going to be
—Third Eye Blind, How’s It Going To Be
We’ve lost some music giants in 2023. The Swap covered two of them here and here (Thank you Juli and Dean for your beautiful Bonus Tracks). For this edition of the Swap, Adam, Kody, Mat, and a special guest highlight some of the other artists who have sadly performed their last song (full list here).
Also, the Bonus Track will have you signing in solidarity with the Irish who lost two of their titans this year.
Teach Your Children Well by David Crosby (Adam)
Don't you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you
After looking at the long list of artists we lost this last year, it was hard for me to not focus on David Crosby. Growing up I vaguely remember hearing Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young’s (CSNY), “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” “Our House,” and “Helplessly Hoping,” but I recently found out that they ran in similar circles with the Grateful Dead (GD) back in the day so my interest was sparked. The song that really stands out for me is “Teach Your Children Well,” of which Jerry Garcia played pedal steel in studio. It’s a beautiful song with a timeless message. On top of that, the harmonies put together by CSNY are unmatched and their influence can even be heard on GD songs like “Box of Rain,” “Candyman,” and my all-time favorite song from American Beauty, “Attics of My Life.”
Also available on Apple Music.
Tonight (with David Bowie) by Tina Turner (Kody)
My earliest conscious memory of Tina Tuner songs is from being in the car with my mom listening to Magic 104.1 KMGL. You know a station like it - the best of the 70s, 80s, 90s, and today. Music conjures up sweet memories. While I could have gone with Tina’s classics like “What’s Love Got To Do With It” or “We Don’t Need Another Hero,” I chose this live song she performed with David Bowie.
The original, written by Bowie and Iggy Pop, is sad and about reviving someone who overdosed on drugs. Tina, in her Tina way, turned the song into an upbeat, almost reggae-like, tune that brings out smiles and sways. You have to watch the performance here! Oh, to witness such a surprise. Ziggy and the Queen Of Rock 'n' Roll!!! Can you imagine?!?!
Also available on Apple Music.
Maybe a Moment by Justin Townes Earle (Mat)
I know I’m cheating, but even though we didn’t lose Justin Townes Earle this year (he passed in 2020) I have felt his loss afresh this year. Jason Isbell memorialized him in his song “When We Were Close.” It has reminded me of how fleeting life is and the importance of maintaining friendships throughout life. Earle wrote incredibly catchy songs that are fun to listen to, but there was always a tinge of sadness. This song reminds us not to take life for granted and to enjoy it while we have the chance:
So think about it
But baby, don't take too much time
Maybe only a moment
May be the time of your life
Also available on Apple Music.
The Last Emperor (Theme) by Ryuichi Sakamoto (Guest Appearance from Matthew Rasmussen)
Just like Bowie surprised that crowd at the Turner show, my (Kody) good friend Matt surprised me with an email including this write-up about another artist lost in 2023. He’s such a great writer - I had to find a way to fit it in. Here you go…
One of the best to ever do it, Ryuichi Sakamoto was a Japanese composer who won an Oscar, a Grammy, and a Golden Globe for his masterful score for THE LAST EMPEROR, a film which basically swept the Academy Awards in 1988. (For all you Talking Heads fans out there, Sakamoto co-wrote the score with David Byrne, which means he also won an Oscar that night.) The film is about, well, China's last emperor -- but if that sounds boring, take my word, it's absolutely not. The film is achingly lovely to absorb, with its staggering achievement of visuals, set pieces, and yes, that pitch-perfect score. It's also a devastating story of the rise and fall of a toddler thrust into dynastic power only to end up overthrown and imprisoned as an adult. Sakamoto would go on to record scores for many other movies, including BABEL, another personal favorite of mine. We bid farewell to Sakamoto earlier this year, and we thank him for every note.
Also available on Apple Music.
Bonus Track: Those We’ve Lost, Irish Dispatch by Layton Hill
Sinead O’Connor
Sinead O’Connor passed away in July of 2023. Her hauntingly beautiful voice and stage presence led to a pop career that sometimes conflicted with her stated desire to be a protest artist. To casual observers who hadn’t come of age musically for the prime of her career, she might have been best known for tearing up a photograph of the then-pope, John Paul II, after a performance on Saturday Night Live in 1992. Even non-Catholic audiences recoiled. But if some artists have attracted criticism for adopting activist stances that are seemingly opportune and far-removed from their lived experience, O’Connor could be accused of neither. 1992 was a decade before the Boston Globe investigation about abuse in the Catholic Church (memorialized in the movie Spotlight), and it got her banned from NBC and informally banished from countless other outlets. But less well known is the intimate and tragic way in which O’Connor developed her fiery perspective on the church and the silence of its leaders: she was sent to a Magdalene Laundry in Dublin as a 14 year old “problem child.” In the decades since, these church-run but state-sanctioned institutions were found to have abused young girls and women, often the unwed mothers of babies, well into the late 20th century. Mass graves have been unearthed. Infant mortality at some was estimated at 50%, and in the years since her protest, the Catholic Church as well as the Irish State have issued formal apologies. Sinead O’Connor was not grabbing attention in a commercially beneficial way with her strident and indelible act: she was a victim screaming for justice about a crime society had yet to acknowledge.
I’ll leave readers with a track from earlier in O’Connor’s career, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. It’s the title track from her 1990 album, a spiritual exploration, quintessentially Irish in its wide-ranging a capella treatment, where O’Connor explores happiness, need, and the pitfalls of people-pleasing. “I’m walking through the desert/ and I am not frightened/ although it’s hot/ I have all that I requested/ And I do not want what I haven’t got.”
Shane MacGowan
Ireland and the music world lost another titan more recently: Shane MacGowan. MacGowan wrote and sang for The Pogues, an Anglo-Irish punk band whose frontman, like his eventual friend and fellow UK immigrant Sinead O’Connor, also spoke for the diaspora. MacGowan was a voracious reader from a young age, contributing to his ability and versatility as a songwriter whose subjects covered everything from traditional Irish mythology in The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn to downtrodden immigrant stories as told in Fairytale of New York.
Fairytale is much less well-known in the US than it is in the UK and Ireland in the years since its 1987 release, and it weaves a sad and lonely Christmas tale of two people whose best days are behind them. MacGowan’s solo vocals and piano set the rueful and reflective stage for the flashback to happier times, told in the best-known version through a duet between MacGowan and Kirsty MacColl. To an upbeat Celtic melody that foreshadows more modern Irish punk acts, MacGowan and MacColl trade measures, sharing the story of their meeting in New York City, the good times at the beginning of the relationship, and then bridge to the breakdown and rot framed initially by MacGowan singing from the drunk tank.
The song has resonated enduringly perhaps because it is telling a story less frequently told in popular Christmas music that is kid-focused, saccharine, or some combination of both. Put simply, Mariah Carey and Bing Crosby do not always represent the way much of the Christmas-celebrating world experiences the holiday.
Speaking of its enduring resonance, The Christmas Top 40 remains a fascination in the UK, just as depicted 20 years ago (!) in Love Actually. And, like in the movie, the December Top 40 sees contemporary, non-seasonal Top 40 contenders vying to top the charts with more, ahem, seasoned talent. To those fans grieving MacGowan, there would be no more fitting tribute than for Fairytale to reach its first Christmas number one. It debuted at number two in 1987, and has been in the top 40 since 2005. But it has never been number one. So give it a listen this season. When BBC Radio 1 publishes their Christmas Top 40 on the 22nd of December, we can all raise a glass to Shane.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha.
Addendum: I’d highly recommend this tribute version of Fairytale from Shane’s funeral last week. May we all be remembered with singing and dancing.
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Layton Hill is an immigrant to Ireland whose tastes have evolved from emo to red dirt. He loves exploring the traditional Irish music of his adopted home and its connections to America’s music: bluegrass.
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Happy Christmas!
-TheMusicSwap
Great picks. Additionally, you honored Robbie Robertson last week with your first song (one of my all time Christmas favorites).